how many roosters do you keep?

[tadpole98]

Currently in the layer coop we have 9 roosters and 70 hens. Two of the roosters are ripping up their backs, so we're firing up the old recipe book for fresh chicken.

 

[Carisblues]

Question:
I just picked up some Doms this weekend: 3 hens and a roo. 2 hens and the roo were hatched out in October, and 1 hen was hatched in June. My existing flock, which is 1 year old, consists of 3 Ameraucana hens and 1 very sweet roo, 2 speckled sussex hens, 3 black sex-link hens and 1 cuckoo maran hen. I have two coops within a large penned area (about 24'x36'). One of the coops has its own 4x6 run so that it is self-contained, so I put the new birds in there so they could acclimate (see the other birds, eat, drink, and know where to lay and sleep). My old flock can run all around them (and are doing so as they prefer to lay in the nest boxes of this coop even though they sleep in the other!)
I tried to introduce my roos this morning (I just got the birds home last night), hoping that the new Dom would be young enough and out of sorts enough to submit to my 1 yr. old Ameraucana roo. But, after a couple of rounds, I decided to separate them again, as the Dom seemed to be wearing down my sweet roo. The Ameraucana, "Max", drew blood from the Dom, but the Dom did not draw blood from Max. However, the Dom seems to have much more energy than Max, and Max began to duck away. Max is slightly bigger and much heavier, but not as energetic, and this new guy is bigger than I thought he would be at this age, although lightweight.
I want Max to be dominant, as he really knows how to treat his hens right. Not sure how the new guy is going to do, but the plan is to breed the Dominiques. I free range the birds from noon-ish till dusk, when they put themselves to bed, so they have plenty of space to go their own ways during the day. My hope was that there would be plenty of room for 2 roos and that they would get along tolerably well.
My question is, should I wait a few days to re-introduce them or is it "the sooner the better"? and how long do I let the roos go at each other safely before they work things out? With Max being so sweet, I'm hesitant to let it go very long as I don't want to see him get hurt badly; and I wonder if they will ever get along.
Or, should I just keep the new roo in his own pen, and use him for breeding purposes only?
Or should I just get over it, and let nature take it's course, and let the best roo win? Eventually I would like to replace my existing flock with the doms, but would still like to keep an Ameraucana or two for my egg customers. They like the variety.
Thanks for any help!

 

[gryeyes]

I want Max to be dominant, as he really knows how to treat his hens right. Not sure how the new guy is going to do, but the plan is to breed the Dominiques. I free range the birds from noon-ish till dusk, when they put themselves to bed, so they have plenty of space to go their own ways during the day. My hope was that there would be plenty of room for 2 roos and that they would get along tolerably well. 

well, that would be wonderful, but the Pecking Order is a Chicken thing and has nothing to do with what we would like. The only sure-fire way to have a particular rooster be dominant is for him to be the ONLY rooster in his flock.

Case in point: my original "accidental" rooster was the Boss of his small flock of seven hens. I added more chickens over time. Young cockerels growing up respected him. There was one really big challenge - quite flamboyant and scary (for me) - but Carl remained in charge. And with only feather loss from the fight. The loser avoided him from then on. I moved, taking my flock. Any location change or addition to the flock starts the process of establishing the hen pecking order and the roosters challenge each other again. In my case, Carl only had to flare his hackle feathers at the other roosters and they acquiesced to his dominance.

With my three roosters (now), Carl the EE remains dominant, Max the little silkie roo is his #2 wingman. . Domino, a huge mixed breed boy (Buff Brahma daddy and Cuckoo Marans momma) is THIRD in command. Carl lets him have his own small coterie of hens as long as he doesn't mount them in front of him. Domino is a GREAT rooster (they all are - there have been some not-so-great cockerels in the flock though) and he is actually "on duty" more than Carl, now. But he is not the Flock Boss. Carl gets more time to dust bathe with the girls, actually sit and rest, whilst Max and Domino keep watch.

At one time, Carl was boss rooster when there were twelve roosters in my flock - and six of them were adult roosters, not cockerels.

The flock has a very large coop with two ladder-style roosting systems, plus accessible rafters. Domino's daddy (no longer with us) roosted on the top rung right next to Carl. Domino roosts in the rafters. The flock ranges freely over the property, fully fenced two-thirds of an acre.

There may be some drama when Carl passes, as Max chases Domino away from hens all the time. *I* would like Domino to be boss if Carl is not with us, but it's not up to me.

 

[cinch920]

40 hens and no roosters. I don't have any intent on breeding or hatching any eggs and I just don't have any need for a rooster. I had a couple for a while and then had just one, and although I enjoyed the occasional crowing, he was beating up my hens alittle too much. It's alot less chaotic without him around and my hens seem happier.

 

[mmorgan79936]

I have 9 roos amongst our flock of 28 and I just love them!!! They all get along great! I have 4 Partridge Cochins, 3 White Cochins, 1 Maran and an Easter Egger! Well I guess we have 10 Roos forgot about the one someone kindly just threw in my coop on a drive by, he is an Ameraucana and not well liked so he just flies over the fence in the Am and returns at night!

 

[txchickenhead]

Hi there.... I have 19 Roosters currently. When you had 18 roosters, how many hens did you have? I need to know how many i should add and ive been nervous, but they dont attack the neighbors hens next door so thats good too. A side note, all of my boys were raised together different breeds, large... none "fight" but feathers occasionally ruffle but at night they all sleep side by side like family.

I have had as many as 18 roosters, all different breeds (and ages), in my flock at one time.  Currently I have 3 adult roosters, the dominant Roo Carl - an Easter Egger - his first lieutenant Bernard - a HUGE Buff Brahma -  and Max the Silkie.  Oh, and Jack the White Crested Black Polish, who has never crowed (yet!) so I'm hoping to keep him a secret roo.  Then there's about four juvenile roosters who have not yet crowed.

No problems in the past 3 years except for twice, and that was due to two different roosters whose personalities were just too mean, so they went to Freezer Camp.

Everybody "knows" Carl is the Boss Chicken and Bernard will back him up or initiate discipline on his own (settling hen squabbles, reminding juvenile roos they have no status, etc.) 

The only reason I don't have more roosters is the neighbors have requested I keep no more than two roosters at a time.

Apparently, according to Rooster Pundits, my situation is unusual, as I heard ALL the arguments about multiple roosters in a flock.  "You can only have ONE rooster or they'll kill each other."   Nope, hasn't happened.  It was very hard to re-home some of my favorites and to pick just two roosters to keep.  (Max and Jack are my "under the neighbors' radar" roosters.). 

Everybody sleeps in the same coop, which is a transmorgrifed garage about 17 by 20 feet.  Carl and Bernard have "top rung" rights on the ladder style roost system. 

 

[Free Feather]

I would say that if you have 18 boys, if you run them all together, you need at least 54. Maybe a few less than that, but ideally there should be more. If you have them separated in groups with a boy or a few together you could have less. You could also have a bachelor coop where the boys live with no girls, all together. Or, you could rotate the boy with the girls if you cannot have anywhere near 50. Start with like 50 girls and see if you need more.