Rooster question- is 2 a crowd?

[nutmeg259]

My flock currently consists of 8 birds. Two are 12 week old favorelles (a pullet and a Roo) and they have not been introduced to the rest of the flock yet. Tomorrow I'm getting three more birds, they are 15 week old Ameracaunas (two pullets, one Roo.) I suspect my flock is too small to accommodate two Roos, am I correct? What I'd like to do I await and see which one I'd like to keep. Can anyone speak from experience as to how roosters this young will interact? Also, when I introduce them to the adult hens how will the gals react?

 

[lightchick]

I think it'd work if you got one more pullet.

 

[lazy gardener]

Personally, I'd only keep one roo. Even with 9 pullets/hens, and one rooster, he's going to have his favorites, and they may have a lot of feather loss. The best you can do is take a wait and see approach. since you're getting the new birds anyways, see how things develop, and then cull one roo if you need to.

 

[Pinkaboo]

The faverolles roo if its anything like mine will just be like a hen! Very soft and friendly

Mine just hangs out with the girls and the other roos (3) leave him alone
I have 10 hens
And 4 roos
Only the Peking is mating at the moment with his pekin hens and the golden Marans
Don't think he'd dare try anything with the copper Marans !
And the legbars are too young

 

[Peeps61]

My experience with Ameraucana Roosters is that they are mean as snakes and very protective of their hens - favorites or not. I would see how they interact and treat the hens. Hen treatment is most important. If one of them is nicer than the other, keep that one and cull the other. One rooster is a handful - why have two? I would not have two that didn't behave and act kindly to the girls. Just MHO of course! I currently have seven chicks and one of my Brahmas has turned out to be a rooster. He's a real sweetie though, so I'll give him a chance. The other Brahma is a hen, so if they do reproduce, I can raise full blooded chicks!

 

[lazy gardener]

My EE roo is so far, a gentleman towards both his flock mates and people. But, I'm watching him with BOTH EYES, and he knows that the crock pot is always available.

 

[Peeps61]

Yes Lazy Gardener, watch him! Mine was fiesty from the get go though. He was about 14 weeks and he came after me throwing those little feet up at me. He was put in his place several times after that. When he finally got through his teenage insanity, he mellowed out a bit, but you still had to watch him. A predator took in him May of this year, and while I don't miss looking over my shoulder, I do miss watching him interact with the flock. I hope my Brahma roo stays nice and sweet. I hear they are pretty docile, but I don't have much experience with Brahmas.

 

[nutmeg259]

Well, I picked the trio up on Wednesday. The Ameracauna Roo is so much bigger than the Favorelles Roo and he's supposedly only 3 weeks older. So far he is not being nice to the little Roo but I guess that's to be expected. He hasn't hurt him, just chases him away every time he comes close. I'm going to keep watching them. I have a Silver Wyandotte hen who is at the top if the pecking order. It will be interesting to see what happens when she meets the Roos.

 

[RoosterLew]

There is no correct answer except as Lazy Gardner said, watch and see.
I have one coop with 9 hens and 3 Roosters. One of the roosters was raised with the hens, Another added as an adult and the third added as a juvenile. They get along fairly well, but the two older ones keep the young one in line.
I have had another occaision where two cockerels that were raised together and were really quite inseparable were great until their first breeding season. That spring the bigger one of the two almost killed his "brother" in a fight over a pretty young pullet.

So you never really know until you try. Of you are going to keep multiple roosters in a small flock, have a back up plan.

 

[skunknchatter]

I have a big ol' BO rooster who is really laid back. He isn't hard on the hens and he isn't aggressive towards me or my 4 year old son who has gone in our coop since he could first walk. We hatched some chicks a few years back and 4 of them were roosters. We ate a few but one of them I ended up keeping. The first year everything was fine. Then the second spring, when hormones kicked in, the new rooster beat the crap out of my BO roo. So the new guy had to go. He went to live with a flock down the street. I still see him out guarding their coop. Anyway...last fall my broody hens hatched one chick. It turned out to be a rooster. He is a year old now and is still in with everyone. He is pretty hard on one particular hen (she's pretty naked now) but other than that I haven't had any problems. From our hatch this year we have one cockerel left that I was unable to sell/give away. So I'll be up to 3 roosters this winter. They will be fine through the winter I suspect but who knows what'll happen when "Spring Fever" hits...