Missing my beautiful rooster in the morning.

[Vee4971]

Hi, would love a little advice please.
Up until recently we had a flock of 7 hens, 6 chicks & a beautiful big rooster called Dennis. Mr Fox had a party one day & we are now down to 3 hens & 6, 3 month old chicks. The flock will therefore be made up of 2 cocks & 7 hens.
I would really like to keep one of the cocks who is very tame from handling, now named Ralph a Moran but I would also like to replace our Rooster. He really worked well at keeping the older hens in order & I miss the morning wake-up call.
If I got an older Rooster & keep my reared cock do you think this balance would be OK?
They all roam free during the day so not in a confined space for any length of time.
Thank you.

 

[bobbi-j]

Personally, I would just wait for the youngster to grow up. Two roosters can be hard on a flock of just 7 hens.

 

[aart]

Personally, I would just wait for the youngster to grow up. Two roosters can be hard on a flock of just 7 hens.

Ditto wait for the cockerels(am assuming you have 2 males chicks?) to grow up...
....and stop handling them, except very infrequently-just enough so they know you are boss and they won't die if you pick them up.
The old adage 'familiarity breeds contempt' often holds true with male animals.
That 'friendliness' can turn into aggressive domination pretty suddenly,
it can be heartbreaking and physically painful.

 

[Mrs. K]

Depending on where you live, winter is coming, and short days and long nights in which birds are confined for up to 14 hours in the coop with the darkness. People often think that with free ranging they can cheat on space. In the summer it works fair, but in the winter it does not. If space is an issue now, it is going to get worse, as your chicks are not full grown, and will need more space as they approach full size.

As for 2 roosters, roosters are a crap shoot, there are countless stories on here where the darling turned into a nightmare in a heartbeat. The older a rooster is, the more set is his personality, however, one should always be aware of a rooster. IMO two roosters is too much for your set up. Strange roosters will fight, sometimes once, sometimes repeatedly, sometimes till death. The young one will crow eventually, he may or may not turn out as a gentleman, good with hens, good with people, or he may be a jerk, be aware.

Mrs K