How can you get two roosters to get along?

[Fwoof]

In the past two to three months, we've hatched four healthy bantam pullets, two females and two males. We're giving one of the males to our neighbor, but we're keeping the other one because he imprinted on me. If I peck at the ground with my finger he'll run over to that spot and falls asleep when I hold him.
But our third bantam rooster, his father Rascal, is just the sweetest little gentleman and made four healthy chicks. I feel we have two perfect roos, but I know that they will fight over ladies. I can't bear to give one of my boys up, so how can I create peace in the chicken coop without having to rehome one of them?

 

[Coops Dad]

Keep them physically separated. If they've got only a fence between them, they'll battle through the fence. Best case is if you have them separated and out of sight of one another.

Some roosters will tolerate another rooster but only if there are sufficient hens and sufficient space to allow them to become two flocks; that's what I've got going on right now. A father and son, the father has about 15 hens of his own that stuck with him and the son has 8-10 hens that follow him. There are a group of undeclareds that either don't play the harem game or opportunistically join whatever group is having better success in foraging. All have access to 6 acres of tall grass pasture, the 20x30 tractor shed and whatever part of the lawn around the house they feel like they can use when the dogs are inside. They sleep separately, eat separately and lounge separately. The father's group sleeps inside the coops and the son's group sleeps stop the brooder. As long as the son doesn't try to get one of the father's hens to squat for him, they do fine.

 

[Fwoof]

Keep them physically separated. If they've got only a fence between them, they'll battle through the fence. Best case is if you have them separated and out of sight of one another.

Some roosters will tolerate another rooster but only if there are sufficient hens and sufficient space to allow them to become two flocks; that's what I've got going on right now. A father and son, the father has about 15 hens of his own that stuck with him and the son has 8-10 hens that follow him. There are a group of undeclareds that either don't play the harem game or opportunistically join whatever group is having better success in foraging. All have access to 6 acres of tall grass pasture, the 20x30 tractor shed and whatever part of the lawn around the house they feel like they can use when the dogs are inside. They sleep separately, eat separately and lounge separately. The father's group sleeps inside the coops and the son's group sleeps stop the brooder. As long as the son doesn't try to get one of the father's hens to squat for him, they do fine.

I don't have that much space at my place, but I have three separate coops/runs. A chicken coop, a Bantam coop, and a chick coop. The chicken coop and the chick coop are right next to eachother and the Bantam coop is a good distance away from the other two.

 

[bobbi-j]

Some people have had good luck keeping two roosters, others have stories about the son coming of age and beating the tar out of the father. You won’t know if it’s going to work until you try it. Have a Plan B ready so when you do have to separate them, you can do so immediately. Or, you could play it safe and keep them separated from the start. As Mrs. K says, you can’t just wish for it to work out.

 

[3KillerBs]

I had two males getting along well -- both very laid-back in temperament. But I was watching for trouble up to the point that I sold one of them (a Black Langshan when I wanted to breed Blue Australorps).

I *hope* that next spring Rameses will raise one of his sons to be a good junior rooster, but I know that I can't count on hope.

Also important to note: Even though I had 21 hens and laying pullets with 2 males I had a number of bare backs in need of saddles.

 

[sourland]

Some people have had good luck keeping two roosters, others have stories about the son coming of age and beating the tar out of the father. You won’t know if it’s going to work until you try it. Have a Plan B ready so when you do have to separate them, you can do so immediately. Or, you could play it safe and keep them separated from the start. As Mrs. K says, you can’t just wish for it to work out.

Have a 'Plan B' in mind.

 

[Toothpick]

I think if they grow up together you have better chance of them enjoying (or tolerating) each other’s company. Otherwise it’s a crapshoot. I’ve got 4 roosters in the coop right now and they all hatched from chicks. They do that posturing thing with each other but don’t duke it out. In the past I had 6 roosters that were brought up together and they roamed the yard like a pack of dinosaurs for over a year.

I also had one wild rooster that never grew up with any of them and he would fight every rooster every chance he got.

Have you put them together yet? You can try it out. Put them together see how they act. If they get along cool. If not then their lives will be separate. No other way about it IMO. I don’t think you can train them or force them to like each other.

 

[3KillerBs]

BTW, what breed of bantam are they?

Game breeds, bantam or large fowl, are unlikely to ever tolerate another male because, even though breeders aren't fighting them *now* they have thousands of years of being bred to fight.

Non-game breeds are more hit-and-miss in re: rooster aggression to other males.

 

[gimmie birdies]

With roosters if raised together they may play fight in the beginning and then one will defer to the other, if you hatch a baby roo or bring one in, and have an adult rooster, the younger one will defer. If you have 2 adult roosters they will fight it out. And with my roosters there are 2 kinds, one that keeps his distance, and one that will engage with you. I am okay with either, the one that wants to engage will come up pretending to eat, then attack. Before the get a chance to attack I pick them up every time. Soon they only come up to be picked up or they will run off. I never offer them a foot to attack, or use a broom on them, because then you are meeting their challenge, and they are getting what they want. Also walk with purpose. The other bad thing is if you have kids that like to "play" with roosters, it is teaching the rooster bad habits and they will chase and attack a kid at the kid's encouragement. Learn to say no to a child who does this.

 

[Folly's place]

If they are game bred birds, most likely things won't work out.
If you have space, many areas to be out of sight, and many hens, they may do just fine together. Have that Plan B ready though, because at any time they may decide to NOT get along. Usually the mature bird will dominate, but then in a year or three, things may change. If reasonably peacefully, fine. Otherwise, there's Plan B.
Also, your cockerel is now a 'sweet young thing', who might turn into a horrible adolescent, and need to be gone. His behavior now, how nice, but see how he is later...
Mary