when do you replace an alpha rooster?

[Gonda]

thanks very much, everyone, for your words of advice and wisdom. I fretted about this potential buyer all day, because I just didn't feel good about it. I wished that I would hear him say "they'll have a good long life, we want them for our ladies" (as opposed to soup). Anyway, I came home from work and found another email, from a girl saying "we'd love to buy your roosters for our hens" and when I called her she said "they'll live here til they die, all our animals die of old age here". So, the little buddy and his brother have gone to a good home, I'll sleep easy, and the hens can have a less stressful life again.

And Mr Red (alpha) can rest easier also, although he didn't seem too perturbed about these two young upstarts. He's fairly laid back, just dashes out now and then to assert himself.

But, back to my original question: how do you know when to replace your alpha? When he gets grumpy, or seems less active, I guess? And then, if I have a young one or two at that time, how would I decide which to keep? The young ones tend to be picked on by the adults. I noticed that these two that I sold now backed off pretty quickly if a hen wanted to take their place at the food bin. Do you just pick one and wait for the pecking order to re-establish itself? I guess you'd have to make sure the alpha is out of the picture first. Or, does an alpha just back off eventually as it ages and does it let a young one take over?

 

[big medicine]

Depending on the breed and or personality of the players involved, it will usually end up as the old alpha staying in power untill one of the upstarts can take him in a fight. Once that happens the new king may allow the old king to remain relatively unmolested, but most often the winner will try to drive the loser away, or possibly try to kill him. Some breeds tend to be less pugnatious(Brahmas) than others(Cornish) and are much easier to mix and blend flocks seasonally. I raise Brahmas, extremely mellow and laid back birds, right now I have probably a flock of 80 birds, old and last years hatch, maybe 15 of which are male, all running together untill I make my final cuts and seperate into breeding pens. Once I am done keeping hatching eggs for the year, I will turn all the old birds loose into a common yard. I keep an eye on the roosters for the first half hour or so as they sort things out, then everybody falls into place and life goes on. You could not attempt this with most breeds, especially any with any game heritage. One year I had my previous #1 and #2 ranking roosters in neihboring breeding pens. They had been talking smack through the wire all spring, the fact that the main guy cannot get to the lower ranking males tends to make them much braver and less polite, so I knew I would have to keep an eye on these two when I turned them out. It was a pretty even match, but #1 prevailed. While they were sitting there resting, a lower ranking male saw an opportunity and jumped into it with the triumphant, but spent, #1, and bested him, there by establishing himself the new alpha male. With my Brahmas once rank is re-established things calm down and everybody goes about there bussiness, but I doubt you could get away with that with most flocks.

As far as picking a replacement male, that all depends on the purpose and direction of your breeding plan, if you have one. You pick the new male that posseses the traites you want to emphasis in your flock, be it build, color, production, personallity, or all of the above. As to when, as soon as a youngster exceeds the old male in the traits you are breeding for.

 

[Gonda]

This chicken raising business is not for the faint hearted, I'm learning, when you have roosters in the flock and raise chicks. With each hatch there are usually a few roosters and each time there are decisions to be made. I find that by about 21-23 weeks, I'm having to sell the young roosters, but I make that decision because I'm concerned by then about the hens who start to show signs of fatigue, running to hide. I haven't had any issues with fights between males.

However, if you have an aging king, and you want to allow a young rooster to take over, at what age would that occur? So far, the young ones are kept in line fairly easily by the alpha and there aren't any fights. They back off at the food bin, they get away with mating (it's done by the time Mr. Red dashes out to intervene). So I've never seen a fight yet, where it seems a young one is trying to establish dominance. I've on occasion noticed that a young one was crowing by about 20 weeks, but that soon seemed to stop, with no sign of a fight. If I kept a young one with the intent of letting him take over, would that fight (if it happens) take place later than 21 weeks or so?

I do normally have two roosters, the alpha RIR and a lovely cochin who waits his turn at everything, but does get what he wants (food, water and a moment with the ladies now and then, it seems, as we have some offspring that have the feathers on the feet). Those two have things sorted out. I hope that it doesn't turn into a fight to the kill one day. Do you think it might, between those two? I can't see that happening, as the cochin just isn't the fighting kind, and Mr. Red seems to be able to keep things under control without a fight. So hopefully those two will just age alongside each other gracefully.

 

[big medicine]

It could take years, and it might not require old age to take the old boy down. An injury or sickness may be enough of an edge for a new king to take over.

 

[Gonda]

thanks again for your insights and advice. We'll see how things go then. It's good to have a bit of an idea of what to expect and what to be aware of.

 

[Baralak]

Well in relation to an earlier post, I enjoy hatching out chicks, as most of you already know. I informed you of my rooster sunshine, well today, I sold out of chicks, and I got a call right before I was leaving. It was a gentleman that was seeking chicks for his family. I could tell he really wanted some, so I told him that have some 6 week old mixes. He said that he wanted them all, and of course I DON'T ASK what they are going to do with them. Well he showed up with his family, and I could tell that they really wanted to Raise chickens, so I sent away my little BYC's and they loved sunshine.. so He has gone to live with them and his friends/sisters/brothers. He wants more chicks for his mother, and his friend. So I guess I better get the bator fired up. He was just interested in BYCs.

 

[tammyd57]

How long do you keep a healthy, active alpha rooster?
Until he is no longer a healthy, active Alpha rooster.
The older roo you have is a known quantity, he is old enough to be very sure about his good temperament.
With a cockerel, no matter how much he "loves" you now, could become Mr. Flognspur when he reaches adulthood.

 

[Gonda]

Yes, it's easier to see the wisdom of giving up the young friendly rooster now, in retrospect, now that he's gone to a good home. I did not want to give up my alpha rooster, he's the stable, wise man in the flock, and I would have had many 2nd thoughts about parting with him at this stage. But I was struggling with a decision, and a few people suggested that maybe I should keep the young one and give up the older one. It didn't seem wise to me, at this time, but I thought I'd ask the question: when DO you replace an alpha rooster. I've had some great advice here, which will help down the road when it's time to consider that question perhaps, and I thank you all!

 

[NFlaGator]

All very good rooster information. Thanks everyone.

 

[Gonda]

After all this, having found the two young roosters a good home, agonizing over giving up my little friend and his brother, a month later my whole flock, except for my 2nd in rank rooster, the friendly Cochin, are dead, killed by a dog who broke through the run. The wonderful gentleman RIR is dead, as are 11 hens. The cochin is alive and is eating and drinking, but his back is quite mauled and he can't seem to stand. And if he survives, he's going to have the whole place to himself. Amazing, that he's the only one who survived. He was always the one in the flock who had to back off and wait his turn at everything. It looked like he and the RIR were the only ones who put up a fight, and in the end, this little man survived. I guess, true to form, he backed off instead of fighting to the finish, unlike my friend Mr. Red. Probably the dog thought he'd killed the cochin and left him for dead.