I have 22 chickens, and pretty soon we're going to have to figure out which rooster(s) we are keeping and which we are rehoming or sending to freezer camp. I am leaning towards a particular rooster to stay, as he has gorgeous, unique colouring, and he seems to be pretty calm and docile. Thing is, we have another rooster (Jade) who has definitely made himself the head rooster. He is huge compared to everyone else, even though they're close in age. I've also noticed that while all our other roosters do tend to squabble somewhat amongst themselves, I've never seen Jade fighting with the other roosters. We have two flocks that we integrated, and though they all are happy together and do mix up sometimes, the older flock definitely sticks close to Jade and follows him around. The rooster we're wanting to keep is from the younger flock. I'm wondering what will happen to the flock dynamics if we remove Jade out of the mix. Will the older hens accept the younger rooster as the new head rooster? Also, does the head rooster always crow the most? Jade crows almost constantly. I rarely hear any of the other roosters crow at all. I don't mind the crowing so much, but Jade crows so often and our coop is relatively close to our neighbour's house on that side. We're allowed roosters but I don't want to get in our neighbour's bad graces! Will a new rooster just take up where Jade left off and crow just as much as he does?
I had two 6 month old BO roos and one of them was the mellow one and very docile..we chose to keep him. The adult hens gave him a run for his money but he soon became the head rooster..and now he is the main Man in a flock of older hens. I think the Roo that you are thinking of keeping will step up once he has no other roo there to bow down to...I am not sure if the main Roo crows all the time although I would say yes because our Russell crows ALL the time now that he is the lone rooster! He crows when he gets up..when he sees a leaf..when he steps on a branch..when he sees me..when he wants us to know that he the man....
