Rooster Troubles

[Chickassan]

Keep the one you want to keep, you'll be the one caring for him. Myself I don't like penning a single male, solitude isn't good it usually turns them mean especially if they can see the ladies.

 

[Biddybot]

The best solution for the chickens of course would be to get some more hens and set the submissive rooster up with his own little flock, but that means double the work and another coop or at least subdividing an existing coop and I don't know if you really want to do that or even have the space. The fact that your submissive cockerel is already afraid enough of your more dominant one to quit the flock and look for another place to roost is concerning in the sense that you probably couldn't get them to share a flock anymore, even if you added more hens. Once the dominant starts driving the submissive out of sight, out of mind, as it were, and won't even tolerate him hanging around...well, that's different from the odd lunge and peck and simply not letting the submissive breed a hen that goes on between a pair of roosters willing to share duties. A rooster who's lost his confidence and who can't even function as a satellite rooster let alone be the chief rooster's number two, is usually a sad bird doomed to a lonely existence who's likely going to need to be caged to remain safe should you want to continue keeping him anywhere near the other birds.

As for making a choice, should it come to that, there is absolutely NO need to automatically keep the dominant rooster you already have if you like the submissive better. In fact, more often than not, anytime I've had to make a choice between roosters myself, I tend to keep the more submissive birds. Main reasons I do is that they tend to have the kinder dispositions when it comes to being handled--they're already more docile by nature--and they're also often nicer with the hens...not quite as assertive or persistent to the point of being harassing when it comes to mating and such. The olive eggers I just raised this past summer, I wound up with five cockerals and four pullets, and while the top four cockerals quickly became sex-crazed boors as they reached that certain age, the lowest ranking one remained quite immature and babyish for a much longer time, so immature that I was able to safely leave him with the pullets. He's still with the pullets and is now their flock rooster whereas his more dominant, randier siblings and half-siblings are all now living as bachelors...and I don't regret choosing 'the wimpy one' over the others one bit. I also once had two young mixed-breed cockerals, both equally good-looking and virtually identical, and it also came down to behaviour when I made my choice of which to keep and which to send off to roasting school. With those two, I watched one chase the other round and round the house one day until the one being chased got so scared he flew over the fence into my neighbour's yard and that was it--decision made. I went and retrieved the scared, submissive cockerel from my neighbour's yard, then went and got the axe for his IMO overly aggressive, more dominant brother and that was the end of his chasing days. Feel free to chose your own 'nicer' rooster if you want. There's something to be said for choosing for disposition first and foremost.