How many roosters do you have freeranging together

[tdgill]

I have two. A buff orp and a black copper marans. Luckily the buff knows who's boss, but they do seem to share duties. I had them both as chicks....

 

[zazouse]

I have prosessed 146 roos in the last month and still have a bunch to go .
They all free ranged together.

 

[vickie2133]

I have 3 free ranging and 3 more caged. I have some seperated with their same breed hens.

 

[purr]

6 with 30 hens, 3 of them are 6 mths old and need to be rehomed , they all get along because I free range and they are clutchmates and hang around together, then there is Baby and he rules everyone.He's a polish/C.maran cross and Blackie my Black Copper Maran he's one year and bigger than baby but still scared of him. And then there is pretty boy hes a banty partridge rock and has a few hens he has sweet talked into being his. He's quick and stays out of baby's way. But holds his own with the other roo's , even pushes Blackie around.

 

[Judy]

2, with 13 hens. There were 4 a week or so ago but we removed 2 for the sake of the overmated hens. Looks like these 2 are going to arrange things peacefully enough. What will be interesting is, a broody is setting on 8 eggs, in the coop.

 

[xxSonja]

I have 6 roosters. 1 lives with the hens all the time, and the other 5 all live together. No hens to fight over means No dramas.

 

[phoneman]

i have 8 millifleur cochin and 4 blr wyandotte lf all under 5 mo. with 8 milli flur cochin pullets. will be seperated with in next 2 weeks. i only free range from chicks until about 4 months old. then rotate days between breeds

 

[Ridgerunner]

Right now, one adult and several 3 month olds. I haven't bothered to count pullets and cockerels in that batch yet. Probably 7 or 8 cockerels there. At times, I have had two and three that were raised together and got along great. I have had a mature rooster and two pretty much mature ones that got along OK, but they did keep their distance. The worst ratio I had was 3 roosters with 15 hens and pullets, but a more normal ratio of adults for me is 1 rooster with 7 hens. The only time I had barebacked hens was 1 rooster with 8 hens. I ate the rooster and the barebacked hens when I raised replacements and have not had a problem like that since.

I have had one mature rooster with eight of his sons going through adolescence. At least it was eight before I started eating them. They drove their daddy batty. A young one would chase the adult hens and they would run to the old rooster for protection. They did not usually bother the hens in his immediate area but they were fair game if they roamed very far.

One time, a young rooster was chasing a hen, the older rooster saw what was happening and went over, and the young one just kept running on by the hen. The old rooster started to strut, showing off to the world how mean and bad he was. Meanwhile, the younger rooster kept running into one side of a shed, out the other, circled around, and nabbed the hen without slowing down. The old rooster was still strutting.

 

[X2Farm]

20ish roosters out of 70ish birds, and they all get along. Every now and then hackles get raised, but then stare eachother down, and go about thier business. Some of then were raised together, some are from different batches. Oldest being about 8 months. They all do fine, and its pretty funny hearing all the different crows.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

If I'm counting them right at the moment I have thirteen boys in the bachelor pad and another seven or eight in one of the grow out pens.

Usually they all get along, but it's always a chore to introduce new roosters into an already established flock and sometimes you get birds that are just plain mean. I got rid of some Delawares that were that way. Big, pretty boys who grew out well and were never aggressive towards me. But some of them just would not stop harassing the lesser roosters way past the point of establishing their place in the pecking order. I got rid of them and the remaining roosters gradually settled down to no more than the occasional squabble and everyone grew their head/neck feathers and tail feathers back.

I'm going to combine the two flocks soon after I've carried some of the surplus off to the swap. Won't be doing that much longer as I nearly have what I need saved up to order my Whizbang parts. I hate plucking chickens.