Rooster Flock Thread

[RoostersAreAwesome]

This is the new and improved rooster flock thread! Come here to learn and talk about rooster flocks, give advice, or simply share your experience with rooster flocks! I will try to answer any questions about rooster flocks (and roosters in general), and I encourage others to do so as well!

If you already have a rooster flock, feel free to share some pictures of your roos! If you don't, but are interested in starting one, you should first check out my article, then ask any questions that you have on here.

My rooster flock article: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/rooster-flocks.72998/ (if you have any suggestions, ideas, or complaints about my article, please comment and tell me).

The original rooster flock thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rooster-flocks.1174877/

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

A few more pictures of my rooster flock (past and present):

 

[Skipper81]

I kind of have a rooster flock ended up with 5 roosters and not enough hens they are all 8 months and have wonderful personalities more sociable than my hens lol so these boys each have a few girls and everyone's happy
I think the best thing about roosters is watching these kids become protectors and providers and all the changes they go through

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I kind of have a rooster flock ended up with 5 roosters and not enough hens they are all 6 months and have wonderful personalities more sociable than my hens lol so these boys each have a few girls and everyone's happy
I think the best thing about roosters is watching these kids become protectors and providers and all the changes they go through

That sounds like a lot of different pens. One reason I started my rooster flock was because I didn't have enough pens to separate all my roosters.

If i were to separate the rooster(within sight and hearing range)of my hens would they fight and would it be possible to selectively breed them, take one rooster put it in, than take it out?

It's fine for them to be within sight and hearing range of the hens, it just makes it a little easier if they can't see them. If you continually took a roo out of the pen and added a roo back in, it might become a little stressful as the roosters would continually fight upon the new rooster's arrival.

My roosters are within sight of hens. When first introduced into the rooster flock, you will get some arguments that may end up quite bloody. Once the roosters learn their place within the flock, they can learn to get along-but you have to have enough space. Occasionally you will get that one rooster who will not fit in and cause constant drama. Those must be dealt with as you see fit.

Good advice! I've noticed these things as well.

Yup. When they were in the chicken tractor we call it the "bachelor coop" the Ameraucana roos didn't like eachother, but got along within sight of the hens. Then we let them out into the hens, and the Ameraucanas got into a big fight, and we separated them into cages but kept one out. Big mistake. One KILLED the other. My most interesting story working with chickens. So they will fight if they are in cages with the hens, they need a different place entirely.

They probably started fighting because they wanted to have the hens for themselves. That's why roosters usually don't fight as much in a rooster flock, because there's no hens to fight over.

 

[theoldchick]

My roosters are within sight of hens. When first introduced into the rooster flock, you will get some arguments that may end up quite bloody. Once the roosters learn their place within the flock, they can learn to get along-but you have to have enough space. Occasionally you will get that one rooster who will not fit in and cause constant drama. Those must be dealt with as you see fit.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I'm introducing some younger Cockerels into my rooster flock today. I have them in a separate cage so they can still see each other. They won't all be together for too long, I just long enough for me to choose which ones are going in my breeding pens, which will be back ups and which will be culls.

My question is, what are people feeding their rooster flocks? Mine all under 4 months, and they're still eating medicated 18% chick feed. I know the extra calcium in layer feed isn't good for them, so do you go to meat grower? My oldest birds just started dropping weight over the last two weeks, but no one is fighting...

I feed mine flock raiser. You could also try grower feed or all flock.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Some recent pictures of the roo flock:

 

[MickWithChicks]

My roo flock is still going well. The same 4 boys, same pecking order, same intermittent bickering and fighting.

The two red-X boys (Dasher and Dancer) seem to fight more than the two black-X boys (Prancer and Vixen), but Prancer has a go too once in a while. Vixen is more interested in finding ways to escape to get down to the girls--he's bottom of the pecking order so tends to do his best to stay out of the way of the bigger more macho boys.

I ended up extending and covering their run, so they now have 3 separate areas with plenty of room to escape each other. This brought their space to about 8 square meters each (almost 90 square feet per rooster!). They don't free range, so it seemed important for them to have more space to escape each other. The fighting has since decreased significantly.

Someone dumped a japanese bantam rooster on our property and he went to live at the neighbours for a while while he matured. He ended up coming down to ours as he hit sexual maturity and integrated himself in with the girls -- he's a great flyer and their run isn't covered. He got pretty beat up by Vixen last time Vixen escaped to get down to the girls. He now has almost no comb left, but he's still a happy little dude. The neighbours named him Robare and the name has stuck.

 

[CamTheChknKeeper]

Here’s the bigger pic of my Orpington Lance! Those are standard size hen boxes, but I’ve taken the separators out so the coop is a open plan with one side solid floor and the rest roosting bars over a large removable drawer.
I think the coop might be larger than 3’x3’, I need to measure it again!

 

[CatWhisperer]

Most of my serama cockerels live in my back yard.