What to do with these three roosters

[bobbi-j]

And that’s how you do it. Watch, observe, cull as you see fit. I currently have a one year old rooster, and two 7 month old cockerels. The rooster and last year’s pullets (12 of them, now mature hens) live in one coop, and the cockerels live in another one with 21 two and three year old hens. The cockerels were a complete surprise. They were hatched out in October, and both looked to be pullets going into winter. Admittedly, I hadn’t spent much time with the chickens since going back to work in the fall. In December, the rooster of that coop died unexpectedly. DH found him dead under the roost one morning, no obvious signs of illness or injury. In February, he called me at work and said, “Did you know there was another rooster in that coop? I just heard it crowing!” When I came home, I looked and saw that not only was there one rooster (cockerel), but his hatch mate is also male! So far, they seem to be getting along. One is obviously dominant over the other. I wondered how things were going to go when enough snow melted to let both coops out to free range. I was a bit worried that Big Red - the one year old - and the dominant cockerel would fight. So far, they each have their harems and go their separate ways. If it stays that way, great! However, I am prepared to get rid of any or all of them if there is fighting, or if any become human aggressive. I have small grandchildren who like to help pick eggs, so I will be watching them closely.

 

[MrsNorthie]

Hello there fellow chicken farmers,

The backstory first,

I started with my first three chicks back in April of 2021. I loved taking care of them and watching them grow up into nice laying hens. In september 2021, I had a racoon get into the run and kill one of the chickens. I was very upset and sad. First chicken lost. I trapped all the local raccoons and took them out the forest. So i got more chicks. Springtime of 2022 I have 8 hens and getting good amount eggs. I didn't get many eggs during the winter so I decided to add some barred rocks to the flock. I lost 3 more chickens to buffalo gnats, two to two foxes, and one to a hawk. I decided to get more chickens and some roosters for protection. My wife's cousin has red island reds with roosters. So i got some fertilzed eggs and incubated them. I got 4 hens and three roosters. My total flock count is now 20 chickens total. 17 hens and 3 roosters (cockerels).

So the 7 had hatched out of 8 eggs in the middle of september. The three roosters are now about 20 weeks old. The four hens and 3 roosters are integrated with my flock. I figure the older hens would keep the young roosters in line. Around week 16, the roosters started changing their behavior towards all the hens.

Rooster number 1,

He is the most dominate rooster, he began going on a mating spree and was getting rough with the hens. One hen he really likes, he even chicken dances with her before mounting, she got her wing damaged and have to separate her from the flock because they are cannibalizing her exposed wound. What is interesting is that she wasn't laying any eggs for about 4 weeks, now she is laying again. I guess she was being stressed by the rooster. So i also decided to put him in the dog cage to keep him away from the Hens. I am getting more eggs now with the other hens. He just was an oversexed young rooster. The hens were not agreeable to that. The one thing that is strange before I locked him up, the younger hens would like to be around him, when he would get on a rooster bar, he would have two to four his RIR sister hens hang out with him. So he may not be all bad.

Rooster number 2,

He didnt bother the hens at all while rooster number 1 was ruling the run. Now that rooster number one is locked up, he wants to mate. He also is crowing which he didnt when rooster one was with the flock. Both roosters are crowing in the morning. Rooster one is still the loudest. None of the hens are interested in him either, he doesnt dance for them yet. He doesnt mate as frequent as rooster number one, but he does. Many of the hens fight him off, sometimes he wins and gets to do his thing.

Rooster number three,

He is very tame, doesnt mate at all with the hens. The hens sorta of shew him way when he walks by. He is the only rooster the hens let roost on the top bar, rooster one and two were always with the few hens on the lower bar. His comb and waddles are large but not as large has rooster one and two's waddles and comb.


Also, none of the roosters attack me, nor do they attack each other. They do ruffle up their feathers and do staring contests, but that is the extent of their violence at this point.


Which one should I keep? I like to keep two, but one would be fine as well. I think rooster three would be a good rooster, but not sure if he would be a good protector. Rooster one and two, might be good protectors because they are aggressive but that could get worse. Also, none of the roosters share food with hens yet. They race for it at this point.


Any help on this matter is appreciated and will answer any questions,

Thanks,

We ordered 10 hens and 10 lucky dip, because they wouldn't let us get 19 hens and a rooster. We ended up 10-11 males. We ordered 30 more hens, figuring we could even out the numbers but, we hit some issues at week 16. Cockerels are obnoxious when they hit puberty. It started to get violent and we just could not separate them enough so that no one got injured and ended up having to make a hard choice and cut it down to 3.

We chose to keep these 3:

1. Goldie - the one that always fought off the other cockerels when they pounced on a hen, but was never dominant,

2. Blue Boy - the one that just walked away from the fray and preferred to be alone as opposed to fighting, and

3. Spud - the one that was super friendly with us.

Once the dominant cockerel and the other more violent lads were removed, There was still some issues and I was really close to saying, no more cockerels when we hit wk 18, and they seem to have sorted themselves out. Blue Boy has become the dominant and the hens seem really comfortable with him. Goldie seems to have settled into the number 2 role, still protecting the hens if there is an rough stuff, but mostly sits on the periphery. Spud is still sort of still occasionally, challenging Blue for the throne, but Goldie keeps things from getting carried away.

Getting rid of a dominant may not solve an issue, as someone has to be dominant, but I think that puberty is just really rough in the chicken world. Now that we are at just over 18 wks, they seem peaceful, so either puberty is nearly over. I think Goldie and Spud will both be great flock leaders when the other hens are ready to be integrated.