Non dominant roos?

[KelsiNS]

My three boys are all grown up!
My 21 week old EE, Hershey Bar, is obviously dominant. He has exclusive mating rights and is my only alarm clock. Nobody questions his benevolent lead.
Except maybe Boot, my RIR roo. 21 weeks. He challenges Hershey without success. No noise buy joyful clucking.
My Luka, 20 week old EE never fusses. He is bottom rung, merely breaking up tussles between the girls.

Will Luka and Boot ever crow, or will my chocolate luffbug forever remain my talker?


(Before i get asked-3 roos to 38 hens)

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

Are they penned together or are they free range?

A flock that size most likely Boot atleast will collect himself a harem of girls that decide they like him over Hershey. Eventually even Luka may get him a couple girls depending on how submissive his nature is.

Every flock is different, its honestly going to depend on the room they have (thus ability to create mini flocks within the larger flock) and how aggressively dominant Hershey is and will continue to be. I have had roos who are merciless in controling the other boys, and keep a vigilant eye out to make sure they don't breed or even court girls.

As for crowing - you will probably hear them all crow eventually, they are still young. By 6 months all of them will be raging hormones, and you may still see some varying changes in the hierarchy (sp?) or personalities. You may get surprised in a couple months your quiet Luka may be the ladies favorite and he may be the main man

 

[gilcamp4]

i have 2 roosters and 29 hens, the one rooster is a rir not sure what the other one is, the rir is about 3 wks older, he crows and keeps the other rooster out of the camper, we have to go out and make the one get on a roost then make the other one come in, he is white with black and brown, he don't crow but we have seen him trying to mate but the rir comes after him. we have had chickens awhile like years but never had this, here is the cope.


we even changed the inside so one roost is at each end, we just got the three floor egg nests which have 5 nest on each floor, put the nest on top of the wheel wells, across the back where the nests are is now roost, half chicks go to back and half stay in front, this is a 26ft camper. we have elec in it still, took out water and eveything else.

 

[KelsiNS]

No free ranging here-stray dogs :/
They have about 6'sq per chicken, and for now 90% of the ladies are enamored with hershey!

 

[donrae]

All my young roosters crow. I have half a dozen right now, and it doesn't seem to bother the head guy one bit when they crow. He doesn't really like them mating, but doesn't seem to know what to do about it except make a lot of noise (he was the Omega of my last batch of roosters, not sure if he's going to step up and be a keeper or not). The hens have told the young guys they're not going to mate yet, that's for sure!

I know lots and lots of folks here say a dominant rooster can keep a younger rooster from crowing, but that's never been the case in my flocks. Everyone male crows. Guess it just depends on the individuals

 

[KelsiNS]

The reason i ask is Hershey is tiny. He has a great crow....but Boot and Luka are dinosaur sized and i can only imagine how amazing theyll sound

After typing the original, Mr. Bar walked up, hopped into my lap, crowed right in my face, nestled down and took a nap. I really lucked out with these boys-Boot was a biter until i smacked him in reflex at six weeks old. Luka was Leia until vrry recently, snuggled all the way up to the "are those SADDLE FEATHERS?!" And Hershey didnt look like he was going to live for his first week.

All very respectful of my space, only getting on me after i invite them. Very friendly. Now im just waiting on some more singing

 

[cluckcluckluke]

With that many hens, yes I do believe that the other 2 will get a little harem of themselves.
Also you may that with Boot he will become the more dominant as they grow, because RIR roosters are BIG!! and with no large age difference he could easily become the leader.

 

[Gardner]

Watch the colour of their wattles and combs - they are still young. When they start to turn bright red they'll be crowing

 

[KelsiNS]

Theyve all been red for over a month now!

 

[gilcamp4]

mine is red also full grown, walks around like the king as long as rir roost is not around, no crow for it yet, waiting to hear it