Rooster Flocks!

[RoostersAreAwesome]

So I think that more people need to know about rooster flocks. I think a rooster flock is a good way to keep those "extra" roosters.....

All you need to do is make sure there aren't any bullies, and if there is you might want a bigger pen for them.

Here's a pic of my flock of 5 roosters

 

[aldarita]

Thank you for sharing the idea of having a rooster flock. I had a flock of 2 in a coop with a run and yard. I had to disband it because one of them became aggressive towards me. Right now I have 7 chicks that are three weeks old,and I am planning to keep the cockerels by themselves so I'm in the process of expanding their yard so they will have more space to roam around. I am crossing my fingers in hopes that they all will get along fine.
By the way the pic of your roosters is fantastic, they are all gorgeous, mine are the same breed but I know they will be beautiful birds.
How long have you have them leaving together?

 

[CuzChickens]

I had a rooster flock that consisted of 3, and they fought horribly, I shut down that party.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I had a rooster flock that consisted of 3, and they fought horribly, I shut down that party.

Some roosters just don't get along.... I had a Japanese bantam and a serama rooster that just HATED eachother! Lol

Thank you for sharing the idea of having a rooster flock. I had a flock of 2 in a coop with a run and yard. I had to disband it because one of them became aggressive towards me. Right now I have 7 chicks that are three weeks old,and I am planning to keep the cockerels by themselves so I'm in the process of expanding their yard so they will have more space to roam around. I am crossing my fingers in hopes that they all will get along fine.
By the way the pic of your roosters is fantastic, they are all gorgeous, mine are the same breed but I know they will be beautiful birds.
How long have you have them leaving together?

Which rooster in the picture are you talking about? Most of my roosters are different breeds/mixes.

EDIT: 3 of my roosters have been together for about 6 months now, and the other 2 have been with them for about 4 weeks.

 

[catsnchickslady]

So I think that more people need to know about rooster flocks. I think a rooster flock is a good way to keep those "extra" roosters.....

All you need to do is make sure there aren't any bullies, and if there is you might want a bigger pen for them.

Here's a pic of my flock of 5 roosters
View attachment 557008

Did they grow up together? I have two roosters who grew up together and they get along fine. I HAD two polish roosters that grew up together and they got along but they did not like me so I re-homed them. I have 3 other roosters but I have not tried to put them together yet. My hope is that someday I will have all my chickens together in the coop. I haven't finished it yet tho. I would like to hear more about keeping roosters together. I like the roosters if they would get along.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Only 2 of those roosters grew up together.... the rest were added to my flock later.

One trick to having a successful rooster flock is making sure they have a lot of room to get away from each other, so you need a larger coop. Also adding new roosters when they're younger (around 3 months old) helps with aggression.

 

[catsnchickslady]

Mine are all adult. I have about 14 babies that hatched around Easter but I don't know how many are male yet. When I find out, I will try to put them with the others, as you suggested, when they are about 3 months old and see how that works. with my luck, I am sure I will have plenty of males! My new avatar is one of my roos.

 

[aldarita]

RoostersAreAwsome can you tell us how you integrated your cockerels to your roosters' pad?. Since I have been interested in having a "bachelors pad" for a while, I have been researching about it. What I have read is that it is hard to integrate roosters but it makes sense adding them when they are young. I would guess that a lot has to do with their personalities, if the alpha is very aggressive, that makes it almost quite impossible to add more.

These were my 2 roosters, they lived together for more than a year, they had fights every now and then but nothing serious. I still have the one in the back, he is with 16 hens and he is a happy rooster.

Can your roosters see the hens? My plan is to keep them in their own coop, run and yard but there is a fence that joins the yard where the hens are, I plan to cover that fence with a dark tarp so the roosters cannot see them but they will be able to hear them, I wonder if that will influence their behavior.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I have a stag pen where I keep all my boys once they are big enough to be kept on one side of the fence and definitely NO later than when they have started trying to mount my pullets. Of course this is mostly while they are growing into edible size. But I keep my breeding roos there to. Which by the way aren't rooster until at least 1 year old.

It does not matter how much room you have... they will relentlesly chase and harrass, if that's what they choose to do. So it really does depend on the individual. By the time my younger boys get integrated with the older they have already been seeing each other through the fence. But were not raised together.

My boys can see my hens... which makes the older ones pace the fence all day long and go into a tizzy when a girl comes out singing. Reason I haven't made it blinded is because I can't afford to lose the sunlight on the other side... girls in the am and boys in the pm. Actually, I guess there is also just a wire barrier between the 2 coops on the inside as well.

If I weren't eating or breeding, I would not keep any extras. The boys that are there for the long term deserve some peace and the constant challenge of up and coming cockerels might not bring that. Plus seriously who need the competetive crowing?!

I do enjoy having boys. But it isn't in my budget to let all the extras just hang out and muck up the pasture if they don't have a future purpose here. I figure it cost me $3/month to feed a hen, so a little more than that for a roo... especially since the hens go forage all day and the boys just pace the fence thinking about getting some tail.

Allthough boys are pretty to look at and fun to watch, they are livestock to me. The one I thought was going to be a pet because he was so happy to hang out with me all day, quickly became demon spawn when he reached mating age. Though he still lives his days are VERY numbered... this chicken mama does not like being attacked. No other boy that wasn't friendly when young has ever even looked cross eyed at me *yet*.

There are scuffles in my stag pen. Usually around 8-10 occupants with 144 sq feet in the coop and 1500+ sq feet run. It usually is not serious. But if I see something last too long I intervene that day and if it continues then someone usually gets processed sooner than later. Providing plenty of visual barriers helps and I have extra feeders.

Don't get me wrong, I think roosters are cool and my neighbors love having them so far, even though they start crowing at 3:30 am EVERY day. We are far enough away, I guess. If you can afford to feed them and enjoy having them... It's a great idea! Especially if you can help out someone who really does not want their boy to go to freezer camp.

Blocking the line of sight but still having sound will probably make the boys try just as hard to get to them.. maybe even crow a little more to let the girls know they are there. That's 1 way they compete for the ladies. Hard to say really, things are so fluid with all the chickens having different personalities. 2 of my boys line up and stick their heads through as far as possible and a couple of girls will go over there and clean their waddles and chat with them.

Also, my roosters do not usually bother very young chicks. They are more concerned with checking out the ladies. And if I have a roo with the ladies they also do not mess with chicks because they know they *might* be the father and want to protect their offspring.

Some breeds are friendlier to their coopmates than others. My Marans are quite fiesty while my faverolles were quite docile.

 

[aldarita]

Eggsighted4Life thank you for your input and passing out your experience. I knew it was going to be futile to block the view if they can still hear the hens, I was just wishing it might help. This fence that separate my 2 yards is lined with chicken wire so they won't be able to fight thru the fence with the rooster I currently have with the hens.
I think I have 4 cockerels in my chicks batch, it is too early to tell for sure, they are all speckled Sussex but 3 of them already have tail feathers on their tails, the other 4 don't. So I have read cockerels generally get their tail feathers last.
These 4 boys will go to their own yard as soon as I am sure they are all boys and like you said, before they start attempting to mate. I don't plan to add any more roosters since I already have too many chickens.
This will be my project for the year, they will be on probation, if they behave they get to stay.