Rooster is keeping my other rooster from mounting hens

[LizzyWhimsy]

So, we have two Jersey Giant roosters. They are brothers. They were raised together from babyhood. However, one of them (Beckett) is trying to mount and mate our hens (we just got them a couple weeks ago. The boys were on their own for a few months) and his brother (Red) always runs at him as he is doing this and kicks him off the girls. I don't know why he does this. He doesn't mount the girls. He shows no interest himself in doing it. However, the other rooster (Beckett) is showing normal behavior and keeps getting cockblocked (literally lol). When he kicks his brother off, there is no fighting about it and they carry on as if nothing just happened. If we weren't interested in hatching eggs, I wouldn't be worried about this but we want to hatch our own in the spring. I will give it some more time to see if this stops but I feel that Red has always felt he needs to keep Beckett in check.

Has anyone had this happen before? How could I correct this behavior?

 

[LizzyWhimsy]

and the chicken pot is not an option. We love our boys and probably coddled them too much lol

 

[centrarchid]

Behavior I have seen many times. It is time one, does not matter which is removed or flock split so each male has his own harem. At some point and likely soon they will engage in a knockdown dragout if not separated.

 

[LizzyWhimsy]

How would you go about separating them into separate harems if you only have one coop? We free range them. They run all over our seven acre property so we have been observing that if any disagreements occur, they just walk to another area.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! More information will be helpful here; How old are your birds? How many hens/ pullets? How much space? This sounds like normal behavior to me, and having more than one cock means that you need at least fifteen to twenty-five hens, and lots of space for everyone to avoid each other. Some cocks will get along pretty well, with a definite pecking order in place, and others will fight until one is dead. Cocks are not pets, they are serious breeding animals, with needs that must be met, or things will not go well. Mary

 

[centrarchid]

Pen one up, rehome or even eat him. I use pens often and cab be pretty handy management tools.

 

[Kev]

It is normal behavior. One feels he is the dominant one and yes he is trying to control everything. If separation or getting rid of one are not options, just have to live with it.

Fertility should be allright, a single successful mating will give enough fertility for roughly two weeks.

It's also possible the other one is successfully breeding the hens with no interruption just not witnessed yet.

The bad thing is, sometimes the hen can get injuried by accident in middle of the cockblocking.

 

[LizzyWhimsy]

Thanks for your answer. I had no idea that's how long fertility lasted from only one mating. That is a relief! So I'm sure we will live with it if it keeps going on and just see how many eggs hatch in the spring. We free range them so we're not worried about them fighting because they can get far away from one another.

 

[aart]

Thanks for your answer. I had no idea that's how long fertility lasted from only one mating. That is a relief! So I'm sure we will live with it if it keeps going on and just see how many eggs hatch in the spring. We free range them so we're not worried about them fighting because they can get far away from one another.

Just because they can get away....doesn't mean they will.
They may have a bloody showdown, possibly fatal to one or both.
Meanwhile the females may bear the brunt of the males competition by being over mated, or get in the middle of fight as mentioned above.

Numbers, ages, and housing space questions, as Mary asked above, could have great impact.


Do you plan to use an incubator or are you hoping for a broody hen?
Adding more incubated chicks takes extra housing space.
There will.be.more.males no matter how you hatch the chicks.
You can't keep them all...well, you could but it would necessitate another coop/run to keep all the males from wreaking havoc on your laying flock.