Too Many Roosters.

[winterwolf4]

We had 28 adult chickens. We had 10 roosters. We ate 1, 5 got sold so we have 4 left.
Two of the roosters are older and we will definitely keep. 1 is the Jungle Fowl and the other one is the white Aracauna.

Now we have the two EE sons left. The one that we thought was really promising has turned into a jerk. We think he and his brother are beating up on our 4 to 6 year old Aracauna.
There are white feathers everywhere.
Do we get rid of the 2 younger ones?

My husband wanted to keep one of the young roosters as a replacement, but now the promising cockerel is beating up on our 7 wk old chicks.

Did we do something wrong by putting the 7 wk old chicks in with the rest of the flock?

Cockerel #1 which the one we wanted to keep also jumped on one of the 7wk old chicks. Is this pecking order that begins or is he trying to kill the pullet.

We have had chickens for about 2 years. The oldest cockerel is about 6 or 7 months old. The younger one is about 5 months old.

Do I get rid of these last two younger roosters? Or do I wait a few days?

The rooster in the back is Cockerel #1.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’ve always heard it not a good idea to keep 2 rooster in a flock, because older roosters are very possessive and will brutally beat the younger rooster until he kneels when the older rooster is in his presence, I’ve also been told it cruel because only one rooster will be the dominant rooster. That makes a miserable life for the younger roo

Kneeling? I don't know where people hear this stuff, probably in this forum. I'm having trouble envisioning how a cockerel could kneel, let alone that solving a problem.

I can't give you any guarantees of what will happen with living animals but many of us can tell you some of the things we've seen. Some typical happenings when you raise cockerels with the flock are that the rooster leaves the boys alone unless they start messing with his hens. Then he chases the boys away until they bother his hens again. Eventually some of the cockerels may mature to the point they challenge the rooster to become flock master. That can be a fight to the death or one runs away and the other is flock master. There can be repeat challenges from the loser or the winner may attack the loser every time they see them. It can be brutal. Or they can reach an accommodation where they work together to protect and fertilize the flock.

Sometimes no cockerel matures to the point they challenge the dominant rooster. They accept a subservient status. Often, if they have room, each rooster establishes a territory out of sight of the other and attracts whatever hens he can. They will know which one is dominant but I would not call that life miserable. Having a lot of room really helps your chances of being able to keep multiple roosters. If space is at all tight it often does not work out.

I firmly believe the fewer males you keep the better as long as you can meet your goals. But too many people successfully keep multiple roosters for it to always be horrible.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’ve heard a rooster can service as many as 10 hens. This is just a thing I read

Dad kept one rooster with 25 to 30 hens and practically all the eggs were fertile, at least most of the time. That was free ranging on a farm. Some roosters can't do that, especially as they get older. Larger breed roosters are less likely to be able to do that as compared to smaller breeds.

That 10-hen thing comes from the commercial hatcheries whose thing is getting fertile eggs. They have found that in a pen breeding situation that they use a ratio around 10 to 1 pretty much assures that all eggs are fertile with full sized fowl. With bantams that ratio might be 1 to 12 or 1 to 15. They constantly monitor the fertility rate and adjust as required. Pen breeding is where you might have 20 roosters in a pen with 200 hens. Another case where they keep multiple roosters together.

You see that 10-hen thing on here all the time saying it stops roosters from fighting or hens being over-mated. It doesn't. Roosters will fight over 30 hens just as fast as they will fight over 1. Hens can be over-mated whether the ratio is 1 to 1 or 1 to 30. A lot has to do with individual personalities. How we manage them has an effect too. We are all different and get different results even if we think we are doing the same thing.

Chicken behavior is amazing.

Totally agree. Chicken TV is usually better than anything on cable, satellite, or antenna.

 

[aart]

I ordered chicks from Cackle Hatchery a few weeks ago. Hopefully a good rooster will come out of there. Any tips on how to socialize roosters so they will be really friendly. We have never had a problem with our roosters being mean to humans, just eachother.

Define "good rooster"...do you want a cuddly pet or a 'flock protector' or a male to fertilize egg s for hatching?

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Nope. He's beating up on the chicks and that's not a good sign at all. Establishing his place in the pecking order with a few pecks and some brief foot races is fine and normal, but attacking and beating them up is a no-no. No good rooster hurts the kiddos; he's supposed to protect them.

Beating up on the old guy is, unfortunately, normal. They plan to usurp him.

I'd get rid of Cockerel #1 since he's the mean one and the instigator. Possibly Cockerel #2 will calm down without his brother egging him on to mischief.

Now I don't know if you "did something wrong" by putting the 7-week old chicks in with the flock. Did you do an integration period of a week or so, with them in a separate enclosure, where all the chicks and chickens could see and talk to each other, but not touch? If so, then you did it right. Seven weeks is the perfect age to do this.

If you just turned them loose with the big flock, it's going to be harder on them and there will be a fair amount of bullying from everyone. They'll get through it in a few days hopefully, with no injuries - and find their place as the big girls teach them manners. Fortunately, at 7 weeks, they're still small enough to run between the big birds' legs and fast enough to outrun them - but not old enough to challenge anyone to a fight. They should be fine.

 

[aart]

How old is too old for a rooster to be breeding? Elvis the Aracauna is really laid back at 4 to 6 years old. However he has put the 8 year old Jungle Fowl in his place.

Impossible to estimate, just like how old a hen will lay.

 

[Shadrach]

We had 28 adult chickens. We had 10 roosters. We ate 1, 5 got sold so we have 4 left.
Two of the roosters are older and we will definitely keep. 1 is the Jungle Fowl and the other one is the white Aracauna.

Now we have the two EE sons left. The one that we thought was really promising has turned into a jerk. We think he and his brother are beating up on our 4 to 6 year old Aracauna.
There are white feathers everywhere.
Do we get rid of the 2 younger ones?

My husband wanted to keep one of the young roosters as a replacement, but now the promising cockerel is beating up on our 7 wk old chicks.

Did we do something wrong by putting the 7 wk old chicks in with the rest of the flock?

Cockerel #1 which the one we wanted to keep also jumped on one of the 7wk old chicks. Is this pecking order that begins or is he trying to kill the pullet.

We have had chickens for about 2 years. The oldest cockerel is about 6 or 7 months old. The younger one is about 5 months old.

Do I get rid of these last two younger roosters? Or do I wait a few days?

The rooster in the back is Cockerel #1.

Rehome the cockerels, both of them. or eat them.
Leave the two elder roosters.

The multiple rooster business when free ranging at least works when the offspring are from the existing senior rooster...in general.
What I've found as have other is that seperate coops for each rooster you wish to keep and his favourite hens works best.
This doesn't mean other arrangements never work but the odds are better with seperate housing. The amount of room one has of course may make this impossible.

 

[NatJ]

Given the age of the older roosters, I can see why you'd want to keep a younger one as backup.

Do you know the genders of the 7-week chicks? Maybe you can pick a new male from them.

I'd get rid of Cockerel #1 since he's the mean one and the instigator. Possibly Cockerel #2 will calm down without his brother egging him on to mischief.

That's what I would do too: butcher or otherwise remove the one who is causing the most trouble, then watch the other one and think hard before making a final decision on him.

 

[Ridgerunner]

We plan to keep the 2 older roosters.

From reading this thread I think that is a good plan.

I have ordered some day old cockerels to come in the mail. Hopefully 1 will turn out to be a good rooster.

Also a good plan. When I add a rooster I either hatch a bunch and keep the best or order a bunch and keep the best.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Any tips on how to socialize roosters so they will be really friendly. We have never had a problem with our roosters being mean to humans, just each other.

Raising them together helps. That's either as siblings or as father/son, even if they are not blood related. But that is not going to solve the problem. They still have to go through puberty.

When the hormones hit the immature cockerels those hormones often take over. The hormones tell them to be dominant so they are ready to fight other males and possibly dominant females. The mating act is an act of dominance, the one on bottom is accepting the dominance of the one on top either willingly or by force, at least temporarily. With immature cockerels that's usually by force. All that mating you typically see with immature cockerels is not about fertilizing eggs, many times the girls are not laying. It's about dominance with hormones out of control. As someone once said, watching them go through puberty is often not for the faint of heart. The fighting and the mating can be pretty vicious. A lot of cockerels literally lose their heads in this phase.

At some point the cockerels can mature enough to challenge a mature rooster. Until they reach this point they typically just run away. Sometimes the older one wins, sometimes the younger one does. This might be a fight to the death or one may decide it is better to run away than to keep fighting. Sometimes one fight is enough, sometimes it takes more. Sometimes you never see any fighting, the older one wins by intimidation.

Often, if they live through this phase, the boys reach an accommodation on how to care for the flock. If they have enough room they might each claim a territory out of sight of the other and collect whatever harem they can. The hens decide which male they like best. They can work out other ways where they stay more together. Each chicken has its own personality, each flock has its own dynamics. We don't always see the same thing.

The only thing I know that can improve your odds of getting through this is to give them as much room as possible so they can run away if they need to. Forcing them to stay near each other does not help. And always have a Plan B in case it doesn't work. That generally means have a place ready that you can isolate one on a moment's notice if you have to.

Good luck!