Too Many Roosters.

[winterwolf4]

We have 23 chickens total in the big run, now. 14 laying Hens and 5 younger ones. 4 roosters are left. left.

Now we had 28 chickens originally out in the big coop and we added 3 more.
I am sorry that the math is confusing. We have gotten rid of 8 adult chickens and added 3 seven week olds yesterday.

We have 33 total chickens but 10 are under 1 month. We will see how many hens we eventually have. We plan to keep the 2 older roosters.

Overall we have gotten rid of 8 chickens one way or another. Originally we had 41. Now we have 33.

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

Overall we went from 41 chickens to 33.

 

[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.

 

[ChicFil- A]

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.

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

 

[BarnyardChaos]

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

Depends on the roosters and on how many hens are in the flock. If the ratio is right, and the boys learn to get along or are raised together, there can be peace. I have four in my flock with 37 hens, but am seriously considering culling one troublemaker. The two eldest get along fine, the third is a fraidy-cat but minds his own business. I might have to cull him, too since he's having trouble getting any of the girls to hang with him.

 

[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.

 

[ChicFil- A]

Depends on the roosters and on how many hens are in the flock. If the ratio is right, and the boys learn to get along or are raised together, there can be peace. I have four in my flock with 37 hens, but am seriously considering culling one troublemaker. The two eldest get along fine, the third is a fraidy-cat but minds his own business. I might have to cull him, too since he's having trouble getting any of the girls to hang with him.

The older roo probably trash talks him so he won’t even try to get next to the ladies

 

[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.

 

[ChicFil- A]

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.

Kneeling! yes the younger roo will kneel in a submissive kneel just like the hens do when they’re about to mate when the older dominant roo is in play.
I can see where someone may need more roosters, I’ve heard a rooster can service as many as 10 hens. This is just a thing I read
Chicken behavior is amazing.

 

[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.

 

[winterwolf4]

My husband and I decided to get rid of both cockerels this mornjng.

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.