keeping multiple roosters

[saildog]

Can you have a rooster house - keep 4-5 roosters in one house and just let one out on any given day to be with the hens .
Will the males fight if they are alone in a pen with NO hens?

 

[donrae]

As a general rule, they do fine in a bachelor pad like you're talking about. No females, and if they have enough space, they seem to do okay. If they're raised together, it helps quite a bit.

Introducing grown roosters to each other is always a crapshoot, no matter how much space and how many females.

 

[centrarchid]

I house multiple males together but do not let them out to interact with hens as that is when they scrap. Even letting them out without hens can result is a lesser degree of scrapping. When is comes to combining something like adult American Dominiques or my Missouri Dominiques (an American Dominique x American Game multi-generational cross) I can combine adult males but rather than saying it is a "crap shoot", it would be more accurate to say "its a supervised beat the crap out of your buddies event" . It seems to work OK between September and December (as time of combining) but other times would not work as well because motivation to scrap may be stronger. Note I am using the weasel word "may". I have a lot of roosters and resources to play around with them more than most. Even so, I have not done it enough to give solid answer as the combining can give a range of results. I would not so treat roosters intended for show the following season as feathers do get dinged up even when group ultimately settles down.

 

[MollySunshine]

You definately can have a bachelor pad and have peace among the roosters. I have a bachelor pad that houses 11 roosters and another coop being delivered soon to house the 3 roo's that are currently in with my pullets. I too thought about letting one free range with the pullets when they are out but will decide later. Right now I want to give the pullets a break from the boys. Expect the occasional internal challenges with each other as roo's do but otherwise they live very peaceful together. I have mine adjacent to the pullets so they see them and still flirt but have no contact. Good luck!

 

[donrae]

I house multiple males together but do not let them out to interact with hens as that is when they scrap. Even letting them out without hens can result is a lesser degree of scrapping. When is comes to combining something like adult American Dominiques or my Missouri Dominiques (an American Dominique x American Game multi-generational cross) I can combine adult males but rather than saying it is a "crap shoot", it would be more accurate to say "its a supervised beat the crap out of your buddies event" . It seems to work OK between September and December (as time of combining) but other times would not work as well because motivation to scrap may be stronger. Note I am using the weasel word "may". I have a lot of roosters and resources to play around with them more than most. Even so, I have not done it enough to give solid answer as the combining can give a range of results. I would not so treat roosters intended for show the following season as feathers do get dinged up even when group ultimately settles down.

I live with three teenage boys. I understand, sometimes young males, no matter the species, just gotta blow off some hormones. Too bad we can't set the cockerels up with punching bags