New to Backyard Chickens

Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. I'm so sorry that one of your hens was killed by a horse. You either need to get rid of both roosters, or get 15 more hens to go with them. The recommended ratio of roosters to hens is 1 rooster for every 10 hens. Your hens are stressed by the imbalance in your flock. If you decide to keep one rooster, I would get rid of the more aggressive rooster and add 5 more hens. I currently have 25 hens in my flock and no roosters, and I get loads of eggs without all the aggression, fighting, biting and feather plucking, non-productive mouths to feed, crowing in the middle of the night, and over-breeding and battering of hens that goes along with having roosters (especially too many of them). My hens are stress free, and enjoying life without any roosters around. In answer to your second question, chickens can breed for 4 or 5 generations before inbreeding starts to create health problems. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your flock.

 

Hello and Welcome To BYC! You've gotten some good answers and links from Michael and TwoCrows.
with adding the young rooster to the flock, even if it is only hens in the flock, you still need to combine them slowly. Keeping the new/younger one in a cage inside the coup for a couple of weeks to a month at least (and waiting until they are the same size and he is mature). The chickens will get to know each other more and sort of work out a pecking order before actually coming in contact with each other. Letting them free range together is a good idea and should help... It will take a couple of weeks to get the pecking order sorted out. It usually goes faster with adding a rooster to a flock, than adding another hen, but it still takes awhile sometimes. There is a nice article in the Learning Center on integrating flocks you might like to check out, the part about actually combining them is after the quarantine section https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

 

Sorry, I miss-read your post. I though you were asking about inbreeding rather than interbreeding. Yes, as TwoCrows said, chickens can interbreed. Some hatcheries will purposely interbreed two different breeds to produce hybrids for specific qualities (examples include Sex Links, Easter Eggers, Austra Whites, Cornish cross, California Whites, etc.).

 

Glad you joined us!

I'm sorry about the hen that was killed by a horse. Unfortunately, accidents do happen.

It is relatively common (at least in my experience) for young roosters to get picked on by hens and other birds. As the rooster matures, though, that will change: roosters are nearly always dominant over the hens. If possible, you could keep your young rooster separate until he's older. Or, you can leave him with the hens and let him fend for himself. Hens might be a little bossy, but I've never had them injure a rooster. Sooner or later, they'll accept him into the flock.

And yes, chickens can inbreed. Inbreeding isn't preferable, but it shouldn't cause any ill effects for at least several generations.

 

Hens seem to enjoy giving a young rooster a hard time. With some maturity, the tables will be turned.

 

Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

Two Crows, Kelsie and Bantam Lover have given you expert advice.

Good luck!

 

Welcome to BYC! We're glad to have you.

You've received some great advice already!