The Aloha Chicken Project

[Fire Ant Farm]

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Also - I don't know if it is typical - but two of my friends kept ALL the Aloha roos and had no issues.

My friend Jessica, she had like 10, and I was like, um, you don't have to keep ALL the boys - ha ha - but she lets them free range and likes having them around.

Everything is OK there, to this day. They are all about 2 years old now.

Hmmm.... Something to consider.

But I DO have at least two roosters that don't tolerate other males very well (they have their own families). So I can't do this in my whole flock, perhaps in the sub flock, though I have to keep in mind the well being of the girls. I only have one rooster with the NN flock because it was super hard on the girls as they were still maturing to have three in there (7 girls) - they were harder on the girls because they were competing with each other. Easier on the girls once they were separated...

Rooster management is going to be a long term puzzle to solve over and over again, I suspect...

- Ant Farm

 

[Kev]

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[HEChicken]

Ant Farm, for what its worth....my experience with roosters has been that raised together they get along fine. The only time I've had an issue was when I had a mature rooster and tried to bring in the mature German NH rooster I was planning to use for my part of the project. The existing rooster was intent on killing the NH and it didn't let up no matter what I did to try to get them integrated. After several weeks I was looking at keeping one of them penned all the time, or eliminating one of them. As the dominant rooster did not have the physical traits I was looking for, for his breed, he was the one to go in the stew pot. That left the NH rooster "in charge" and I then raised some of his sons and also brought in a new rooster chick of another breed to raise in the flock. I've never had another issue.

I currently have four 2-year + roosters, three 1-year roosters and several cockerels all co-existing with no drama. There is a pecking order for sure and the younger cockerels have to be quick if they want to breed at all, but there isn't any fighting.

A few weeks ago I separated my NH hens into a pen with one of my NH roosters, in order to get some purebred eggs to hatch. Poor guy. When I let him out, he had to re-establish his position in the flock. There were minor scuffles on and off for a few hours and then it was all settled and it has been peaceful ever since.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Ant Farm, for what its worth....my experience with roosters has been that raised together they get along fine.  The only time I've had an issue was when I had a mature rooster and tried to bring in the mature German NH rooster I was planning to use for my part of the project.  The existing rooster was intent on killing the NH and it didn't let up no matter what I did to try to get them integrated.  After several weeks I was looking at keeping one of them penned all the time, or eliminating one of them.  As the dominant rooster did not have the physical traits I was looking for, for his breed, he was the one to go in the stew pot.  That left the NH rooster "in charge" and I then raised some of his sons and also brought in a new rooster chick of another breed to raise in the flock.  I've never had another issue.

I currently have four 2-year + roosters, three 1-year roosters and several cockerels all co-existing with no drama.  There is a pecking order for sure and the younger cockerels have to be quick if they want to breed at all, but there isn't any fighting.

A few weeks ago I separated my NH hens into a pen with one of my NH roosters, in order to get some purebred eggs to hatch.  Poor guy.  When I let him out, he had to re-establish his position in the flock.  There were minor scuffles on and off for a few hours and then it was all settled and it has been peaceful ever since.

Very helpful!

Edit to ask - how many pullets/hens do you have to go around? Per boy...

 

[alohachickens]

Very helpful!

Edit to ask - how many pullets/hens do you have to go around? Per boy...

It really depends on the rooster! I have found a very ambitious rooster can handle 12 to 15 hens with no issues.

Then, there is my gorgeous lazy slacker here, who has been having problems. I had him with 10 hens and maybe only 1 in 6 eggs was fertile - and that's being generous? It was pathetic. I now have him in a smaller pen (less room for the hens to run away) and with fewer hens (only 4) and the girls are the tiny "old school" Alohas that are the Leghorn size, easier to mount.

It took a full month before I realized how pathetic this rooster was, because it takes that long for the old roo's DNA to clear out, so I only discovered how bad it was over weeks of candling. I'm currently right in the middle of that process with these itty bitty girls, so I don't know if the smaller pen is working, or if these girls will eventually be laying blanks as well.

Total bummer, because he was the roo I was most excited about using this year. He's a huge Sussex, a Buff Sussex and Speckled Sussex cross, so he carries spots but is also big and light in color.

The (very few) chicks that I did hatch from him? They are looking AMAZING! I am hoping that there will be a couple of his sons with a higher libido.

Anyway, moral of the story: Always keep a back up rooster, or two, because you could run into predator issues, fertility issues, etc. And they tend to not get super aggressive until they are mating age anyway, so youngsters get along great.

Worst experience ever? When the gorgeous Aloha roo that I'd been saving to breed dropped dead for no reason right at 5 months old. I had not kept a back-up that year. No chicks could be hatched for about 3 months, until the next baby in line was old enough. That was awful!

But at the time I only had one pen that maxxed out at 20-25 chickens and I was trying to keep numbers down. Things got crazy here when I leased out my horse and turned my huge horse barn into the World's Largest Chicken Coop. It holds 50 easily. Plus I have to two breeder pens, where the original pen was, and one small crappy breeder pen that can barely accommodate 5.

I hope to add at least 2 more breeder pens, plus a special grow out pen for chicks in the future. (It never ends!)

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

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I guess I was thinking more along the lines of worrying of having too many roosters per number of hens/pullets in a given group. That's at least one reason I needed to take the other NN boys out of the flock - there were 3 boys for 7 girls, and it was SUPER tough on them. I'm still early enough in this whole chicken thing that I am not awash in girls...

 

[alohachickens]

Hmmm.... Something to consider.

But I DO have at least two roosters that don't tolerate other males very well (they have their own families). So I can't do this in my whole flock, perhaps in the sub flock, though I have to keep in mind the well being of the girls. I only have one rooster with the NN flock because it was super hard on the girls as they were still maturing to have three in there (7 girls) - they were harder on the girls because they were competing with each other. Easier on the girls once they were separated...

Rooster management is going to be a long term puzzle to solve over and over again, I suspect...

- Ant Farm

Room usually impacts how many you can keep as well. Jessica lets her boys free range the entire 2 acres, because she has a livestock guardian dog and no major predator issues. The hens can stay near the "Mr #1" rooster and he will keep harassment by other boys to a minimum.

If the hens and roosters were all trapped together in one coop - it would be totally different!

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

By the way, at two weeks the babies are showing their speckles! I'll get photos when I weight them tomorrow...

- Ant Farm

 

[alohachickens]

I guess I was thinking more along the lines of worrying of having too many roosters per number of hens/pullets in a given group. That's at least one reason I needed to take the other NN boys out of the flock - there were 3 boys for 7 girls, and it was SUPER tough on them. I'm still early enough in this whole chicken thing that I am not awash in girls...

Yes, I would recommend only one rooster per 7 girls, and a "bare bones" pen for other boys. It would not need nest boxes (obviously) and since the boys are not as precious as the girls, giving a bit of shelter would be good but you wouldn't need to go crazy on any kind of deluxe set up for a bachelor pen. With no girls in the pen, the boys will probably co-exist even better. By swapping out boys, you could increase your diversity in the chicks.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

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Yeah, I have groups that share a coop. They do get to range in a paddock (not just confined), but not the whole property... I'd like to eventually get to where everyone is ranging together (even if they go to sleep at night separately), but I'm not ready for that yet, logistics wise, in my yard... (I have about an acre.)

- Ant Farm