Multiple roo questions

[happyhens1972]

I currently have 13 girls with one roo, living in a pen of about 2000 sq ft. I have only ever had one roo before but he is now three years old and although still doing his job, is less enthusiastic about breeding and also seems to have trouble with some of my girls. He is a Cotswold Legbar...a medium sized bird.....whereas I have some HUGE Orpington ladies that he just doesn't seem able to successfully mount. Out of a recent batch of 16 eggs from all of my girls, only five were fertile and all of those were from the smaller girls.

I have decided to keep another roo from either my recent Orp hatch or the batch of Jersey Giants I have in the incy.

My questions are:

How many roos can 2000 sq ft sustain?

How many girls does each roo need?

Does each roo need his own coop at night?

Which are more docile roos....Orps or Jerseys?

Thanks for your help x

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Not at night but during the day can be a problem. I've had roosters fight during the day and sleep in a big pile together at night.
IMO, both Orps and JGs are very docile.
Each needs about 10 hens.

 

[happyhens1972]

If they have sufficient room to escape each other....which they certainly do in my pen...will they just scuffle and find their own space or are we talking 'fight to the death' stuff?

 

[bobbi-j]

There is only one way to find out, and that is to try it. Some will fight until there is serious injury or death, some will scuffle until they figure out who's boss, and then the subordinate one will still, on occasion challenge that. Not every flock with multiple roosters will have fights to the death. Not every flock will have multiple roosters that will find a truce and tolerate each other. There are no absolutes in chicken raising.

 

[happyhens1972]

Had a feeling that might be the case.

My current roo, Harvey, is such a quiet soul. He has circulation issues which cause him to nap a lot and makes his comb go purple every now and then. He also had a growth on his eyelid which made him go blind....or at least partially sighted...in one eye.

This is another reason why I don't want to use him for breeding and want a second roo but I also don't want him hurt. I feel he would definitely be the one to come off worst if there was a fight....especially as both an Orp and a Jersey Giant would be so much bigger than he is.

I'm hoping he would submit and go peacefully into second place.

 

[bobbi-j]

If you really are attached to that rooster, I would suggest not taking a chance on him submitting. If he has circulation issues (i.e. heart condition), he could die from an all-out fight - especially with a rooster so much bigger than him. Your choice entirely, of course, but I wouldn't chance it if it were my beloved pet. (My chickens aren't pets, but I still don't think I'd want to have one die that way)

 

[Stiggy]

I grew with the above about your beloved boy However you could always seperate the end and the run/get another and have two pens running with your smaller hens in with Jim ad the bigger ones in with the new rooster

 

[happyhens1972]

If you really are attached to that rooster, I would suggest not taking a chance on him submitting. If he has circulation issues (i.e. heart condition), he could die from an all-out fight - especially with a rooster so much bigger than him. Your choice entirely, of course, but I wouldn't chance it if it were my beloved pet. (My chickens aren't pets, but I still don't think I'd want to have one die that way)

All of my chickens are very much loved pets. I raised Harvey from a chick and I would be devastated if anything happened to him.

I grew with the above about your beloved boy However you could always seperate the end and the run/get another and have two pens running with your smaller hens in with Jim ad the bigger ones in with the new rooster

This may be the solution. I am setting up a seperate run within the run anyway for when the new roo and his siblings are old enough to go outside but not old enough for integration, originally with the idea that the fencing be temporary. Maybe I need to look into something more permanent?

Thanks for you input guys x

 

[ChickenCanoe]

There is only one way to find out, and that is to try it. Some will fight until there is serious injury or death, some will scuffle until they figure out who's boss, and then the subordinate one will still, on occasion challenge that. Not every flock with multiple roosters will have fights to the death. Not every flock will have multiple roosters that will find a truce and tolerate each other. There are no absolutes in chicken raising.

X2

The squabbling often happens when one rooster mounts a hen and the other runs over to stop it. Sometimes they squabble over mating rights so much that no hens ever get bred.

All of my chickens are very much loved pets. I raised Harvey from a chick and I would be devastated if anything happened to him.

This may be the solution. I am setting up a seperate run within the run anyway for when the new roo and his siblings are old enough to go outside but not old enough for integration, originally with the idea that the fencing be temporary. Maybe I need to look into something more permanent?

Thanks for you input guys x

I like separate runs, sometimes they'll face off at the fence jumping at each other. If that gets bad I put shade cloth up along the fence so they can't see each other.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I was going to respond one way until you talked about his health. One big reason he is not fertilizing many eggs is that he is not healthy. Nature has it set up so that unhealthy animals usually don’t breed very well. He would be in real danger from the younger healthier roosters even if he were the bigger one.

For him to live out his life in the best way possible, he needs to be kept separately. Having his own harem for company would be good.

As far as which rooster to keep, keep the one that you want his offspring to be like. That may be behavior, size, appearance, whatever is important to you. That’s a personal choice.