First morning crow today!

[YgritteChick]

My cockerels in the flock have each been figuring out how to crow lately, then this morning...at 5:30 they decided to have a crow off, lol. My little Orpington totally won, for being such a small guy he sure has a big crow! He had to have crowed around thirty times before deciding he had done his job for the morning

I'm thankful I live in the country and so could enjoy the new morning sounds. Haha it woke my Great Dane up though and he had to go tearing off to investigate what was making all the noise. He seemed very perplexed at first to see it was coming from the chicken coop

I am wondering, now that they are crowing more often, is it more likely the cockerels will start fighting more seriously? They are 10 weeks old and already have been having issues, but no serious fights yet. I already know I have too many of them (5 for sure cockerels, 3 unknowns, and 5 probable pullets), but haven't quite figured out how to solve that dilemma yet.

 

[animalover14]

1rule for having so many roosters is that you have to have enough hens so they don`t fight for them all and seriously hurt each other or possibly the hens. Each rooster should have a minimum of 10-12 hens. Having too few hens for all the roosters can have serious problems. The hens could be mated too often wich can result in, broken feathers, bare backs/necks, or serious injuries.

 

[iwiw60]

You only need 1 rooster for that amount of hens. Having more than that will end up being a blood-bath in the long run. Not only between the roos but also to your hens....I think culling is definitely in order...

 

[n3kms]

I also have 10 weeks old cockerels that have just started crowing, not sure how many are crowing yet. We have 5 with 19 pullets. We have only planned to keep 1-2 roosters and the others will be chicken soup or something. At what age will having extra become a problem? No fighting or mating attempts as yet.

 

[aart]

Getting rid of all but one cockerel will keep things much calmer in the coop.

Once my second started crowing the first, who was older and had been crowing and treading for a month, became very rough with the pullets.

Removing the younger cockerels calmed the older (keeper) down immediately.
Extra roosters are delicious on the grill.

If you can't butcher or rehome right away, setting up another enclosure away from the first will help do the trick.

 

[n3kms]

All mine are the same age and still pretty subdued by the fact the 10 of the pullets are 15 weeks old and boss them around. I know that will change soon. I wanted to see which of them I thought would be a good rooster before I decided. Will that be possible with them together? I had not thought about that before. they were all raised together,