Two Roosters Together? Need Help Fast!

[barred-rocks-rock]

Hey everyone, some of you may have already seen pictures of my two roosters, ( currently almost seven weeks old ) Cocky and Cosmo. We just built our third chicken tractor, and it will hold 4-5 chickens. I have a pair of Brown Leghorns , ( Cocky and Cluck )and a pair of Australorps ( Cosmo and Cookie ). The two roosters have lived together since they were shipped to my house at one day old. Do you think that they would be alright together? They are great friends, and have never separated from each other. Would they attack?

Cosmo

Cocky

 

[Uppity Peon]

They may have grown up together but if you add girls to the mix there is sure to be some new tension. How bad will it get?

Who knows?

 

[TexasVet]

They'll be OK until they reach breeding age, then they'll start fighting over the hens.

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.CountryChickens.com

 

[barred-rocks-rock]

The Hens also grew up with them. Would that still make it a problem?

 

[silkiechicken]

When hormones take over, doesn't matter where the hens came from or how close the boys were when they were younger. How bad they fight will depend on the birds, and the space they have. If they must be cooped, best to keep just one. I have had mulitples, but they have acres to hide from each other.

 

[jthayerkatz]

I've heard one roo to 10 hens to keep them busy and out of eachother's way. So you either need more hens or less roos

 

[Mahonri]

put the roos in separate tractors if there are hens.

At present I have three roos together and they get along fine... cuz there are no ladies.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Here's something I wrote yesterday on the topic in another thread. Since you are using tractors some will not apply directly to you, but it may help you understand what to expect and what to look out for and it will save me a lot of typing. By the way, I fully agree with Mahonri as to what you should do. Whether it is all the boys together in one tractor or only one boy per tractor with his own hens depends on your goals.

If you want to assure the eggs are most likely fertile, you need at least one full sized rooster for every 10 to 12 hens or at least one bantam for every 12 to 15 hens as long as they are reasonably young and energetic. It can vary some by rooster and by age. You can have lower hen to rooster ratios to be even more sure most eggs are fertile, but this increases the possiblility of other problems.

If your goals revolve around roosters are really neat loooking and have great, interesting personalities, then you can have more. Or if you just want a flock protector that helps keep his hens in line, you can have less. Having more comes with risks however.

You can have problems with more than one rooster. One of them will be dominant. They determine which one that will be by fighting. Sometimes they resolve the dominance issue without one getting seriously hurt and then form a good partnership taking care of the flock. Sometimes it is a fight to the death. It mainly depends on the personalities of the individual roosters but it can be influenced by different things. If the roosters are raised in the same flock it seems to increase the likelyhood they will work out their differences, whether this is brothers raised in the same brood or a male chick raised with the flock, but it is no guarantee there will not be bloodshed. The hen-rooster ratio has a part to play also. The more hens to share, the more likely they will work it out. There is no magic ratio of hens to roosters where there is a guarantee that there will not be a fight to the death. Same thing with space. Thge more room you have, the better the odds an accommodation can be worked out, but there is no magic number.

Another potential problem that more roosters can make worse is barebacked hens. When mating occurs, it is not all that unusual or all that bad for the hen to occasionally lose a feather. Whe this gets to the point that bare spots start showing up, it is getting serious and needs to be addressed. If it goes further and the hen gets wounded, it can be fatal. This can be a serious issue.

Again, there is no magic number where this is not a potential problem. A recent poster had 1 rooster with 18 hens and had some barebacked hens. Some roosters have rough techniques and long sharp spurs, so are more likely to injure a hen. Many times a rooster will pick out favorites and give them too much individual attention. A heavy rooster is more likely to cause this problem than a lighter one. And the more roosters you have, the greater the likelyhood of this problem.

I've seen a few posts on here where people have two roosters and two hens and do not have serious fighting or barebacked hens problems. (editted to add: Consider this unusual. I would very much expect problems with this ratio)) I've seen a lot of posts where the hen to rooster ratio is much higher and they have serious problems. If you have more than one rooster, there will be fighting. The lower the hen to rooster ratio, the greater the likelyhood that you will have serious problems with either fighting or barebacked hens. And when the hen to rooster ratio gets really low, the odds of a problem really go way up.

My personal advice is to keep as few roosters with your hens as you can to achieve your goals. The more hens per rooster, the greater the likelyhood of a peaceful content flock and flock owner.

 

[Bec]

I don't know if free ranging is an option for you, but I have 3 free ranging roosters in my back yard and have never had a fight. The 2 were raised together but are 2 different breeds, when I separated them for breeding purposes, they actually sat next to each other with the fencing in between. The 3rd roo is a son and he causes no problems either. Seems like there is a "pecking" order amongst them and they are fine with it.

In the end, I think it all depends on the rooster, some will fight with other just because they can, some are naturally more docile. Everyone here has different experiences and none will be exactly the same. If free ranging isn't an option , then I would try , as suggested above, one roo in each tractor!

Good luck, I am sure you will find something that works for everyone!!

 

[barred-rocks-rock]

Oh my God im so sad. Cocky and Cosmo along with a brown leghorn hen, three RIR, and 2 australorps just got killed. i hate those racoons.