Two roosters

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Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
Lots of people quote the 10 hens per rooster guideline. That is really the number of hens a rooster can reliably keep fertilized. The rooster will still have his favorites that he will breed more than the others and they will show signs of his affection.
I have 10 hens and one rooster. Two of my hens have small bare patches on the base of their backs. Three others show rough feathers in that spot. The other 5 are in near perfect plumage.
I have 14 pullets and a cockerel that are nearly 11 weeks old. I am expecting that the cockerel will be knocked around quite a bit by the hens and the rooster when the hormones start flowing. It's rather the way of things. Hopefully it will not get bloody.
My flock is kept in a large coop (8'x12') with 23' of roosting space and a large predator proof run a (12' x 28') where the pop door is always left open. They are let out into a 1/4 pen in the morning. This gives lots of room for evasion.
If your birds are confined in the coop for any length of time after they come off the roost and before you let them out, things could get ugly if the cockerel can't get away from the rooster when his hormones kick in.
But these are all generalities. The flock dynamic and the personalities of the males will determine if they will work out a compromise and exist in relative peace. A few more pullets may help.
Cross your fingers.
 
:welcome :frow The older male may try to bully the younger male especially with females in the mix. I hope you have a plan B. I hatch out a lot of chicks every year. There comes a time when I take the males out and put them in bachelor coops and pens before they start competing for the females. As long as there are no females and they have been raised together they are ok . Good luck and have fun.
 
Hi and welcome to Bacyard chickens!
Your coop sounds nice and big, but your chicken yard will be more peaceful if you only have one rooster.
I had one instancrre when i had two roosters, one standard and one bantam. The bantam stayed in the roost section of the coop in the mornings until i let them out. Then both roosters went there separate ways with their harem of girls. You see one rooster will be dominate and the other Will always have to watch his back.
Welcome to the backyard!
 
I agree with the others that is unlikely 6 hens for 2 roosters will be sufficient.

As to leaving them together, it depends on personalities.

A good mature rooster will gently integrate the pullets in with the mature hens and keep peace for everyone.

Where trouble will likely develop is the younger rooster. I have seen that go both ways. The older rooster, if more intolerant, may make life miserable for the junior.

But I've also had junior make life almost intolerable for the whole flock, raging with hormones.

I suggest getting more hens if you want 2 roosters, then carefully watching personalities. Two roosters CAN get along, especially if the younger one is raised within the flock and cheerfully accepts his junior role and the older rooster cheerfully accepts a benevolent senior role.

Otherwise, someone likely needs the soup pot or a bachelor pad. I am of the mind never keep an aggressive rooster, aggressive either to people or flock members. You don't want to breed from that.

My thoughts.
LofMc
 
Hello Andrew1423.
Welcome to BYC.
I see some of the ladies have been regaling you with rooster prowess stories.
I'm never too sure what people mean by over-mating.
A lot is going to depend on your roosters and the conditions you keep them in. Generally two unrelated males confined is going to result in fights. Only one of those roosters will mate regularly with the hens because the senior rooster will drive the junior away so this idea that two roosters will mate the hens twice as much is nonsense.
Next, as @DobieLover above mentions, your roosters will have favorites and those hens are who he will mate with most. Two to three favorites is usual. You could give him 30 hens and you are still likely to find two or three with some feather damage through regular mating.
You can keep a 1:1 ratio successfully. That is how nature has arranged the relationship between rooster and hens. If it were otherwise one would expect only one in ten eggs hatched to be male.:p
 

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