Keeping multiple roosters- Need advice from breeders

[Lollipop]

Quote:
Twenty hens should be enough for 2 roosters, so since you have enough hens, it's just up to whether or not the roosters want to cooperate and get along.

You hafta be aware that a hundred hens won`t stop strange mature roosters from fighting. Twenty is fine, if the roosters are ok with each other, but yours obviously want a piece of each other.......Pop

 

[centrarchid]

Another option I am employing can be used but makes predator managment more of a headache. I treat my birds a bit like wildlife and have lost a few (to fighting) during early trials making system work. I can do it reliably now.


Establish each rooster with group of hens (harem) such that they have their own roost and feeder. Roosts need to be a least a couple hundred feet apart. Ideally a line of bushes, fence or other abrupt change in landscape can help birds decide where territories boundaries are for each harem. Ratio of hens to roosters effects whether system works but I do not know optimal ratio and it may be influenced by breed. Two years running I have had 3 harems each led by a rooster. Each time one rooster was American game and two were American dominique.

We used to have similar with American games only on grandparents farm with wooden fence rows and feedlots for each harem. Trouble makers causing system to breakdown were not cocks (old roosters) but rather stags challenging a cock for a harem, then all hell breaks loose. Tighter management involving harvest of stags might have enabled more durable structure where cocks did not get into scraps.

Roosters, even games, have display mechanisms that can prevent fights so long as each bird has a feel for where his property starts and ends. Roosters in bachelor mode are the problem.

 

[Blue]

Quote:
Twenty hens should be enough for 2 roosters, so since you have enough hens, it's just up to whether or not the roosters want to cooperate and get along.

You hafta be aware that a hundred hens won`t stop strange mature roosters from fighting. Twenty is fine, if the roosters are ok with each other, but yours obviously want a piece of each other.......Pop

Pop is right on that as well. Some roosters will just never get along, but if your one rooster is submitting to the one that's attacking him, he may settle into the beta rooster position. Keeping multiple roosters always works better if the roosters grew up together, but it is possible to integrate new roosters. It's just more difficult.

 

[capayvalleychick]

An update on my roos ... they are now getting along just fine, together in the mobile coop. The Delaware roo is definitely alpha. The Dorking roo just stays out of his way and does nothing to challenge him. They both roost at night about 6 feet away from each other on separate roosts, the Dorking in a back corner. During the day, they choose different places to forage.

I do think it will be best to have a separate ranging area and coop for each rooster, with his hens. Until I can do that, this will do.

I'm sure that the only reason this worked is that Dorking roos aren't as feisty as most other breeds. I will have them separated before Spring.

Thank you to everyone who offered their advice and opinions.

Kim

 

[Blue]

Glad it worked out!

 

[Oregon Blues]

Fortunately, my drakes don't fight like that, but what I do during hatching season, when the breeds have to be separated, is they each have their own pen and they take turns being loose in their large exercise bug-eating yard.

Perhaps you could divide that large coop down the middle with some poultry wire? Then let them take turns with the free ranging?

I suspect that because they are breeding birds and separated during breeding season, that each rooster has come to think of himself as the "alpha dog". They are going to fight really hard to retain that top position in the pecking order when they are placed together for part of the year.

 

[missmitiep]

Seems this is an old thread but I have a couple questions about this, so if you have 2 coops one hens only and one roos only, how far apart should they be and can the hens and roosters free range together or should they alternate days?
Thank you!!

 

[centrarchid]

No free-ranging at same time. Block immediate line of sight. Minimum distance between pens I have not explored. I can have males confined to pen and hens outside without major problems. Problems that do start occur when hens approach pen.

 

[Diannastarr]

im just now thinking about this rooster control issue, we should have 3 roosters soon, for the 3 breeds we will have & possibly a 4th breed..? since we have barrdrock hens , but no roo for them, & need to find a healthy roo for my BR girls , so we have planned to have SLW CW & NHR available & are building large separate area for each , i didnt want to keep them in tractors, but want my birds out were they can run and have a good healthy long life ,so we will create a way to let the hens out with each individual rooster of their own breed, since for sure we want the hens out free ranging all day & keeping the roos separate with them that way no fighting from the boys, and no accidental breading with the wrong roosters ,since ive read that one breeding can last for as long as a month

. & we are being extra careful to keep the purity of our breeds, we plan to offer 1 or 2 day old hatching eggs for each breed, but wile doing that i want my birds happy & health with a lot freedom to do what chickens Love to do....lol...

take care all

 

[missmitiep]

thank you! I will alternate free range days with the roos and hens then and their bachelor pad will be built out of sight