Roosters

[Builderbee]

In December someone gave me a bantam chick which turned out to be a roo. I had gotten a couple of silkies, a satin and a serama/silkie mix to keep him company( before I knew he was a roo). Two of the 5 are definitely Roos and it appears the satin and one silkie are also Roos (growing combs and wattles). I am planning to get a few bantam and silkie hens now (ordered) but now that I have 4 Roos I am thinking about making them a separate flock. I do have a small flock of standard sized chickens but I have a large yard and was wondering if it’s possible for the Roos to live together peacefully if there are hens nearby? I would hate to get rid of or cull them
just because they are roosters. Thanks in advance. FYI they are currently living together in my garage as it was too cold to try and get them outside in the middle of Maine winter.

 

[azygous]

It may work out. Or it may not. It depends on their personalities if they get along or not. You'll find out when the hormones begin to flow. It would help to know the ages of these roos. They could already be hormonal if they're five months or older.

 

[Mrs. K]

Azygous is right... it depends on a lot of luck. I think you are in the wishful stage of I hope they just all get along. Often times with roosters that won't work. You need a plan B set up and ready to go.

Instead of thinking of it as I have to cull them just because they are roosters, try and think, let me give them a real good life, and one quick moment, and use them.

Adding a new coop/run for rooster is a considerable expense, and there are no guarantees that it will work. Even if you set it up, there is a strong possibility that you will need to remove some of them from that set up. They don't call it cock fighting for nothing.

Do know:

• how roosters are acting today, is no indication how they will act tomorrow
• raising birds together has very little to no impact on them getting along either with too many hormones or in over crowding situations.
• Some roosters fight once, and settle it, some fight, quit, and fight again another day. Some fight till one of them dies.
• The more roosters you have, the greater the chance you have of it not going well.
• Roosters take considerably more space than hens

Mrs K

 

[Builderbee]

It may work out. Or it may not. It depends on their personalities if they get along or not. You'll find out when the hormones begin to flow. It would help to know the ages of these roos. They could already be hormonal if they're five months or older.

I am not 100% sure but the bantam was supposedly born in October so 5-6 months, started crowing in December, the Satin was fully feathered in December (6-8 weeks)so maybe about 3-4 months and the serama/silkie is about 6-7 months based on what I was told when I got him. The other silkie is a hen (no Comb or wattles) was just about 6 weeks end of December, so maybe 3-4 months. They are all living in my heated garage (60f)in a 7 x 3 foot cage I made. I won’t be able to get them outside until it starts to warm up. I plan to start reducing the heat slowly at the end of this month so I can get them out as soon as possible. I am concerned that they will start fighting before I can get them out into a coop and run. I have a plan in place to move the silkie hen to her own cage if necessary and I am hoping I can find a another one to keep her company soon. I can divide the cage I made (I had the bantam and satin on one side and the silkie and serama/satin on the other side for a while as I didnt get them all at the same time and the silkie roo and satin kept going at each other at first.

 

[Naisha]

I agree with all that. I had two boys and they seemed to get along well with each other and the hens, but one day they started being mean and it was a mess. They didn’t fight, but the hens were so stressed, they chase the hens, chase each other, pecked on each other (not with a lot of ferocity but still). We had to rehome them. I’m pretty sure the new owner used them for food, I can’t do that so I’m grateful that at least someone else took them.
You could be lucky, who knows. Having a plan b just in case it doesn’t work is a good idea.
I personally won’t risk getting chicks or young chicken, even if they’re super cute and it must be wonderful to raise them from that stage, I prefer to make sure I don’t have more roosters.

 

[azygous]

Are you set up at present to free range your chickens? On nice days, you could let the roosters out to free range and that would go a long way toward giving them space so they won't gets stressed from continued confinement and start fighting. Over crowding almost always results in chaos and conflict.

Until I had a run available for my two roosters, I simply free ranged them to keep the peace, and then they would go into their sleeping quarters at night.

 

[aldarita]

Having roosters together in a relative peace is like winning the lottery. Some people are extremely lucky but unfortunately it doesn't happen often. I was one that hoped I could have my three beautiful SS roosters living together. It worked for a while until one day I found them all bloody (they had been fighting). Needless to say, I had to cull them. I swore never to put myself in that situation again. Now I only buy one day old pullets and so far (touch on wood) they have been no roos.

 

[Builderbee]

Are you set up at present to free range your chickens? On nice days, you could let the roosters out to free range and that would go a long way toward giving them space so they won't gets stressed from continued confinement and start fighting. Over crowding almost always results in chaos and conflict.

Until I had a run available for my two roosters, I simply free ranged them to keep the peace, and then they would go into their sleeping quarters at night.

My free range is covered in a couple feet of snow at the moment. I have built a bigger coop for my standard size flock, though the interior is not quite done so they are still living in my small mobile coop. I also have a fenced in area inside my fenced yard for garden and cat hang out. I was thinking if my roosters can live peacefully I could move the small coop into the garden area and I have an old green house that I plan to repurpose the frame into a fenced in run (cover it in hardware cloth and add a tarp to the roof). I could let the Roos roam the garden area for part of the day and the cats can have it the other part.

 

[Builderbee]

Having roosters together in a relative peace is like winning the lottery. Some people are extremely lucky but unfortunately it doesn't happen often. I was one that hoped I could have my three beautiful SS roosters living together. It worked for a while until one day I found them all bloody (they had been fighting). Needless to say, I had to cull them. I swore never to put myself in that situation again. Now I only buy one day old pullets and so far (touch on wood) they have been no roos.

I didn’t plan for Roos and generally get auto sexing chicks or pullets. The little bantam was so cute I couldn’t resist, I should have stopped at one more for company but chicken math got me, so now I have Roos.