Managing my too accidental roosters

SB16

Chirping
May 31, 2020
32
66
94
Houston
I have 24 chickens.

7 one year old laying hens and my new flock of 17 four month olds, which includes two accidental roosters: a Black Copper Marans and a Blue Cuckoo Marans.

I have two coops and two covered runs. Each run is approximately 240sq feet and they share a hardware cloth wall.

My plan was to make little doorways through that hardware cloth, so the two flocks could mingle freely when they're put up.

My problem is that my BCM rooster is getting hormonal and is not only trying to mount my younger pullets, but is going after my laying hens when they're all out of their runs for supervised yard time.

The Black Copper Marans is clueless, he's big and neither my hens nor my pullets want anything to do with him, when he acts up. Yesterday, one of my hens jumped in my lap to get away from him. My layers are very friendly, but they never do that. The rooster is that annoying to them and they are that disinterested in him.

On a positive note, he's not at all aggressive to humans, he is very intimidating due to his size and he does watch the sky very well, which is extremely important because I'm surrounded by hawks.

So far, the two roosters haven't fought and no hens or pullets have been injured. The Blue Cuckoo Marans rooster is smaller and he tends to immediately back down.

My questions:

Should I split the two roosters up and keep the layers and pullets in separate runs with a rooster each or will that make for rooster fights when they're all out together for yard time?

If they are to be split, should the Black Copper Marans stay with the larger, younger flock to disperse his interest?

Will the Black Copper Marans settle down and learn to properly mate with the hens? He's incredibly clumsy.


Any advice would be most appreciated.
 
I would chose one cockerel and rehome the other. They will eventually fight. Cleaning up bloody roosters is not fun. And they just keep going at it if one will not submit. And even if he does submit, sooner or later, he'll make another go for sheriff instead of deputy and the fights will start up again. BTDT.
I'd keep the gentler of the two as long as he's shown no signs of human aggression.
Cockerels get better at mating with practice. But they usually come out of the starting gate with little bodies bursting with hormones and don't try too hard to win the ladies affections. That results is lots of screaming, running, feather pulling and stress.
Do ANY of the hens back down either cockerel? I always have a few hens/pullets that will fight the cockerels and they are invaluable at teaching these young boys some much needed manners.
If you have some, I would put the cockerel with these ladies and remove the rest of the girls. A week with them and he'll start whistling a different tune.
 
I would chose one cockerel and rehome the other. They will eventually fight. Cleaning up bloody roosters is not fun. And they just keep going at it if one will not submit. And even if he does submit, sooner or later, he'll make another go for sheriff instead of deputy and the fights will start up again. BTDT.
I'd keep the gentler of the two as long as he's shown no signs of human aggression.
Cockerels get better at mating with practice. But they usually come out of the starting gate with little bodies bursting with hormones and don't try too hard to win the ladies affections. That results is lots of screaming, running, feather pulling and stress.
Do ANY of the hens back down either cockerel? I always have a few hens/pullets that will fight the cockerels and they are invaluable at teaching these young boys some much needed manners.
If you have some, I would put the cockerel with these ladies and remove the rest of the girls. A week with them and he'll start whistling a different tune.
Thank you so much for your advice.

Yes, it's 2 of my 3 Ameracaunas that run from him, but my other hens including the remaining Ameracauna back him down. In fact, two days ago, when he was chasing one Ameracauna, little Henrietta, the runty third, actually body slammed him. I was so proud of her.

He's scared to death of my Welsummer hen. We're all scared to death of my Welsummer hen.

My reason for hoping to keep them both of them was that I'll be getting more chickens, their yard is 2 acres and I really do need the roosters as a warning system for my layers. He's alerted them to low-flying hawks twice in the past 5 days.

I'm surrounded by woods on three sides - not only do I have a very healthy year round hawk population and the typical small predators (raccoons, skunks, opossums, etc...) but also bobcats, coyotes, eagles and owls. By "have", I mean bobcats walk through my field.

Most of my neighbors that have tried to keep chickens have had their flocks decimated. When I moved here, 3 years ago, I was immediately told of a family around the corner. They went on vacation and hired a local kid to tend to their flock. Every night, one less hen came back to the coop. By the time the family came back from vacation, the entire flock was gone. My neighbor on the other side of the woods had over 30 hens in 2019. They had 5 left last year. My new neighbors were letting the 7 hens they'd picked up free range at the beginning of the year. They keep their 3 remaining hens locked up, now. It's brutal here.

But, I don't want them fighting, for sure. I do have friends who would take and keep a rooster and the woman I bought them from has offered to take them back, but I don't want either of them to wind up in a pot.

Fortunately, neither of them have shown signs of being human aggressive so far. I wouldn't have started the thread if they had. Years ago I was ambushed by a nasty EE rooster at a horse barn. Drew blood through my jeans and left my thighs bruised. I won't tolerate that.
 
Thank you so much for your advice.

Yes, it's 2 of my 3 Ameracaunas that run from him, but my other hens including the remaining Ameracauna back him down. In fact, two days ago, when he was chasing one Ameracauna, little Henrietta, the runty third, actually body slammed him. I was so proud of her.

He's scared to death of my Welsummer hen. We're all scared to death of my Welsummer hen.

My reason for hoping to keep them both of them was that I'll be getting more chickens, their yard is 2 acres and I really do need the roosters as a warning system for my layers. He's alerted them to low-flying hawks twice in the past 5 days.

I'm surrounded by woods on three sides - not only do I have a very healthy year round hawk population and the typical small predators (raccoons, skunks, opossums, etc...) but also bobcats, coyotes, eagles and owls. By "have", I mean bobcats walk through my field.

Most of my neighbors that have tried to keep chickens have had their flocks decimated. When I moved here, 3 years ago, I was immediately told of a family around the corner. They went on vacation and hired a local kid to tend to their flock. Every night, one less hen came back to the coop. By the time the family came back from vacation, the entire flock was gone. My neighbor on the other side of the woods had over 30 hens in 2019. They had 5 left last year. My new neighbors were letting the 7 hens they'd picked up free range at the beginning of the year. They keep their 3 remaining hens locked up, now. It's brutal here.

But, I don't want them fighting, for sure. I do have friends who would take and keep a rooster and the woman I bought them from has offered to take them back, but I don't want either of them to wind up in a pot.

Fortunately, neither of them have shown signs of being human aggressive so far. I wouldn't have started the thread if they had. Years ago I was ambushed by a nasty EE rooster at a horse barn. Drew blood through my jeans and left my thighs bruised. I won't tolerate that.
I would consider ditching the idea of free-ranging them and instead enclose a very large area with electrified poultry netting. That's what I do. I strung together three lengths of 164-ft fencing and that easily enclosed a third of an acre. There is a decent amount that is folded back on itself so you'd probably be able to get close to half an acre enclosed for the flock. I've run 30 birds on that and they have plenty of room and have never ever decimated the grass.
That will at least deal with all the ground predators. As for hawk protection, having very large thick shrubs for the birds to get under is very useful as well as having a run with a solid roof on it.
 
A good rooster will help with daytime predation, if you:
  • have a good rooster at least 1 year of age
  • And you have plentiful hideouts
  • and a great deal of luck.
I vote for putting the two roosters with the aggressive hens, and putting the less aggressive hens in with the pullets. Hide outs, roosts, platforms and multiple feed bowls situated so that birds at one feed station can't see birds at another.

Also have a plan B set up and ready to go, so that you can separate fighting roosters. You may need it, and you may not have time to set it up.

Mrs K
 
I would consider ditching the idea of free-ranging them and instead enclose a very large area with electrified poultry netting. That's what I do. I strung together three lengths of 164-ft fencing and that easily enclosed a third of an acre. There is a decent amount that is folded back on itself so you'd probably be able to get close to half an acre enclosed for the flock. I've run 30 birds on that and they have plenty of room and have never ever decimated the grass.
That will at least deal with all the ground predators. As for hawk protection, having very large thick shrubs for the birds to get under is very useful as well as having a run with a solid roof on it.
Thank you for sharing information on your setup. It sounds great! We were actually hoping to move the whole flock into an unused barn (4x the size of our coops) on the opposite side of the property and enclosing an area around it with electric fencing and installing aerial netting. Sounds like that would be the best plan.

A good rooster will help with daytime predation, if you:
  • have a good rooster at least 1 year of age
  • And you have plentiful hideouts
  • and a great deal of luck.
I vote for putting the two roosters with the aggressive hens, and putting the less aggressive hens in with the pullets. Hide outs, roosts, platforms and multiple feed bowls situated so that birds at one feed station can't see birds at another.

Also have a plan B set up and ready to go, so that you can separate fighting roosters. You may need it, and you may not have time to set it up.

Mrs K

Okay, I'll tweak my runs to give them more hide outs. Thank you. I have multiple feeders and perches set up.

I think my Black Copper will wind up being a good rooster because he is very vigilant. He's gotten them back under cover/into the run due to everything from airplanes, to squirrels to the hawks, I mentioned. He's a good alert for them. The hens and pullets are completely oblivious to their surroundings.

I foster dogs, so have large crates I can separate them into, if need be. One of my friends who would take a roo lives a mile away (she's surrounded by open fields and doesn't have the predator pressure I do).
 

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