Roosters getting along

[steelcity]

I started my flock with 2 chicks that were given to me 2 years ago they ended up being roosters I have 6 hens and those 2 roosters. The roosters seem to start fighting now but not bad should I get 6 more hens this spring? Will they help these 2 roosters get along?

 

[Matieus27]

Roosters will always at some point start to fight with barnyard chickens there isn’t much to worry about because someone will eventually back down and run away in the chicken world that makes him the lower chicken on totem pole but once that’s sorted fighting “should” stop

 

[cmom]

Even though you have been a member for awhile but a new poster,

When females are added to the males, they will likely spar some. Not sure how long you have had your females but when you add females to the males one of the males will usually try to be the dominant one. I won't matter how many females you have. When one male mates with a female the other may try too. Watch them. I have had a male kill another male that was in the same coop even though they had been together from hatch and others that were fine. Good luck and have fun...

 

[NoFlyBackFarm]

Females will spar a little bit with the males.

 

[NoFlyBackFarm]

I started my flock with 2 chicks that were given to me 2 years ago they ended up being roosters I have 6 hens and those 2 roosters. The roosters seem to start fighting now but not bad should I get 6 more hens this spring? Will they help these 2 roosters get along?

I have six roosters and they get along okay. Then again I have 33 hens

 

[Ridgerunner]

Adding more hens will not help the two 2-year-old roosters get along and stop fighting. Adding more hens will not stop over-mating, barebacked hens, or anything else like that, especially with mature males like you have. If you really want more hens you can use any of this as an excuse but it's not a legitimate reason.

Many people keep males in bachelor pads, no females around. They usually get along well, not any worse than an all-female flock. But if you add one or 25 hens they tend to fight until they determine who is boss. You say it's not bad, that isn't that unusual but sometimes it can be a fight to the death. You can never be sure what will happen. Glad yours are doing OK.

 

[centrarchid]

I started my flock with 2 chicks that were given to me 2 years ago they ended up being roosters I have 6 hens and those 2 roosters. The roosters seem to start fighting now but not bad should I get 6 more hens this spring? Will they help these 2 roosters get along?

More than one approach can be employed and all require more resources.

I keep bacholor groups to suppress fighting, but that requires at least an additional pen. The bachelor pen setup works best for me when several or more roosters kept. The four, three, and two size groups more likely to have fighting with unacceptable outcomes. More is better. My standard containment involves 10' x 10' dog pens.

Another approach involves penning each rooster with his own group of hens. With chickens I have you can even keep them as pairs without hens being over-mated. The smaller number of hens does not work well on large breeds and those where roosters are selected to be randy enough to breed many hens for hatching eggs. Dog pens like above or 4' x 5' movable (chicken tractors) are used for this.

The third option requires acreage and yard areas most people do not have in a backyard setting. I can run at least four groups of American Dominiques on a roughly 2 acre plot by giving each rooster led group its own roost and cover patches to use. They need natural boundaries they (roosters) can see and divvy up by modest fighting. Sometimes in spring the roosters can try and usurp each other, but you can intervene and do some selective short-term penning to get birds acclimated to boundaries you desire. During this time of year I also have females that want to drift between roosters to find a new home, especially the pullets. A book could be written on that I think.

 

[cmom]

I more or less do the same thing. We have several acres. There are times of the year when I use some of the coops and pens for breeding and other times of the year some as bachelor pens and coops. My pens are rather large. each pen is 60' by approximately 20' more or less. In my breeding pens I have usually 10 females to each male. Some of my coops are for grow-out. My setup is not a backyard flock so I have several coops and pens but it would work on a smaller scale. I love to take pictures and pictures say a lot. Again good luck and have fun...

 

[meetthebubus]

Lots of hens won't stop roo challenges. The girls who are with the roo will stay faithful and run from the other one. More hens will most likely go with the dominant rooster. Imo

 

[cmom]

A few years ago I experimented with flock breeding. I had 3 males in with 30 females. The pens are large enough so all went well.