Two roosters or a weird hen?

[TheZMom]

Chicken people: I was outside walking around yesterday and noticed that two of my chickens are roo-ing... I knew we had a rooster but is it possible a hen is roo-ing? I feel like if it really was 2 roosters they would be fighting? Theres only 4 chickens in my flock.

What should I do?

 

[Michael OShay]

If you chicken is crowing, it's a rooster. Crowing among hens is very rare and almost always done by a hen who is several years old and has taken up the role of the rooster in a roosterless flock. As your roosters mature more, they will likely begin fighting. I would remove one of them (the more aggressive one) from the flock and get some more hens to go with the other rooster. The recommended ration of roosters to hens is 1 rooster for every 10 hens as too many roosters will become very hard physically on your hens as they mature; over-breeding them, biting and plucking the feathers from their necks and backs, battering them, and potentially, seriously injuring them. The only reason you need a rooster at all is to fertilize eggs for hatching, and 1 rooster can easily handle 10 hens in this regard. Good luck with your flock.

 

[ChickyChickens]

I agree with @Michael OShay !!

 

[TheZMom]

Thisis them.... we got them together March 1 2014... which would make them about 9 months now I guess?

Should I separate into two flocks? Can they live together in the same run with different coops?

 

[Sunshine0235]

Both are roosters

 

[Michael OShay]

Definitely both roosters. Sorry. (

 

[Michael OShay]

Thisis them.... we got them together March 1 2014... which would make them about 9 months now I guess?

Should I separate into two flocks? Can they live together in the same run with different coops?

If you separate them into two flocks. You need to get a lot more hens to go with those two roosters. Again I refer to the 10 to 1 ratio in my first post. It may not be what you want to do, but it's definitely best for your flock.

 

[The Chickens' Maid]

Our flock has done well with (currently) three roosters and 9 hens. Granted, they're all a bit older, but it's worth a shot.
That said, young roosters will be more energetic. One thing we did with two of our boys when they were young was house them together apart from the hens. With no hens, they still fight sometimes, but its more like play-wrestling or mock fighting (think teenage boys). Then, it may be easier to reintroduce them into a flock with hens later when they've already established a pecking order by themselves. That's kind of what we did, although it was not planned. Our boys don't over-mate the hens, and they get along with each other just fine. Although, you will need more than two hens if you try to reintroduce the boys to them. You might also try putting one hen and one rooster together and separating them that way, but it's not necessarily the best idea, since a young rooster can be too hard on a single hen.
I have a couple of articles that I wrote for our roosters, if you're interested. We've certainly done the "not ANOTHER rooster!" bit (7 roosters later - I love my boys!)

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/raising-roosters-to-be-family-friendly
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/...-fighting-and-how-to-care-for-them-afterwards

Hope they work out for you! Roosters can be so fun!

 

[donrae]

It's not so much a matter of the two roosters getting along (although that can be an issue), but the far more important thing is protecting your two hens from being ganged up on and overmated. If your birds are 9 months old and there's peace in the flock, you may be okay, but honestly I wouldn't count on things staying nice come spring when the hormones start flowing. Keeping animals is always a trial and error kind of thing, but it's good to have a contingency plan for housing one or both of those roosters away from the hens. Do you need a rooster anyway? With that small a flock, I'd sure not want to be feeding nonproducing birds, I'd get rid of both roosters and find some good laying hens to replace them. If you're determined to keep them, you can set up a bachelor pad for them to live apart from the hens, one or both.

 

[BantamLover21]

Both are definitely roosters.