Raising Roosters together?

[Coleslaw]

Hello i just bought 1 rhode island red hen, 1 brown leghorn hen and three black star rooster chicks and i know that roosters usually kill eachother to be the alpha, but what if theyre raised together what happens?

THANKS!!!!

 

[Domestic_goddess]

I've never had more then one rooster a time myself, but my friend had 3 and there always seems to be an alpha male and they tend to fight for that position. My friends roosters fought but not to the death, usually they will back down and let one be the alpha. Good luck, hope that helps

 

[Tropical Chook]

I have several roosters, although only one of them is a permanent resident, while the others are destined for the pot. My resident one is a large Shamo fighting cock, while the others are all Thai fighting cocks. Contrary to what people tend to believe, they don't just fight for the sake of it, and will only do so when challenged. As soon as one has established himself as the alpha, peace returns to the ranks. With that said, I do free range, but even so, most of the younger roosters hang out together without any issues. In fact, the hens argue far more with each other than the roosters do.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I have raisied/had over 30 roosters in the same pen together ...

 

[Tony]

I have and still do..raised all types of roosters together. China Gamefowl,Leghorns,Orpington`s, Plymouth Rocks,Phoenix and never had a problem with them fighting. Usually one becomes the alpha roo and the rest just go about doing their own thing, occasionally a lower ranked roo will try to mate a hen, but the alpha chases them away and life goes on.
Coleslaw, I don`t think you`ll have any problems if they`re raised together. Maybe..a little fighting here and there, but nothing extreme as far as injury and definately not death. I`m just speaking from my own experiences. good luck.

 

[hensonly]

IN my first batch of laying hens, two of the pullets turned out to be roos...they got along fine for two years, then started fighting. The one who'd always been alpha lost the fight. The run was apparently too small for the loser to get far enough away from the new alpha, so the new alpha kept attacking him. By the time I got some help to separate them, the "winner" had injured himself (cut feet, both spurs broken off, toenail torn off) by hitting the fence repeatedly when he attacked the other roo...so the "winner" ended up having to be culled (I had nowhere else to put him).

Anyway - here's what I THINK happened: my two coops share a fence. I had a batch of Freedom Rangers in the adjacent coop. When I started letting them out of the chicken house into the run, they were afraid to come out the doors because the adult birds were only about ten fee away (even though behind the fence, of course). So I hung a tarp on the fence to block the view. The babies came out and after a few days, when they were used to coming and going, I took the tarp down. The Ranger boys were already acting like boys, and two days after I took the tarp down, my adult roos had had their first fight...which ended as described above. I'm thinking that it was the stress of having other birds so close, with roos beginning to mature, which triggered the fight.

I re hung the tarp, but the damage was done, the big boys could not continue to live together in that run. I know others raise roos together, but I think a lot of the reason for success lies in flock management. The roos must not be given a reason to fight....I gave them one, inadvertently, and it ended badly for one of my roos.

You may also find that your hens are very unhappy when the boys grow up...two hens and three roos is not a good mix...I hope you plan to separate the boys from the girls, or you may find that the boys fight because there aren't enough hens, and your hens may end up with no feathers on their poor backs from being bred too much.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I haven't had any of my "Grown" roosters fight in ages!

I think Fall is the time of year when they wonna fight more for some reason.
My younger Hens AND Roosters are fighting here and there .. but most of this is caused by the cockerals trying to mate the pullets and the pullets get after'em!

 

[pgpoultry]

My Brahma boys have never fought....they are just too big, fat and lazy.

I have raised other roosters, too,introducing them as chicks to the adult mob. they have generally been accepted without too much fuss, though they are down the pecking order.

 

[sourland]

If you keep the three roosters with the two hens, they will fight for breeding rights and make life miserable for the hens. Depending upon the rooster, there are times when 10 hens to 1 rooster is not enough to eliminate "wear and tear" on the hens. Not a good idea if you plan on keeping all of them together.

 

[melendezkdm]

I was just given a "heinz57" mother hen and her 5 chicks. I have determined that 2 of the month old chicks are roosters, because they are always challenging each other and "chest bump" like my 7th grade boys do at school. Is there any other way to determine the sex of the chicks?

I called them Heinz 57 because my farmer friend said the mother is a wanderer and who knows what rooster(s) she has encountered. BTW one of the chicks is about half the size of the others and may be a bantam.