Rooster behavior

[PoppasGrill]

I’ve notice a drastic difference in the behaviors of our roosters.
We have 14 roosters in our main flock and 75 hens.
The Brahma roosters and RIR are very polite, they call their harem hens for treats, and even grab treats to hold for their favorites and only drop it when they are close. Almost chivalrous .

Then there are the mixes, hatched on the farm. They are jerks. I’ve seen and heard them making the noise for treats, but when a hen gets close they will grab and violate her. When we throw out treats, they will run in and eat them before the Ladies can get any. Even gang raping the hens, at least until the Brahmas come over and kick them off.

We were hoping the older Roosters would teach good behavior, but doesn’t seem to be working.
Our other Roosters, Silkie, Dwarf, and Polish are respectful, for the most part, but are smaller than the mixed ones, so don’t have as much sway on them.
Oh yeah, the Micro Rooster is an ass with a Napoleon’s complex. He doesn’t protect the other Micro hens, but will fight the big boys just for the challenge.

He’s the only one that is somewhat aggressive towards us, but he’s small enough to boot across the yard if necessary.

 

[azygous]

How old are these fourteen roosters? List each by age.

My hunch is there are too many cockerels for just a couple of adult roos to deal with, and you are seeing anarchy as a result. Not good for the hens, not good you, not good for the adult roosters. You would do well to thin the youngsters by half, at least.

 

[Penpal]

Isn't chicken sociology interesting? It would seem you need chicken soup. I wouldn't put up with the bad behavior and I think it will only get worse.

 

[Tonyroo]

It will get worse, having that many and being competitive makes it hard to manage.

 

[PoppasGrill]

How old are these fourteen roosters? List each by age.

My hunch is there are too many cockerels for just a couple of adult roos to deal with, and you are seeing anarchy as a result. Not good for the hens, not good you, not good for the adult roosters. You would do well to thin the youngsters by half, at least.

Our RIR (2), Silkie, Dwarf are around 21/2
Brahmas (3) are roughly 2 yrs
The others are 10 -15 months
The Micro is 8-10 months
We don’t eat our birds and no one we know wants more roosters .
We are in the process of building an enclosure for just the roosters , to separate them from the hens for periods of time to give the girls some rest. Not sure how this will work on their psyche , but it’s a start. Some articles I’ve read say that an all rooster coop can work, others say it’s bad for them because of the fighting for dominance or Alpha status.
We don’t plan on putting all the roosters in it, maybe rotating a few in and out every month or so. Still not sure on that though.

 

[azygous]

In lieu of butchering them, creating a separate coop and run for the bachelors is a good alternative. As long as these boys have no access to the hens, they should remain pretty peaceful as it's competition for too few hens that can create such bedlam in a mixed flock.

I see this with my own two peaceful roos. Normally, they are best pals, but put a hen in between them, and they will instantly start fighting over her.

 

[Jangela]

Our RIR (2), Silkie, Dwarf are around 21/2
Brahmas (3) are roughly 2 yrs
The others are 10 -15 months
The Micro is 8-10 months
We don’t eat our birds and no one we know wants more roosters .
We are in the process of building an enclosure for just the roosters , to separate them from the hens for periods of time to give the girls some rest. Not sure how this will work on their psyche , but it’s a start. Some articles I’ve read say that an all rooster coop can work, others say it’s bad for them because of the fighting for dominance or Alpha status.
We don’t plan on putting all the roosters in it, maybe rotating a few in and out every month or so. Still not sure on that though.

I do the same thing I have 23 roosters I have a all rooster coop for them and I rotate them frequently they each get a day and it has really been work I hope this helps .

 

[PoppasGrill]

I do the same thing I have 23 roosters I have a all rooster coop for them and I rotate them frequently they each get a day and it has really been work I hope this helps .

How many hens do you have?

 

[Mrs. K]

I think your problem will get worse. The more you hatch, the more roosters you will have. The more roosters you have, the more chance you have of it going wrong.

 

[nuthatched]

I think your problem will get worse. The more you hatch, the more roosters you will have. The more roosters you have, the more chance you have of it going wrong.

X2
This is going to spiral into chaos in the near future. Keeping all the roos you hatch is not a sound plan.