I am a new chicken owner. I have 12 hens and 2 roosters. I am thinking because they are young I should resolve this problem now. The roosters are fine but the chickens seem to not like one of the roosters. (I'm assuming) It is because the dominate male has already mated with them or because they just don't like him. I'm not sure which chickens did it but the one rooster (who is not dominate) has had all of his tail feathers plucked out. So i do want to keep one of my roosters so my question is should I get rid of the dominate male (he is not aggressive to me just to the other rooster) or should I keep the prettier less dominate male? I can tell it is stressing some of the chickens out.
Help! i've ended up with 2 roosters
- Thread starter carismith
- Start date
As you are a new chicken owner, I would cull both roosters. Roosters take some experience in my opinion. I have a personal theory that often times a rooster raised with just hatch mates, turns into a bully. He gets bigger than the pullets and sexually mature long before the pullets. Because there are no older birds to thump some manners into him, he gets away with it. This tends to make victims of your pullets, which is not what I want. Some people build a separate enclosure for just the roosters till they outgrow the juvenile stage.
What would work better, is to cull these too, raise a hen only flock for a year, then add a mature rooster next year. A rooster that has been raised up in someone else flock that was so nice it missed the cull, but they have too many roosters. Your hens will be mature, they won't take abuse from him, and he will be nice. It is easy to get roosters, there are always too many roosters.
You have many years to enjoy this hobby, work into it, step by step, not all at once.
Mrs K
What would work better, is to cull these too, raise a hen only flock for a year, then add a mature rooster next year. A rooster that has been raised up in someone else flock that was so nice it missed the cull, but they have too many roosters. Your hens will be mature, they won't take abuse from him, and he will be nice. It is easy to get roosters, there are always too many roosters.
You have many years to enjoy this hobby, work into it, step by step, not all at once.
Mrs K
Since you are new to chickens, I'd like to build upon what Mrs K has already said.
When we as humans see an animal being "bullied" by other animals, we feel sorry for it and try to baby it. What we need to understand is that often enough, the chickens KNOW why they are being mean to the other bird. There is usually a good reason they are being mean to a rooster. If the hens do not like a rooster, and will not accept him after proper introduction, he is probably not a good fit for your flock.
So my point is, let your girls tell you if the rooster is a keeper or not.
A more experienced chicken keeper would be able to decide which rooster to keep, but I do favor Mrs Ks advice. Learn your hens first, then graduate to rooster keeping. They are after all, miniature stallions.
(And my favorite part of the flock.)
When we as humans see an animal being "bullied" by other animals, we feel sorry for it and try to baby it. What we need to understand is that often enough, the chickens KNOW why they are being mean to the other bird. There is usually a good reason they are being mean to a rooster. If the hens do not like a rooster, and will not accept him after proper introduction, he is probably not a good fit for your flock.
So my point is, let your girls tell you if the rooster is a keeper or not.
A more experienced chicken keeper would be able to decide which rooster to keep, but I do favor Mrs Ks advice. Learn your hens first, then graduate to rooster keeping. They are after all, miniature stallions.
(And my favorite part of the flock.)
Keep the less dominate prettier rooster. I would only cull both if they both brought injury and stress to your hens. I would cull the dominate one.
Roosters can be very kind, sweet pets who lay down their lives for their hens. I have never had a mean rooster, though it is important to pick docile breeds.
Roosters can be very kind, sweet pets who lay down their lives for their hens. I have never had a mean rooster, though it is important to pick docile breeds.
Thing is... the less dominant can become more aggressive after the more dominant is removed.
Even cockbirds of more 'docile breeds' can be both chicken and human aggressive,
much depends on the individual bird and the keepers behaviors.
Welcome to BYC @carismith !
How old are these birds?
It can be hard to assess males behaviors when you are not yet familiar with chicken behaviors in general. I agree with Mrs. K and TIW about not keeping any males the first year. If you do decide to keep one or both males, have another enclosure or crate ready to isolate male(s) in case of trouble, when things go bad it happens fast.
One of the challenging things on this forum, especially for newcomers, is that you usually get different opinions on practically any topic. I think part of that is that we each have our own unique goals, set-ups, flock make-ups, climates, urban versus rural, our own experiences, the list of differences goes on and on. As you have probably noticed each individual chicken has its own personality. Flock social dynamics are pretty complicated and can be affected by a strong individual's personality. I think our observations are filtered through our expectations and experiences. I grew up with chickens, what some people see as horrible brutal bullying behavior I see as normal interactions between chickens. Another factor is that there is very seldom just one way to do anything, a lot of different things work. So welcome to the forum but don't expect all of us to give the same suggestions.
As you can probably guess I'm not going to totally agree with the others in everything. It sounds like you are dealing with cockerels and pullets, not roosters and hens. That different level of maturity can have a huge effect on behaviors. With hormones raging as they go through puberty things can get really wild down there, but usually when they mature into roosters and hens things calm down tremendously. I say usually because some males or females never seem to mature and some males or females can be pure simple brutes when they do grow up. Most of the time they do mellow when they mature but you are dealing with living animals, no one can give you any guarantees as to how they will behave.
Something Aart alluded to. The chicken's role in the flock can vary depending on their dominance position in the flock. That effect is more evident with the males but it can affect females, you are just less likely to notice. Whichever male is dominant has certain flock responsibilities in managing and protecting that flock. He usually won't allow the less dominant male to behave certain ways, he suppresses those behaviors. That makes it extremely hard to predict how the submissive male will behave if the dominant one is removed. A docile meek cockerel or rooster may turn into a brute once that restraint is removed. Or he may not.
Another problem is that once they mature hens often expect certain behaviors from the rooster before they willingly submit to mating, they want a male worthy of being the father of their chicks. Some males mature slower than others and sometimes remain really mild and mellow. They just don't have the force of personality to win the hens' respect so instead of awing them with a magnificent self-confident personality they may rely on brute strength to force a hen to mate instead of the hen willingly squatting for him.
Once you consider possibly quarantine about the easiest integration is usually adding a mature rooster to a mature all-hen flock. The rooster mates with a few hens to show he is dominant and that they are his flock. It's over that quickly and easily. Sometimes the dominant hen does not want to give up her dominant position and you get some forceful behavior but usually they work that out in a couple of days. It can be brutal but most of the time no one is really hurt. If you try that with an immature cockerel it can sometimes get a lot more brutal, the hens might beat the crap out of the cockerel until he matures enough to meet their expectations. And when he meets a certain maturity level he may rely more on brute force until he more fully matures. Notice I'm talking about maturity, not age. I've had a 5 month old cockerel be able to handle that, I've had one that took until 11 months before he won over the dominant hen. That late maturing one did not make a great flock master but he kept the eggs fertile which is manly what I wanted out of him. He was replaced the next season.
I'm going through all this to give the background for my suggestion. If one of those cockerels (I am assuming cockerels and pullets) really hits your goals for some reason, maybe color, size, or something else, keep him and take your chances. If both meet that criteria I'd keep the more dominant one. You say he is not aggressive toward the pullets which is a good sign. He can still change on a dime, becoming human aggressive or brutal to the pullets and hens, but I think he is less likely to wind up brutal at the end of the day. Try it and see how it goes. If it doesn't work out get rid of him too and try introducing a mature rooster to the flock. You will probably get one that has the personality that works but it can be a trial and error thing.
Good luck and again welcome to the forum, glad you joined.
As you can probably guess I'm not going to totally agree with the others in everything. It sounds like you are dealing with cockerels and pullets, not roosters and hens. That different level of maturity can have a huge effect on behaviors. With hormones raging as they go through puberty things can get really wild down there, but usually when they mature into roosters and hens things calm down tremendously. I say usually because some males or females never seem to mature and some males or females can be pure simple brutes when they do grow up. Most of the time they do mellow when they mature but you are dealing with living animals, no one can give you any guarantees as to how they will behave.
Something Aart alluded to. The chicken's role in the flock can vary depending on their dominance position in the flock. That effect is more evident with the males but it can affect females, you are just less likely to notice. Whichever male is dominant has certain flock responsibilities in managing and protecting that flock. He usually won't allow the less dominant male to behave certain ways, he suppresses those behaviors. That makes it extremely hard to predict how the submissive male will behave if the dominant one is removed. A docile meek cockerel or rooster may turn into a brute once that restraint is removed. Or he may not.
Another problem is that once they mature hens often expect certain behaviors from the rooster before they willingly submit to mating, they want a male worthy of being the father of their chicks. Some males mature slower than others and sometimes remain really mild and mellow. They just don't have the force of personality to win the hens' respect so instead of awing them with a magnificent self-confident personality they may rely on brute strength to force a hen to mate instead of the hen willingly squatting for him.
Once you consider possibly quarantine about the easiest integration is usually adding a mature rooster to a mature all-hen flock. The rooster mates with a few hens to show he is dominant and that they are his flock. It's over that quickly and easily. Sometimes the dominant hen does not want to give up her dominant position and you get some forceful behavior but usually they work that out in a couple of days. It can be brutal but most of the time no one is really hurt. If you try that with an immature cockerel it can sometimes get a lot more brutal, the hens might beat the crap out of the cockerel until he matures enough to meet their expectations. And when he meets a certain maturity level he may rely more on brute force until he more fully matures. Notice I'm talking about maturity, not age. I've had a 5 month old cockerel be able to handle that, I've had one that took until 11 months before he won over the dominant hen. That late maturing one did not make a great flock master but he kept the eggs fertile which is manly what I wanted out of him. He was replaced the next season.
I'm going through all this to give the background for my suggestion. If one of those cockerels (I am assuming cockerels and pullets) really hits your goals for some reason, maybe color, size, or something else, keep him and take your chances. If both meet that criteria I'd keep the more dominant one. You say he is not aggressive toward the pullets which is a good sign. He can still change on a dime, becoming human aggressive or brutal to the pullets and hens, but I think he is less likely to wind up brutal at the end of the day. Try it and see how it goes. If it doesn't work out get rid of him too and try introducing a mature rooster to the flock. You will probably get one that has the personality that works but it can be a trial and error thing.
Good luck and again welcome to the forum, glad you joined.
I knew RR would come thru with the details!
thanks so much for this thread! I am a 3rd year chicken "mom". 11 chickens atm, 2 of which are roosters. All have names...all have their own unique personalities. They are dual purpose - they lay eggs and they give me great joy. LOL This has presented a special challenge. Last summer I rescued a rooster who was already mature. He came in to the flock and settled them down quite a bit, not that they were completely out of control before, but I did have a couple RIR's that were bullies. I lost the more aggressive one this fall to the Golden Eagle, and honestly that has helped a lot.
I actually took in the rooster because my favorite hen, Shirley, got all broody on me. I decided she should have the opportunity to raise some babies. She had 3 and one was a rooster. Ugh, so now I have two. When he got to be about 5 months old, I had to take Shirley out and put her in the big run with the other chickens, leaving just the 3 young ones to themselves. The 3 get along fine. He is an australorp/RIR mix and the girls are RIR's. So, I thought adding my other RIR with them would be good at this point. They are laying, so I thought they would be old enough to incorporate another hen. OMG!!! I've never seen a chicken get mad, but those two young hens were having nothing to do with another hen in their coop. LOL I rescued Rosie and put her back in the other run.
After all that, I do have a question. Although I have the space to maintain two runs and coops (I actually have 3, but that's an even longer story), can I keep a rooster with only two hens? Will that become a problem eventually? He is so beautiful I cannot bear to part with him, but I love my rescued rooster too. Both seem to be sweet, but I don't dare put them together. I'd love to combine them all, but everything I've read here would indicate that's a bad idea, especially since everything is running smooth at the moment. Any advice or suggestions?
Thanks!
I actually took in the rooster because my favorite hen, Shirley, got all broody on me. I decided she should have the opportunity to raise some babies. She had 3 and one was a rooster. Ugh, so now I have two. When he got to be about 5 months old, I had to take Shirley out and put her in the big run with the other chickens, leaving just the 3 young ones to themselves. The 3 get along fine. He is an australorp/RIR mix and the girls are RIR's. So, I thought adding my other RIR with them would be good at this point. They are laying, so I thought they would be old enough to incorporate another hen. OMG!!! I've never seen a chicken get mad, but those two young hens were having nothing to do with another hen in their coop. LOL I rescued Rosie and put her back in the other run.
After all that, I do have a question. Although I have the space to maintain two runs and coops (I actually have 3, but that's an even longer story), can I keep a rooster with only two hens? Will that become a problem eventually? He is so beautiful I cannot bear to part with him, but I love my rescued rooster too. Both seem to be sweet, but I don't dare put them together. I'd love to combine them all, but everything I've read here would indicate that's a bad idea, especially since everything is running smooth at the moment. Any advice or suggestions?
Thanks!
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A lot of breeder pens are 2 hens and a rooster. If you don't see aggression or over mating, it could be fine to keep your lovely fellow.
Just a side note, coming from my background experience. The best thing, imho, to integrate a new rooster is his broody mom. They thunk sense into the boys head, then as the mom integrates the boy into the flock, the others keep him in check. Dad sees the youngest as a part of the flock. There can be some tussles as the young son matures, but it is soon settled (unless the father or the son are especially aggressive...but dad is only around because he is fine tempered in my flock).
So because you separated, the established rooster sees this youngster as a strange male and is pulling out his tail feathers. That could settle down, or not.
So if your pretty male is doing okay, not acting like a raging hormonal teen with the 2 RIR hens, let him stay and keep a watch.
The only time I've ran into trouble is letting a cockeral remain with a banty brooding hen (his foster mother) and sister siblings. He began to get aggressive with the pullets and transferred that to the poor banty mom...all were in grow out in the separate brooding pen. Though he was pretty, I didn't want his genes in the main flock competing with dad's, for breeding goals, so he went to freezer camp though he was a pretty boy.....he was going to end up killing the banty if he remained....no place for him. Just his luck of timing and genetics because he would have been trained by dad and the hens should he have been introduced into the main flock younger with mom. I've not had any trouble with younger cockerals introduced that way.
LofMc
Just a side note, coming from my background experience. The best thing, imho, to integrate a new rooster is his broody mom. They thunk sense into the boys head, then as the mom integrates the boy into the flock, the others keep him in check. Dad sees the youngest as a part of the flock. There can be some tussles as the young son matures, but it is soon settled (unless the father or the son are especially aggressive...but dad is only around because he is fine tempered in my flock).
So because you separated, the established rooster sees this youngster as a strange male and is pulling out his tail feathers. That could settle down, or not.
So if your pretty male is doing okay, not acting like a raging hormonal teen with the 2 RIR hens, let him stay and keep a watch.
The only time I've ran into trouble is letting a cockeral remain with a banty brooding hen (his foster mother) and sister siblings. He began to get aggressive with the pullets and transferred that to the poor banty mom...all were in grow out in the separate brooding pen. Though he was pretty, I didn't want his genes in the main flock competing with dad's, for breeding goals, so he went to freezer camp though he was a pretty boy.....he was going to end up killing the banty if he remained....no place for him. Just his luck of timing and genetics because he would have been trained by dad and the hens should he have been introduced into the main flock younger with mom. I've not had any trouble with younger cockerals introduced that way.
LofMc
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