SamLockwood
Songster
- Sep 29, 2022
- 449
- 927
- 166
The problem when you're starting a flock from scratch is it's an unnatural environment: you've got immature pullets and immature cockerels with no adult birds to teach them manners. It's basically a minature version of "Lord of the Flies."
When I rejuvinated my flock I waited until the girls were 8 months old before I got day-old male chicks. It was still a bit rough but between the male guinea fowl in my mixed flock and the mature hens they beat some manners into the boys. I ended up with a couple of my mature hens chasing the cockerels around when they got rude.
Now that my roosters are mature they're really good at keeping young cockerels under control when the hormones start to kick in. Plus the roos are better at making sure any new arrivals don't get picked on as badly by the establed hens.
At least that's how it's working so far.
If you're totally new to chickens, I'd actually recommend you re-home or cull both of the boys unless you're really determined to go ahead with this.
Plus with only 4 hens for 2 roosters you have way to few hens to go around. Too few hens for too many roosters often pushes their aggression into over-drive: they'll fight more, force themselves on hens more, etc.
FYI a cockerel that's acting afraid of you isn't really a bad sign: it means he respects you. Of the initial lot of 5 cockerels I had last summer, only two were at all friendly. I nearly culled the friendliest one because he became alpha and started getting borderline human-aggressive at six months.
A combination of training and "life events" mellowed him out. The other friendly roo was alpha for a couple months until the current alpha knocked him off the top spot. That rooster was the most skittish of the lot but now that he's about a year and a half old he's actually pretty friendly and calm around me.
Your biggest problem right now is you have way too many roosters and not enough ladies. Things were bad enough for me in January when I had 5 roosters to 14 hens, let alone 2 to 4. When there's not enough ladies the boys' aggression kicks into overdrive and they're more high-strung and nervous in general. You might be able to get away with 1 rooster to 4 hens but I find that 1:6 seems to calm things down quite a bit.
When I rejuvinated my flock I waited until the girls were 8 months old before I got day-old male chicks. It was still a bit rough but between the male guinea fowl in my mixed flock and the mature hens they beat some manners into the boys. I ended up with a couple of my mature hens chasing the cockerels around when they got rude.
Now that my roosters are mature they're really good at keeping young cockerels under control when the hormones start to kick in. Plus the roos are better at making sure any new arrivals don't get picked on as badly by the establed hens.
At least that's how it's working so far.
If you're totally new to chickens, I'd actually recommend you re-home or cull both of the boys unless you're really determined to go ahead with this.
Plus with only 4 hens for 2 roosters you have way to few hens to go around. Too few hens for too many roosters often pushes their aggression into over-drive: they'll fight more, force themselves on hens more, etc.
FYI a cockerel that's acting afraid of you isn't really a bad sign: it means he respects you. Of the initial lot of 5 cockerels I had last summer, only two were at all friendly. I nearly culled the friendliest one because he became alpha and started getting borderline human-aggressive at six months.
A combination of training and "life events" mellowed him out. The other friendly roo was alpha for a couple months until the current alpha knocked him off the top spot. That rooster was the most skittish of the lot but now that he's about a year and a half old he's actually pretty friendly and calm around me.
Your biggest problem right now is you have way too many roosters and not enough ladies. Things were bad enough for me in January when I had 5 roosters to 14 hens, let alone 2 to 4. When there's not enough ladies the boys' aggression kicks into overdrive and they're more high-strung and nervous in general. You might be able to get away with 1 rooster to 4 hens but I find that 1:6 seems to calm things down quite a bit.
