Is it ok to house 2 Roosters?

[msbenton1112]

So I have 3 Delaware 3 black australorp,2 partridge Brahma and 2 guineas. The chicks were supposed to be all pullets but it seems one if the Delaware is a Roo and one of the brahmas is a Roo. They both appear to be good natured as of 6 weeks old. Can I keep them or should I get rid of them? I know I posted on here before an they said I could have damaged hens in the future because there sent enough hens for the rooster? What should I do? This is my first batch of chicks.

 

[Wol1]

Yes, you can. Maybe. Not sure what you mean by "house two roos". We have two unexpected roos (never buying from Rural King again...lady up the street got 5 roos out of 6 "pullets" from same store). Our two get along well with each other, perhaps because they grew up together. One of them had a very violent idea of courtship and was freaking the older hens (and my husband) out, so we nixed keeping him with the hens. But we didn't want him to be alone, so we built a separate coop for them out of sight of the girls, and they get along very well. A bachelor pad. Maybe we should put a TV in there. We shut them in the coop before we let the girls out to forage in the evening because that's just too much for them to bear, but there are some hens which get out during the day, and the boys just act silly when they're around...like 5th grade boys, maybe. We worried they would attack each other if a hen was around, but they don't. A little chest puffing grandstanding, but they seem to both know who's in charge at the moment and how far to go.

Leaving two roosters in the same coop with only 6 hens.... I don't have experience with that. It would probably depend on personalities.

You may want to move this to the Managing the Flock forum to get more answers.

 

[msbenton1112]

Thank you so much for your help.

 

[speckledhen]

It depends. If you end up with enough hens for the Delaware and large enough hens for the Brahma, you'd be okay, IF they eventually work out the alpha male thing and get along with each other. I don't have hatchery Delawares but my heritage Delaware male could keep up to 25 hens fertile and he'd never accept another male in his group-I tried numerous times. He actually killed one of his sons once when that male was about 25 weeks old and surpassing his sire in size.

Delawares are active breeders. Brahmas are usually quite large and can hurt smaller hens. So, you really would need more hens, IMO, to house those two together with one group of hens. The Delaware needs at least 10-15 of his own hens, though if you kept only the six, you could see how it goes with JUST the one male.

Not sure how prolific a breeder a Brahma is, but he's super large, so he needs BIG hens. Most hatchery stock in those breeds you mentioned are not very large. He'd be okay with his own breed but the Australorps and hatchery Dels are not very large.

You don't have enough hens for those two males, JMHO.


ETA: I asked a moderator to move this thread to the management section for you.

 

[msbenton1112]

Thank You I appreciate answering my question. I am still learning how to navigate this awesome website. I would love to keep both the roosters but I know you are right about not having enough hens. I really enjoy them both as i know they will both be beautiful birds.

 

[speckledhen]

Thank You I appreciate answering my question. I am still learning how to navigate this awesome website. I would love to keep both the roosters but I know you are right about not having enough hens. I really enjoy them both as i know they will both be beautiful birds.

I completely understand your dilemma, especially if they're both easygoing guys. I fall in love with all the young males myself-these are bred for temperament so it's rare to have a human-aggressive rooster. Haven't even seen one from my flocks in years and years. I just sold three 11 week old cockerels because I will not have enough hens or pens for them all. But, it's not easy letting them go.

Your Delaware should be the smaller bodied of the two you have, but he will also be a more motivated breeder, if he's anything like my own were, needing more hens than the Brahma, generally, but you'll have to play it by ear. If you want to keep the most friendly one, you'd have to wait until they are of breeding age when hormones are flowing to have any idea of which may become aggressive to you. No amount of handling or not handling while young will change his genetic predisposition to aggression. Hatchery stock varies wildly in temperament.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

I have delt with this and sometimes it can go very bad.

Roosters may challenge each other,and some may get so dominant,that they never stop fighting and those pecking order fights,turn into "Life Or Death" fights.

Even if they start out easy going,they can become very aggressiv towards you,or eachother.

It depends. If you end up with enough hens for the Delaware and large enough hens for the Brahma, you'd be okay, IF they eventually work out the alpha male thing and get along with each other. I don't have hatchery Delawares but my heritage Delaware male could keep up to 25 hens fertile and he'd never accept another male in his group-I tried numerous times. He actually killed one of his sons once when that male was about 25 weeks old and surpassing his sire in size.

Delawares are active breeders. Brahmas are usually quite large and can hurt smaller hens. So, you really would need more hens, IMO, to house those two together with one group of hens. The Delaware needs at least 10-15 of his own hens, though if you kept only the six, you could see how it goes with JUST the one male.

Not sure how prolific a breeder a Brahma is, but he's super large, so he needs BIG hens. Most hatchery stock in those breeds you mentioned are not very large. He'd be okay with his own breed but the Australorps and hatchery Dels are not very large.

You don't have enough hens for those two males, JMHO.


ETA: I asked a moderator to move this thread to the management section for you.

same thing happened with my roosters.My oldest one spurred his sons eyes out,and broke his neck.

 

[speckledhen]

I have delt with this and sometimes it can go very bad.

Roosters may challenge each other,and some may get so dominant,that they never stop fighting and those pecking order fights,turn into "Life Or Death" fights.

Even if they start out easy going,they can become very aggressiv towards you,or eachother.
same thing happened with my roosters.My oldest one spurred his sons eyes out,and broke his neck.

Sadly, that does happen and is always a possibility. My late Delaware rooster would allow his up and coming very young sons to be in the flock with him, completely ignored them, all the way until they'd been flirting and finally breeding the hens. Then, he'd pick a time to do a sneak attack. He actually ran down and then flew off a ramp out of the coop, coming after his very large son I mentioned earlier and hit him square in the back, killed him instantly. He later seriously injured another son. Prior to that, it seemed he was going to allow them to stay. A third son eventually challenged dear old dad, who would never back down, so I had to remove him as well. It has never been a situation that worked here with the Delaware rooster and his sons, or even between the sons themselves after they decided to fight for dominance. I envy those who can have two or more roosters in a flock.

The only ones where it worked are my Belgian D'Anvers. They do quite well with several males in one flock. But no large fowl roosters ever got along as Alpha with a Second in Command around here.

 

[Wol1]

Quote:
I will consider myself lucky, then. Every so often, their combs look a bit mangled, but that's it. They are Americaunas or Easter Eggers. They are almost a reincarnation of Georg and Yortuk Festrunk (Steve Martin and Dan Akroyed, respectively). "Georg! Watch while I show you how to speak to the foxes." Showed my teenage daughter a clip and her jaw dropped (at the similarity, not the vulgarity, unfortunately). A picture:
"Bad Boy" is the "thug". "Boy" is patient, and quiet - for a rooster. Maybe that's why they get along.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Breed can also come in play.Ester eggers and Amauracaunas are easy going,fragile breeds.Like silkies their fragil and wont last long in fights.