Around this time of year, many of us find some of our spring chicks are starting to crow. Chickens hatch out percent male and percent female, so if you hatched your own chicks or ordered straight run, chances are good you have some roosters in the flock.
At first it is tempting to keep your roosters. Young roosters that have been brought up together usually do not start fighting right away, nor are their amateur attempts at crowing too loud or annoying. But come spring, the scene on the farm will often change. Most farmers recommend hens per rooster.
This ratio is flexible depending on your rooster's libido and size. Why do you need to worry about too many roosters? The first answer is fighting in the flock.
A rooster's mission in life is to protect and procreate, and they will see any other males as a threat to their ability to continue their bloodline. Roosters will fight each other to the death if necessary, and they will sacrifice themselves fighting off potential threats to their hens.
You may think that roosters only crow to greet the morning, but that is false. Roosters crow sun up to sun down, and if one guy is calling the rest are certain to answer. For this reason, many towns and cities specifically outlaw roosters on the homestead. Too few hens to roosters also brings up the problem of over-mating.
Roosters are not sympathetic to their ladies and will continue to attempt to mate even after they have scratched up a long-suffering hen's back.
Even with only one rooster, if he doesn't have enough hens to spread his affections to, he may cause damage to his harem. It is not impossible to keep multiple roosters. As for myself, I started carrying a Super Soaker water gun every time I went in the pen. It has kept Cogburn at bay, but occasionally he needs a reminder. Skye flogged me once, about a week ago. Establishing the human-chicken pecking order is critical, but even then, some birds just never give up.
They both take really good care of their girls, though! Hi, I have 4 older hens and 2 roos. They are really taking a toll on my girls so I would like to seperate them for a while. I was wondering if keeping the roos away during the day only would be enough. I just got more chicks so I would like to keep both roos, but need to keep them away from my older girls! You might have some tension in the evenings before they settle down, but try it out and let us know how it goes!
I have a bantam cochin frizzle Roo, and a French black copper marans Roo confirmed. But know a suspect frizzle bantam Roo growing. I have 12 hens. Will this be ok? I hate to choose who to get rid of! That means two roosters is too many for only 12 hens, much less three.
I ordered 25 hens and one rooster. I ended up with 24 hens and 3 roosters. They free range all day, with not many episodes of rivalry.
They are very inquisitive. I love to watch their antics. Will they become more trusting as they mature? Anyway, within the 3 rooster pecking order, there is definitely a top dog, a Buff Orpington, who watches over the entire flock. He will come and check me out but runs if I move at all! Also, what are your thoughts on the humaneness of removing spurs. Hens seem to calm down and get more friendly once they reach maturity.
If they are friends with you when they are young, they can come to see you as a rival as they get older. Sometimes it can be difficult to recognize the difference. As to spurs, all my own roosters have their full spurs. But blunting spurs is not a terrible idea in some situations. I have 2 Easter egger roosters I need to find a home for.
Anyone interested? HELP I have 6 hens about year old. I decided last may I wanted more chickens so I bought 2 silkies and 2 frizzles and I thought I would get all ladies but wound up with both frizzles are roosters and 1silkie is a rooster. My 2frizzles do good together with all the girls but my silkie rooster seems to fight with both of the other boys. Any suggestions???
Any suggestions will be very helpful. I want to raise and maintain a flock of Chanteclers. They are great for my region.
Please let us know how it works out for you! My own flock hovers closer to Thanks for your article, it answered several questions I had. Specifically, the fact that I have 6 or 8 roosters to a total flock of about 60 chickens. The rest including the cockerels are just over a month old and are growing nicely.
If I am reading your article correctly, I should keep 5 or 6 of the roosters for a flock that size, and get rid of the others. Also, you satisfied my concerns that my roosters are growing up with the flock is a good thing. This is only my second year raising chickens, and so far, I love it. Great article!! I am expecting an order of 33 chicks in 22 diff breeds from mcmurray the end of the month i like a mix of breeds for variety.
I ordered all hens, except for 3 which are roos. I found this page buy googling if my 3 roos would fight if raised together with around 30 hens.
My reason for purchase — My husband and I met in elementry school, married in highschool and have been married 18 years this December. We have 5 children ages So as you could imagine, it takes A LOT of eggs to make breakfast! Thankfully we dont have eggs every morning so I thought 30 hens would be good. Since my first question was answered, I have another….. How likely is that to happen ordering from mcmurray? As u know, hens cost more. Am I going to get roos instead of the hens i specifically bought and if so, will they correct it or am I just stuck with them?
Thank you. Just went ahead and explored your site and now wishing I found you b4 i made this years chick order. My chickens are free range. They are 5 month old jersey giants.
Some of my roosters are starting to get little nubs where their spurs? Tonight 2 of them were fighting, usually they fluff their necks jump around a bit and the loser runs away, winner struts, the end. This time the winner chased the loser, who decided to hide in the coop, and cornered him and was attacking him when I arrived to save the loser. There was a small amount if blood. They are free ranged on a large rural farm and often go to the neighbors she likes to watch them , so there is no lack of space.
There were no hens nearby. Is this just an overly aggressive rooster or is there a way to fix this without butchering soon. That typically happens about this age, too. Or rather, there may be a tentative pecking order, but as the hormones come, some of your birds will want to test their place. It is not especially common to have serious injuries from fighting when there is plenty of space and plenty of space at feeders, waterers, on roosts and no hens around. Chickens can be jerks just like humans can be!
You might check them for external parasites like mites, or internal parasites like worms. We got our first chickens in April of this year. They were about a week old when we purchased them. They are 3 beautiful bantams. Two of them turned out to be roosters. They are now about 6 months.
We then hatched 8 other full-sized chickens unsure of the breeds in June. They are now about 4 months old. We discovered last week that 5 of our 4 month old chickens are in fact roosters. We knew they looked like roosters but I had tried my hand at feather sexing them when they were a few days old and thought they were all hens.
I guess I need a bit more practice!! We knew for sure last week when they started crowing that I had made a mistake. They free range in my front yard during the day and all go into the coup together at night. The coup is an 8 X 8 building that my husband built.
I have seen a few scuffles, though. My biggest concern is that one of the big roosters is going to do some serious damage to my bantams if they start fighting.
The bantams were raised in our house until they were 2 months old then moved outside to a large hutch they free ranged during the day and went in the hutch overnight to protect them from predators since they were still a bit small for the big coup. We raised the other chickens in our home for a month before moving them to the outside hutch.
Of course, since they free range all day and only go in to perch at night, the coup is plenty big enough. If anyone has any suggestions for solutions other than giving them away, please let me know.
I will greatly appreciate any help with this matter! Thank you and God bless! Your hens are going to be very stressed; stress can make them more vulnerable to illnesses, and can also reduce the number of eggs they lay.
Low-pecking order roosters will sometimes hang out near the feeder to try to catch a hen unaware, so hens may eat less and lay less. They need MORE to make up for the damage to their feathers. Our recommendation would be to separate your extra roosters into a different enclosure, and locate that pen away from your main one.
We have 6 hens and 4 cockerels. At first we had 6 — two cockerels and 4 hens which got at the same time. Anyway all was fine for about a year. Now the younger one of the younger cockerels is now fighting the to cockerel and seems to have usurped its position. This has led to the no 2 chicken now fight the previously no 1 cockerel.
Now the no 1 cockerel is running away from the pack and staying on its own. That means that now that the head rooster has been deposed, his former underling is also trying to prove he has a higher rank than the old leader.
Make sense? That said, with so many roosters and so few hens, your hens are fairly likely to get injured from overbreeding, in addition to the risk to your roosters.
Remember, ideally you want to have one rooster per each 10 — 12 hens to avoid infighting and injury from over breeding. As per point number one the blog post, you need about hens per rooster.
If you mean to keep all your roosters, you should have at least 30 hens. Or you could consider keeping your roosters corralled separately. Take another look at the suggestions above to determine which works for you best. We have 3 roosters and 6 chicken.
Would a single chicken be in any danger only being with one rooster?? Yes; one hen with one rooster would likely be overbred. Feathers on her back and head are likely to get broken and pulled, and she may get injured. As I mentioned above, typically you want 10 or 12 hens for each rooster.
The roosters got along until the older one molted in early spring. He was getting picked on then so we separated him for awhile to let his feathers grow back without getting plucked by the hens. Now the younger rooster chases him away from the flock. Luckily, no injuries beyond an occasional spot of blood if a peck to the comb gets through the skin, but feel sorry for him being alone in the far corner of the run all the time.
Run is about a quarter acre and occasionally let out to free range on 2 acres. Any ideas for encouraging them to get along? We already tried separating each in the back half of the coop for several days and same result. It sounds like they have plenty of space, and plenty of hens. Make sure there is also plenty of space at feeders and waterers. And make sure the one getting picked on is not ill. Getting him feeling better should solve that problem.
If no one is getting seriously injured, they may just be showing off a little to try to attract the bigger harem. We have one two year old Silkie rooster, who had been bullied by others presumably roosters in his previous home.
We are wondering whether a young rooster of a docile breed, such as Orpington, would potentially be a good choice? Locally there is a 5 week old Orpington cross for sale. Or should we not be concerned about our Silkie being lonely?
Chickens are flock animals and usually will be much happier and healthier with other chicken company. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to make the introductions. Be sure to give them plenty of space, and plenty of time to get used to one another! I would also recommend getting another bantam, since your Silkie is a bantam that way the feeder can be at a good height for both.
A bantam Orpington could be a good choice, certainly, but another Silkie rooster could be a good choice, too. Hi there! We have had a young pair of bantams, one hen and one rooster, free range in our yard for a couple of years.
They all seemed perfectly happy. Does the 10 hen rule not apply to bantams? They always have beautiful plumage. We have no fences so the chickens have unlimited range. The 10 hen rule applies to all chickens… but it is a rule of thumb, not a law of physics. It depends on breed, individual personality, space and so forth. Since you have unlimited space, that always seems to help, since the hens can get away if they need to.
If the girls are getting too much attention, you would likely notice it in their plumage—on their backs and on top of their heads. You can, of course, try to keep one of your upcoming roosters. Just go in with your eyes open that there may be problems, and have a back-up plan. With so few hens, they may fight.
This will probably start occurring as the young rooster is reaching maturity which will depend on breed, but roughly 5 months. In most cases when there is plenty of space there will just be scuffles rather than duels to the death, but birds can still get hurt, so keep an eye out, and have a prepared place to isolate a hurt or aggressive rooster if it comes down to it. Best of luck! A good list not only for keeping roosters but for good flock management.
Number four has not worked out for us, twice. A young rooster, raised with the flock, has waited til he was old enough months to kick the older roosters butt—in the last case, a gentle, 7 year old rhode island red twice his size. Not an ideal situation, but how long can a rooster live?? Sorry to hear that! It just helps. Still, there are plenty of jokes out there about heads butting at family gatherings. Most backyard chickens live 5 or 7 years… but they CAN live to be 20 or so.
But it is the way it works for them. Best of luck and many sympathies! I have 4 almost 4 month old roosters and 1 hen of the same age. I purchased them straight run from my local Tractor Supply, and this is my first time raising chickens.
They are currently in a large dog crate within the chicken coop and I let them free range in shifts. I know I will not have enough hens to fix my rooster problem and I do not want to purchase any more , and I have contacted several rooster rescues groups in my area with no luck. No one is able to take them. And honestly, I am very attached to them. They run up to me when they see me coming in the yard and are very tame. I am not comfortable listing them on Craigslist.
So, my question for you is, since my boys were raised together from Day 1, if I were to build a separate coop we live on 3 acres on another part of the property that is fenced in and would be separated from the hens, would the roosters coexist peacefully together?
Or would they still be aware that there are females nearby? How would I round them up in the morning and force them into individual quarters? That seems impossible and quite time consuming to round them up and separate each rooster every morning! Any suggestions would be immensely appreciated!
I agree about the difficulty of trying to gather the boys into separate daytime enclosures. Your resource was probably thinking about the importance of having a communal roosting space in the winter cold… but I think having the roosters together in a separate area should be enough. Just make sure their area has plenty of space for them, including plenty of space for roosting, and at feeders and waterers. Hey, I found this blog in an internet search. We just began raising backyard hens again and a friend of ours gave us our current flock of two hens and two roos.
They are about two months old now and were raised together. The other roo is grey. When we got them the grey Stormy was the head roo, but that has switched and the other roo Beau is now the head. For now they are kept in a large dog kennel at night and then I let them free range in our backyard during the day. So far all of our birds tolerate being held. My eight year old rocks Emma and Lily to sleep or swings with them in her lap.
The roos let us all hold them and pet them as well. Thanks for the tips! We got 5 chickens in May and they were about 10 weeks old, so about 23 weeks old now. We thought we got 1 boy and 4 girls but definitely have 2 boys and one of the 2 silkies looks much larger than the other so now we are worried we have 3 boys and 2 girls. We have had no problems until last weekend when the female bantam had her neck pecked bare and bloody in one day. We have used anti peck spray and she has not been pecked again but she feels very down.
We are now trying to figure out what the next best step is, either re home 2 of the boys, or have 2 separate pens, one with 2 boys and the other with a boy and 2 girls. Any help would be massively appreciated!! At that age, just coming into maturity, their hormones are running high, and their instincts are telling them to assert their dominance. Some roosters can be quite gentle, but others are jerks. So carefully choose the rooster you want to keep with them. As humans, we tend to want to choose the lowest on the pecking order—the underdog, the one who is getting picked on.
Hi, thanks for all the great advice! I have trouble, 1 golden Wyandotte rooster and 1 arucana rooster for 15 hens all raised as chicks together. They are now 5 months old and I notice the arucana rooster is getting chased away with a bite on the back so he spends a lot of time roosting to stay out of the way.
Thanks for the help! Hopefully, I can help. If you ave two roosters, one will always be the king… and one will always be scheming to overthrow him.
Chickens prefer kings to oligarchies, and hierarchies to egalite. Is there plenty of room at feeders and waterers? You also mention bloodshed… but has there actually been any, or are you just worried? If no one is getting hurt, then you may have to just get past your discomfort at the way a pecking order works in a chicken flock. Good people value compassion and kindness. You may be able to breed them! Usually this will be a minor skirmish but if you have territorial and aggressive breeds this can lead to the death or serious injury of the cockerel.
In the wild roosters live harmoniously in bachelor groups — the key thing here is that there are no females around. These roosters will get along together very well and do not seem to mind the situation at all. The key to harmony is giving them enough space! Each rooster should have at least 8 square feet of run space. Once you have taken a rooster out of the bachelor pad for longer than 24 hours, reintegration is not recommended as they will fight.
If you have to put them back together then use a new run and put the new boy in first followed by the others. Young cockerels that have feathered in can be put in with the big boys and they will have to sort out the pecking order for themselves. Separate compound enclosures work extremely well or you can mark out certain areas on your land for each flock to free range in. Roosters will stop petty hen squabbles from escalating to something bigger and he will make sure that all of his hens are fed and watered.
A flock of hens will stay together and the head hen will assume rooster duties however she does not seem to keep the same harmony that a rooster does. A good rooster will sound the alarm call loud and clear and give the flock time to take cover or run for shelter.
If the danger is something small like a snake or a weasel some roosters will attack it and kill it. Another great benefit of keeping a rooster is that he will scout around the yard for tasty treats for his hens.
It is his responsibility to find food and water in the wild and this behavior still exists today in our domestic backyard flocks. Finally if you want to raise your own chicks you will need a rooster to mate with the hens. Raising your own chicks can be much more rewarding than buying them at the store especially if the hen does it. A rooster in his prime should be kept with hens. However if you put him in a flock of 20 or more hens he will still consider them all to be his and be possessive about them.
For the exact hen to rooster ratio refer to our table here. However the exact answer will depend on your breed of rooster and the relationship of other roosters to him. A good rooster will care for his hens by finding tidbits, standing guard and sounding the predator alarm. If you are able to maintain a good rooster for a couple of years your flock will benefit from the continuity of leadership and by extension so will you.
Understanding his role in the care of your flock will help you to get along well enough with him. Transporting your chickens can be an anxiety ridden event for you and your birds. However it does not have to be that way.
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