Roosters

[Tdiaz14]

11 chickens we’ve raised and we ended up with 3 roosters. Can they coexist? We love them all.

 

[Hanathehappyhen]

11 chickens we’ve raised and we ended up with 3 roosters. Can they coexist? We love them all.

If you separate the roosters from the hens they should be fine. Most rooster bullying is over hens and three roosters would also over mate seven hens.

 

[Tdiaz14]

Thank you

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Possibly. Likely, not. But I've had similar numbers that didn't do awful due to outside issues

 

[3KillerBs]

That is unlikely to be a healthy flock ratio over the long term. Not only is it called "cockfighting" for a reason, but the girls would be BADLY overmated as they compete with each other.

How old are they?

 

[Shadrach]

I just don't know where this ratio and seperation advice stems from.
The chickens anscestors managed one to one relationships without any of the issues one reads about about overmating, or ratios.

Adult roosters rarely mate with hens that are not laying eggs.
Hens that do not want to mate are quite capable of evading a roosters advances.
Most game fowl keepers I know who know what they are doing keep pairs.
Many experienced breeders keep 1 rooster to three hens.
I've kept tribe ratios from 1:2 to 3:6 without any of the problems commonly mentioned.

So what's gone wrong when keepers report overmating and rooster conflicts?
Well, it's our fault. If a hen only lays 30 eggs a year then her period of fetility is much less than a modern heritage or production hen. As long as the hen is laying, the roosters is going to try to make her eggs fertile. That's the whole point of mating, to further the species. The hen want's her eggs to be fertile so she doesn't discourage the roosters advances. If the hen lays 250 eggs a year then the rooster is going to try to fertilise all 250 eggs. Hardly surprising the hens feathers get damaged.

Next, there is a world of difference between a cockerels behaviour and a mature roosters behaviour. Cockerels like juveniles from most species will try to mate with anything he can catch. The catching method may well need some refinement and with experience most roosters manage it.

It is fair to assume that males and females within a breed are better matched with regard to size and this makes a marked difference to the damage done during mating.
Confined to a coop and run there is nowhere for a hen to escape to and nowhere for a rooster to go to avoid conflict with other roosters.

Roosters have favourite hens. They do not mate every hen in large groups with the same frequency they do with their favourites.

If one wants to keep multiple roosters then one is likley to have a far better result if they are fully free range and have alternative accomodation, even if that should be up a tree.

 

[Tdiaz14]

That is unlikely to be a healthy flock ratio over the long term. Not only is it called "cockfighting" for a reason, but the girls would be BADLY overmated as they compete with each other.

How old are they?

Hi, they are just 12 weeks old. We’re going to end up having to rehome two roosters. We just didn’t wanna have to do that because we’ve raised them from chicks and we absolutely love all of them. It’s going to be hard to do but it’s a must I don’t want ay of them getting hurt. We’ve gone to great lengths to put them in a secure coop and run, predator safe. We also don’t want over mating occurring. Our intention was to have laying hens.

 

[Tdiaz14]

I just don't know where this ratio and seperation advice stems from.
The chickens anscestors managed one to one relationships without any of the issues one reads about about overmating, or ratios.

Adult roosters rarely mate with hens that are not laying eggs.
Hens that do not want to mate are quite capable of evading a roosters advances.
Most game fowl keepers I know who know what they are doing keep pairs.
Many experienced breeders keep 1 rooster to three hens.
I've kept tribe ratios from 1:2 to 3:6 without any of the problems commonly mentioned.

So what's gone wrong when keepers report overmating and rooster conflicts?
Well, it's our fault. If a hen only lays 30 eggs a year then her period of fetility is much less than a modern heritage or production hen. As long as the hen is laying, the roosters is going to try to make her eggs fertile. That's the whole point of mating, to further the species. The hen want's her eggs to be fertile so she doesn't discourage the roosters advances. If the hen lays 250 eggs a year then the rooster is going to try to fertilise all 250 eggs. Hardly surprising the hens feathers get damaged.

Next, there is a world of difference between a cockerels behaviour and a mature roosters behaviour. Cockerels like juveniles from most species will try to mate with anything he can catch. The catching method may well need some refinement and with experience most roosters manage it.

It is fair to assume that males and females within a breed are better matched with regard to size and this makes a marked difference to the damage done during mating.
Confined to a coop and run there is nowhere for a hen to escape to and nowhere for a rooster to go to avoid conflict with other roosters.

Roosters have favourite hens. They do not mate every hen in large groups with the same frequency they do with their favourites.

If one wants to keep multiple roosters then one is likley to have a far better result if they are fully free range and have alternative accomodation, even if that should be up a tree.

Thank you for the response, very informative. We have a large coop and run and will allow them to free range from time to time but with supervision as we are in the mountain area of central California, and there are several birds of prey, owls, coyote, etc.
I think at this point our best option would be to re-home two of the roosters. It’s just not what we wanted to do but for the sake of the hens and roosters, we think that’s our best option.
Thank you

 

[3KillerBs]

Hi, they are just 12 weeks old. We’re going to end up having to rehome two roosters. We just didn’t wanna have to do that because we’ve raised them from chicks and we absolutely love all of them. It’s going to be hard to do but it’s a must I don’t want ay of them getting hurt. We’ve gone to great lengths to put them in a secure coop and run, predator safe. We also don’t want over mating occurring. Our intention was to have laying hens.

If these are your first chickens it would probably be a good idea to rehome all of them and spend your first year at least with a hen only flock.

@Mrs. K has excellent advice about cockerels and roosters.

 

[Mrs. K]

If this is your first year with chickens - re-home all three of them. Roosters take a lot of experience. Roosters raised with just flock mates, often times become aggressive to pullets and people. Roosters take considerable more room than hens.

It is very nice to start with a hen only flock. Yes, you love the cockerels NOW, but todays behavior is no indicator of a cockerels behavior 6 weeks now. If you do keep him, do have a plan B set up and ready to go.

Inexperienced people often do not pick up on the cues that a bird is about to become aggressive. This forum is filled with posts where the darling became the nightmare. Most people vastly underestimate the violence of an attack until they are in the middle of it.

If you have young children, I strongly recommend letting him go. Children tend to take the attack in the face and head.

Mrs K