Two roosters?

[Midlandchick]

I have 9 hens and two roosters (they are all 16 weeks old). Is it a bad idea to keep two roosters with only 9 hens? (I started out with 12 roosters. I just sold ten. I was going to sell all twelve but my son wanted to keep two of the roosters as he became attached to them.) I am now regretting that. I am worried they are going to fight. Suggestions?

 

[Folly's place]

This might work out, or not. If they are all young, one might turn out to be the better bird, and the other one may be less than wonderful in some way, and then you do have a keeper on hand.
Two cockerels are likely to harass the pullets too much, and again, one might be a nicer boy than the other.
I generally keep an extra for a while, and see how things play out. If you aren't planning to raise chicks from your flock, neither are necessary.
Mary

 

[Roo5]

Very few hens can cause issues amongst the boys, but it really depends on the boys themselves,They May get along but will likely overbreed the hens.Maybe look into purchasing 10 more pullets.

 

[Mrs. K]

IMO - yes, it has a very high probability of not working out, and ragging your pullets to pieces. Brothers can get along, but generally they will fight. It can get very violent.

Personally I would only have two roosters if my flock was between 25-30 hens.

Roosters are so outgoing as chicks, brave and confident, and what seems to be loving. However, they have no fear of humans because the humans have been kind and generous to them. In chicken society, that as interpreted as fear, often times these darlings become the nightmare as in human aggressive.

At 14 weeks, I imagine you are beginning to see problems or the possibility of problems, hence the question. You are right, unless you have a very large coop/run set up, and are considerably lucky, this is not going to work.

If this is your first year with chickens, I highly recommend an all hen flock. Roosters take some experience, and roosters raised with just flock mates tend to outgrow the pullets and become bullies, eventually trying to bully humans too. If your son is under 6 years of age, he could take the attack in the head.

I would get rid of these two roosters too.

Mrs. K

 

[Rietta]

watch closely and see what happens. Every rooster is different, I have a friend that free ranges has 30 hens and each rooster has his own group. I have nine hens with a rooster and 7 pullets with a cockerel in different runs and I couldn't imagine them together.. they get supervised free range due to high coyote activity. They don't even go in the same coop at night! I keep the best and eat the rest My main roo is a superhero!

 

[Folly's place]

I've also found that 'friendly' in cockerels is actually 'bold' and often becomes human aggressive. If this is your first year with chickens, you are likely to miss the signals that human aggressive cockerels are demonstrating, until there's an actual attack. If your son is short/ young, he's likely to be hit in the head, or worse yet, an eye.
Good roosters are wonderful, bad boys, not so much.
Be ready to act if things don't go well.
Mary

 

[ZooAtHome]

I have 9 hens and two roosters (they are all 16 weeks old). Is it a bad idea to keep two roosters with only 9 hens? (I started out with 12 roosters. I just sold ten. I was going to sell all twelve but my son wanted to keep two of the roosters as he became attached to them.) I am now regretting that. I am worried they are going to fight. Suggestions?

I have a flock of 12 that has been raised together, two of which are cockerels. Only one was supposed to be male, but we all know how that goes.

Anyway, they are now just about 16 weeks old. So far, my two guys are doing fine together. There has been some minor posturing, but the two cockerels roost together and this morning they sang the song of their people as a duet. They actually seem to share guard duty, which is something I never expected (taking turns resting vs keeping watch). There has been no violence at all ... yet. I do realize this could change at any moment, but thus far things have been good.

Each boy already seems to have his favorites among the girls and only one has caught the eye of both of them. One cockerel is already trying to mate, but most of the pullets aren't ready or willing yet and just run away from him. The other isn't even showing interest at all ... again, yet.

I guess the point of all this is that I am in a similar situation and have opted for a wait-and-see approach for now. I don't feel the need to make any changes until there is actually a problem. That said, I did build a split run, just in case at any point I found it necessary to separate the chickens for any reason. Should things suddenly get nasty, I have a way to keep the boys apart until a more permanent resolution can be decided upon.

I would suggest a similar plan for you. Figure out a way to build a second, smaller shelter or section off part of the run or whatever will work in your specific circumstances BEFORE you need to do it. Then hope you never actually have to. Good luck!

 

[Mrs. K]

Excellent point^^, with roosters a plan B ready to go is a good idea.