Rooster Problems

[The Chickens' Maid]

We have a semi-urgent problem with our roosters. We have four roos (dad and three sons) who have to be separated. I separated out two of the sons early into a bachelor coop. The third son, I kept in with his dad. Recently, the third son got into an argument with his dad that resulted in his being transferred to the bachelor coop. Long story short, that didn't work. Now, suddenly the two boys who were previously together in the bachelor coop have begun fighting. Everybody's separated now and I am kicking myself for messing things up and not putting son 3 in with his brothers in the first place.
Now that they are all separated, we need to figure out where to put them (no selling, no culling). We have some younger hens that we can put in with them, and we can give them each their own mini coop. Can anyone help with some insight? Thanks!

 

[dawg53]

If your going to do what you say your going to do, I recommend you buy chicken saddles for your hens. I'm sure there's someone on this site that sells them. Personally I'd keep only one rooster for the young hens. Normally it's recommended one rooster per 8-10 hens. You dont want your roos fighting over your hens,it's nothing but trouble...severe injuries to your roos and hens. Then you'll be back here looking up how to treat injuries. (no offense towards you,it happened to me)

 

[teach1rusl]

So how many hens do you have for each rooster? If you could put at least 3-4 hens with each in their own coop/run area, sounds like that would work. I agree with dawg in that, if you're seeing wear on the hens, you'll need to help them out w/saddles, aprons, or whatever.

 

[FrizzlesRule]

If you want to keep all the roosters, and you can do it, maybe you should get some more hens.

 

[dawg53]

teach1rusl, I personally have my Salmon Faverolle roo with 2 Salmon Faverolle hens in their own coop seperated from the other hens. If I didnt, my Red Star and big Barred Rock hens would beat up my roo, yeah, he's a wimp but he treats his hens real well. I've read at different hatchery websites that one roo is recommended for every 8-10 hens in a flock. I have the other 15 hens in their own yard area without a roo, they dont need one as far as I'm concerned. The owner has the ultimate decision what he wants as far as how many hens he puts with a rooster. The reason why it's recommended 8-10 hens per rooster is because anything less would be stressful for the 2 or 3 hens with all the mating the rooster would do, not to mention the injuries. This is why I recommended chicken saddles. I've got them on my 2 Salmon Faverolle hens, they work great and have had no issues.

 

[The Chickens' Maid]

The hens only have one rooster (the dad) in with them now. The three younger roosters are in the bachelor coop, but they are separated in kennels. We have about twelve hens, but most of them are older and have been in the same coop with the same rooster for their whole life; I don't really want to break them up except as a last resort. We have five younger hens, though, that I was hoping could be distributed among the three younger roos. I can make chicken saddles for them.
Is it even possible that the two roosters that were together before would be OK if I took the third rooster out?
Thanks for all the replies!

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Instead of giving all of the roosters their own hens, are you able to move the younger ones out of sight of the hens? If they cannot see them then they won't have as big of a reason to fight. They will still figure a pecking order, but they will not spar for mating rights.