Roosters

[Folly's place]

Consider keeping the one you like best...
You could try having one out there with the hens, for at least a few days, and then try the other one with the hens, and see who behaves best. It won't be a sure thing, but another way to let the hens decide.
If either, or both are looking at you with any sort of challenge, that's definitely a sign to remove the offender(s).
Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not much into ratios. What works, works. What doesn't, doesn't.

You have one girl that is barebacked. People always talk about over-mating. To me there can be different things going on. One is that some hens have brittle feathers. Even if the boy is very gentle her feathers are easy to break. It is a genetic thing. I once had one boy and eight girls. Two became barebacked so I ate the two girls. Even with the ratio reduced to one to six no others became barebacked. I did not blame the bare backs on the boy.

Sometimes a boy has a bad rough technique. Many grow out of it but younger males especially can have this problem. I think it is a self-confidence thing more than anything else. Instead of being able to rely on their dominant personality to get the girl to cooperate they rely more on brute force. This can cause feathers to fly.

Sometimes two or more boys together can cause competition. They both want to be dominant and are influenced by the other's presence. Sometimes one becomes dominant and will not let the other mate in his presence. When I have multiple cockerels in my flock I usually see both behaviors.

Your boys are 9 months old while the girls are fully mature. Many cockerels are able to act fully mature by that age but some mature slower. It sounds like yours are not fully mature since they let the other hens bully them. That one sounds like the only hen that does not. At some point one of those boys will take over as flock leader. That could mean serious fighting between the boys though that is not a guarantee. It could mean serious fighting between one or both boys and some hens, especially the dominant hen. Some dominant mature hens will hand over the flock to a boy when he matures enough to be a rooster but some will fight and resist. Usually with my flock that has been a relatively peaceful handover but once it involved two days of brutality before she finally gave up and accepted his dominance. I think that was made worse as he was not a particularly strong personality. He had to rely on brute strength instead of the force of his personality.

There is no guarantee that the final flock takeover will be peaceful if you get rid of one of your boys. Mine sure wasn't peaceful that time with just one. But your odds are probably better if you only have one boy.

It is not that two or more boys guarantee problems. Sometimes they work things out pretty peacefully and work well together to take care of the flock. But the more boys you have the more likely you are to have problems. My general suggestion is to keep as few males as you can and still meet your goals.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

If they are both nice roosters, it's fine to keep both, however, two roos in a flock of 7 may be way to stressful for them all. Usually the hen to roo ratio is 8 hens to a rooster, but I have two roosters in a flock of 11 hens. If your girls and/or the roos seem stressed out with too many roos, it might be a good idea to maybe get rid of one or give him his own girls.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

May I share my experience? I had a mature BYX* rooster and a Dominique cockerel that seemed to be getting along fine in my flock of 25 hens. The Dom seemed to be respectfully subordinant .... but he did occasionally try to mate some of the younger hens if he could do it out of sight of the older roo. He seemed to be trying, surreptitiously, to build his own flock. When the old guy caught him at it, he would attempt to thrash him for it, but the cockerel was younger and fast and would slip away. I just watched to see what would happen. Well, what happened was I went out to feed one morning and found the cockerel lying on the ground, dead. The old guy had taken care of the situation the best way he knew how. I felt bad that I hadn't removed the cockerel before it got to that point, but I'd never actually seen them fight, so I was surprised that it ended that way.

* Backyard Mix.
Edited for spelling.

 

[McRaffi Farm]

I have two roosters and nine hens and I used to alternate the days each rooster got to come out with the flock.

I like this idea we have 3 roosters and 11 hens. The roosters being rotated is a great idea. I am planning on having more hens and we are building another coop but for now to rotate makes the most sense.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I like this idea we have 3 roosters and 11 hens. The roosters being rotated is a great idea. I am planning on having more hens and we are building another coop but for now to rotate makes the most sense.

Hmmm. I might like this idea too. But it would mean building another pen....