To Keep Roosters, or Not to Keep?

[DesertBird]

You can mix it up with the hens all you want they'll have their own order regardless. You could mix up roosters as well if there were no hens involved. The only reason problems occur with multiple mixed roosters with hens is some breeds have personalities that either give them a huge advantage or disadvantage when it comes to flock placement. You end up with bullies and victims. This happens in hens too but being dead last isn't quite as severe usually.If you just have a rooster flock since there aren't any girls the boys will get along pretty much regardless.

Thank you very much. I was planning on getting a few mixed breeds, possibly Easter Egger's, for a few of the chicks I'd be getting to add more hens to the flock, so it's good they won't be at as big of a disadvantage. If I do get EE's or another smaller breed like that, with RIR roosters, is there more of a chance of the hens getting hurt?

 

[Chickassan]

I wouldn't think so on the rooster scale RIR aren't super big.I would be more worried about the hens working the newbies into the pecking order than i would be about a rooster squashing.

 

[DesertBird]

I wouldn't think so on the rooster scale RIR aren't super big.I would be more worried about the hens working the newbies into the pecking order than i would be about a rooster squashing.

Alrighty, thank you. I have noticed my lower-level hens seem to be more readily aggressive than my more dominant ones in my Barred Rock when they see my RIR's. I should be introducing them soon, but the RIR's are still a bit smaller.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Hello, everyone! I had a question with my little roosters; I've gotten quite attached to them, but I ended up with 3 roos to 11 hens. Is there any way to keep them, or should I rehome 1? Or 2? None of them are breeding yet, but they did start crowing a few days ago, and I definitely don't want them going in the freezer or anything. They would have about 2 acres of ranging space, so space isn't a huge issue, but I know they can stress out the hens. Should I get a few more hens? It was definitely not ever planned to keep roosters in the first place, but my family got attached to them before we knew if they were roosters for sure, and now we're trying to figure out how to keep them. If we do get more, what's the best hen to rooster range? I've seen somewhere it was 6 hens to 1 rooster, so should I get 7 more hens? Currently, we have 6 hens at about 5 months old and 5 hens with our 3 roosters at about 4 months old, so none of them are introduced to each other yet. Below are some pictures of the three roosters.

First Rooster:
View attachment 1096631 View attachment 1096632 View attachment 1096633


Second Rooster:
View attachment 1096634 View attachment 1096636


Third Rooster:
View attachment 1096637 View attachment 1096638

Good looookin' roos!

 

[DesertBird]

Good looookin' roos!

Thanks! The first one definitely knows it, and likes to strut his stuff all day. Doesn't let me forget he knows he's pretty, and likes to pose for the camera.

 

[aldarita]

I am in the same situation. My broody hatched 7 chicks last May and 3 of them turned out to be cockerels. I have three chicken yards now, each one with a fence, coop and run. I decided to keep the cockerels but separated them from the hens and pullets when they were 10 weeks old. They are by themselves now and seem to be doing very well so far although the hormones have not kicked in yet. My plan is to keep them in their own yard if they are human friendly and don't cause too much trouble. I have been reading a lot about roosters flocks and some people have been successful in keeping them that way. I don't plan to add any more so at this point I am crossing my fingers for this plan to work out.

 

[DesertBird]

I am in the same situation. My broody hatched 7 chicks last May and 3 of them turned out to be cockerels. I have three chicken yards now, each one with a fence, coop and run. I decided to keep the cockerels but separated them from the hens and pullets when they were 10 weeks old. They are by themselves now and seem to be doing very well so far although the hormones have not kicked in yet. My plan is to keep them in their own yard if they are human friendly and don't cause too much trouble. I have been reading a lot about roosters flocks and some people have been successful in keeping them that way. I don't plan to add any more so at this point I am crossing my fingers for this plan to work out.

Good luck! I'd love to hear how it goes! How old are they now? My boys seem to already have there hormones kicking in a bit at almost 4 months, and they're definitely testing out their crows as much as they can. I haven't been able to build a new pen yet, so mine are still with the hens, but thank gosh they're not breeding yet. I don't think the hens could handle that, considering it's a fairly small pen; our last one got totally demolished by a huge storm that blew through, and we have to remake it for them.

 

[lazy gardener]

I would eliminate all but one roo, and only keep him if: you want to breed your own chicks, you have a cull plan in place to deal with the approx. 60% of cockerels that you will hatch in the future, you have plenty of space for current flock and space as well for any chicks you hatch: (a minimum of 4 s.f. in coop and 10 s.f. in run per bird)

 

[aart]

I've heard 3 bird(females) flocks are better than just 2.
I've never heard the 3 males are better than 2, what's that story??

When considering adding more females to accommodate multiple males,
make darn sure you have enough(extra) housing to fit them all comfortably.

It's usually better and simpler in the long run t get rid of the extra males,
hard as it may be. Chicken Math must almost always include subtraction.

 

[DesertBird]

I would eliminate all but one roo, and only keep him if: you want to breed your own chicks, you have a cull plan in place to deal with the approx. 60% of cockerels that you will hatch in the future, you have plenty of space for current flock and space as well for any chicks you hatch: (a minimum of 4 s.f. in coop and 10 s.f. in run per bird)

I don't currently have any plans to breed, luckily, and probably won't for another year or two. They're moreso pets for me, that just happen to help me out with a cooking ingredient. I'm building another extra coop, too, as ours has roughly the minimum space required (with about enough space with 2 extra chickens) but I'd like them to have some extra room, so it'd probably be sized for about 30 chickens in it with us only putting 20 in. The current one will most likely be used as a quarantine, or for the 3 roo's on their own. I've been told a big doghouse would work for the roo's/for 3-5 chickens, but that seems a little on the small side to me.

I've heard 3 bird(females) flocks are better than just 2.
I've never heard the 3 males are better than 2, what's that story??

When considering adding more females to accommodate multiple males,
make darn sure you have enough(extra) housing to fit them all comfortably.

It's usually better and simpler in the long run t get rid of the extra males,
hard as it may be. Chicken Math must almost always include subtraction.

I definitely would not ever get more chickens than I could handle (feeding, housing, protection, etc.) so that's not a big issue for me, as I have it planned out as best I can (thank gosh!). But I suppose it would be way easier to get rid of the extra males; I've been trying to refrain from holding them, naming them, etc. to avoid getting further attached. Not so sure it's working.