Two roosters!

[Chick1043]

About 16 weeks ago I got 4 baby chicks! Two of them were female bantams, I dunno what breed. The other two are roosters, not bantams, I dunno the breed. Is it alright to have two roosters living together? Or should I get rid of one.

 

[NYRIR]

With only 4 chicks....I'm not sure I would keep any roos at least without saddles for the hens.Bantam roos can handle up to 18 hens....LF roos can handle 8-12 (sometimes more)...just realized the hens are bantams and not the roos...not sure on that one as my LF roos have LF hens to mate with so they leave the bantam hens alone...not sure in your case...

 

[Chick1043]

Well actually all together I have 10 chickens. So do I or don't I need to part with one?

 

[NYRIR]

Quote:
You have 10 chickens? How many are hens? I would only have one roo to ten hens...I made the mistake last year of keeping too many roos...they all seemed to be getting along so i thought it would be ok...well now i HAVE BALDING HENS UNTIL THEY MOLT!So all extra roos are gone from my laying flock...I have 3 roos to 37 hens...MUCH better.
ETA: If you kept one roo separate then you could switch them out...but I personally wouldn't wanna keep one lonely roo

 

[mmaddie's mom]

I wouldn't with so few hens... add more hens.

I keep 2 bantam roos with about 30 bantam hens.

 

[Chick1043]

okay thanks!

 

[Mommysongbird]

This is a good question and I am glad you asked.

We now have 7 chickens 2 are roos for sure (jury is still out on another) then we have 4 pullets (jury duty again). The 2 roos we have seem to get along fairly well and seem to have 'split' the pullets to breed (?).

One of our roos is a white leg horn (I have been told this, not sure) and 'his' pullets are another white leg horn/EE mix and 2 black something or others??

The other roo is an EE and seems to have taken over an EE pullet and her 'brother/sister'.

They are all in 1 coop/run. I don't have room for another coop or run.

 

[Chick1043]

Wow! That's like the same problem I have!! Well, I guess it's not really a problem.

 

[mmaddie's mom]

Quote:
Since you aren't sure yet if they are hens or roos, I have to assume that they are all pretty young (at least not full grown)... as they reach maturity, then the problems start. I had two roo brothers do just fine until they were about a year old then all he** broke loose... lots of blood, serious blood... sent one brother to the sale barn... hated doing it but flock is much more calm now. I have found that when one roo is the offspring of the other that there is less problems with 2 roos... one is definatedly the head roo and has been as long as the younger one has been around. If both are the same age, there will come a day when they will need to find out who is the head roo... not pretty. Best ratio is still 10-12/1. Good luck.

 

[Mommysongbird]

mmaddie's mom :

Quote:
Since you aren't sure yet if they are hens or roos, I have to assume that they are all pretty young (at least not full grown)... as they reach maturity, then the problems start. I had two roo brothers do just fine until they were about a year old then all he** broke loose... lots of blood, serious blood... sent one brother to the sale barn... hated doing it but flock is much more calm now. I have found that when one roo is the offspring of the other that there is less problems with 2 roos... one is definatedly the head roo and has been as long as the younger one has been around. If both are the same age, there will come a day when they will need to find out who is the head roo... not pretty. Best ratio is still 10-12/1. Good luck.

They are 12 weeks old (13 weeks on Monday). There is ONLY 1 that we are still not sure about, he/she is leaning MORE toward HE. The tail feathers seem to be getting longer, but still can't really tell any other way, NO crowing from that one yet.​