two coops and one run with two roos

[wildorchid053]

i have two roos and not enough hens.. planning on getting more hens in the spring.. i have a large run 12 x 30 but the coop is only 8x8.. enough for now... i would like to add a second coop at the other end of the run and the group of hens and the two roos go into where ever they want at night.. would this work? they are all together now and they all free range when i am outside to watch . 3 hours a day.. it seems a couple of the hens like one roo and a couple of the other hens like the other roo. was wondering if they would take their "harem" into one coop and the other roo take his ladies to the other..

 

[write2caroline]

I am curious too! I would put money down that one roo will take all the girls and dominate over the other roo. Somehow share and share alike is not in chicken sensability. I will keep watching this thread!

Cal
Jax FL

 

[silky ma]

My silkie roo doesnt seem to mind having a brother arround, its the girls that get mad and ticked off and try to run the younger one out of dodge. I would just see who likes who and separate them now
so you dont have any problems when they both mature.

 

[wildorchid053]

i have RIR and they are laying eggs.. just starting but when one roo mounts the other runs and gets in between them to break them up so if i get more hens i was hoping they would each get enough girls that they could sort of set up camp in different houses. both open to the same run and they could still be a group during the day

 

[paparootzi]

Quote:
I agree. When they start fighting, they'll even fight through a fence and cause injuries. I even heard one fought to the death through a fence! You may need to divide your run and put something in between so they can't see each other (I use tarp around my fence that touches where another rooster is)

 

[Marlinchaser]

Since they are together now, and not fighting I would leave it be. You have to train chickens what coop to go to, if you just add another coop, you will still have all of them going in one coop, and one coop sitting empty.

Doesnt matter how many hens you have anytime a hen gets mounted the Head Roo will come running.


If you seperate them now, you will have to have them seperate from now on, its hard to reintroduce a roo once he has been removed from the core group.

 

[paparootzi]

I guess it depends on what breed you have. The first roos I got were from a guy that kept letting his hens hatch out eggs and whenever the roos would get so big, they would start fighting and some of the poor things had both eyes pecked out and would just sit there and I would take food and put it in front of them and they would go crazy eating it but they were just "sitting ducks" for other predators so I told him to go shoot the poor things and put them out of their misery. So, I took 3 from him and kept them seperated until I found someone that wanted to get a roo and a couple of hens. (That left me with just one, which is best so I didn't have to worry about it)

But I've had some hatch out 6/1 and the adult roo doesn't bother them NOW but I've caught the 5 younger ones starting to act "cocky" with each other so I just want to get them seperated out with a couple of their favorite girls they hang with and get them in their own pen BEFORE I come out and find their eyes pecked out!

I'm working on that now.....
I just keep adding more "mini coupes" that are large enough for them to scratch around in with a couple of hen boxes in it to lay their eggs, some perches to perch on at night, and a door to get in. It's not as big of an area as the main coupe and run that the majority of my chickens get to live in but at least they aren't going to get a chance to fight. (and they are in the company of their favorite girls!)

 

[chickiedoodle]

I am guessing the lack of hens may be your biggest problem. We have two roos, but 30 hens. The roos seem to have figured out some kind of arrangement because I have never seen them fight and have seen both of them mate the girls. They all live in the same coop.