Whether you’ve hatched out your own chicks using a broody hen or an incubator, or bought straight-run chicks, or even ordered ‘pullets’ from a hatchery, at some point in your chicken raising experience you may find you have one too many roosters than you were planning on keeping. Of course, having a rooster with your homestead flock does have its benefits, but what about two roosters? Or three roosters? You can always find homes for your extra roosters, but you may also entertain the idea of having several roosters on the homestead. Having more than one rooster on the homestead means you need to learn how to manage multiple roosters so that your flock can live peacefully together!
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Why Have Several Roosters?
Having one rooster with your homestead flock provides many benefits! Having several roosters on your homestead can also provide benefits for both you and your flock. Many times there is the misconceived notion that roosters can’t get along with each other. However, that’s not always the case! Once you understand the main role of a rooster in a flock and learn about how the flock pecking order works, you are well on your way to managing multiple roosters and still having a peaceful flock!
Here are several reasons why you might consider having more than one rooster on the homestead:
- Breeding– whether you are working with one breed or multiple breeds, having more than one breeding rooster is essential
- Protection– having multiple roosters means more eyes watching for predators and more protection for the flock
- Pest Control– if nothing else, multiple roosters help with pest control around the homestead
- Convenience– sometimes you just can’t get rid of an extra rooster, so you may consider keeping him
- Farm Ornaments– some roosters are just pretty to have around and add flair to your homestead
- Meat– lastly, you may consider raising out your extra roosters to use them for providing meat for the table
No matter your reason for having more than one homestead rooster, knowing some management tips for dealing with multiple roosters is helpful for keeping the peace on the homestead! Roosters fight over hens and dominance. Minimize these two factors and you can prevent issues from arising no matter how many roosters you keep.
These 5 rooster management tips are essential to know about when keeping roosters with your homestead flock!
#1. Raise Them Together
Roosters that are raised together form a pecking order right from the get go when they are young chicks and being raised in the same brooder. As a quick review, roosters have a pecking order that is separate from the hens. In the brooder, male chicks will form their own hierarchy system and the female chicks will form a separate hierarchy system.
There will be one dominant rooster who is at the head of the pecking order. All the other roosters are considered subordinate roosters and must allow the head rooster first dibs on mating, food, and space. As the young roosters grow up together, the pecking order may change slightly as hormones kick-in or as certain roosters mature faster than others (which might happen if you raise several different breeds together). However, these changes often happen mildly enough and are settled with sparring events or short-lived disputes.
As adults, the roosters will recognize where they are at with each other as far as status goes, which can help eliminate fighting problems. However, that doesn’t mean that roosters who grew up together won’t fight! If a subordinate rooster thinks he can defeat the head rooster, he might go right ahead and try no matter how long they have known each other.
Keeping multiple roosters that have been raised together allows the pecking order to remain stable and consistent as it has been established from a young age. It can help prevent dominance issues within the flock.
Helpful Tip:
If you are keeping multiple roosters, try to choose breeds that are more likely to get along with each other. Laid back roosters from docile breeds are more likely to get along with other roosters or with high-energy, light breed roosters.
#2. Have Enough Hens
One of the most important things to keep in mind when managing multiple roosters is the fact that you MUST have enough hens for each rooster! The four other tips that I am sharing with you are useless unless you have enough hens for each rooster. Even though a dominate rooster may rule the roost, a subordinate rooster may still choose a few hens as ‘his flock’ and keep watch over those hens.
On average you should have about 10 hens per rooster in the homestead flock. Roosters that are of a heavier chicken breed are often satisfied with fewer hens. Roosters from light chicken breeds are able to handle more hens. For example, a Buff Orpington rooster will be happy with 5-8 hens whereas a Svart Hona rooster prefers 10-12 hens. If there are not enough hens for the the number of roosters in the flock, then the roosters may fight more frequently over the hens.
This rooster to hen ratio also serves to help the hens out too. If there are not enough hens for one rooster or for multiple roosters, the hens will get harassed and even abused by over mating. The hens will become haggard, stressed out, and may even try to hide from the rooster.
Having enough hens for your roosters to watch over, protect, and breed with is essential to keeping a peaceful, stress-free flock! If you are thinking of adding another rooster to your flock, consider if you need to add more hens too.
#3. Free-Range!
Free-ranging helps tremendously when it comes to managing multiple roosters! Not only do roosters like to have their own flock to watch over and protect, but they also like to have their own domain. When not confined to a coop or enclosure, each rooster can claim his area of the yard, which makes for peaceful co-existence.
With access to wide open space, subordinate roosters are able to stay away from the head rooster and avoid conflict with him. A subordinate rooster may even be able to single out a few hens for his own little flock. He can then stick to his own little area without riling up the head rooster.
Free-ranging is a great option for managing multiple roosters who have not been raised together. Of course, the hierarchy pecking order will need to be established initially. Once established though, the roosters can easily stay out of each other’s bubble space when they are allowed to free-range. If a fight does occur, there is at least plenty of space for the loser to get away from the winning rooster.
Free-ranging does not eliminate the possibility of rooster fights, however it does go a long way in allowing each rooster to have his own domain.
#4. Use Several Coops
Using several different coops can come in handy when managing multiple roosters. More coops does mean more cleaning, more feeders, more waterers, and possibly even more fencing. However, if you get a coop maintenance system down, than cleaning multiple coops won’t be hard at all!
Using several coops for multiple roosters allows each rooster to claim his coop. If you have a free-range flock with multiple roosters, you may notice that each rooster will round up his hens into a certain coop each night. Having multiple coops available prevents space issues, much like free-ranging allows each rooster to have his own domain.
If you don’t have a free-range flock, then you can still use multiple coops, however, each coop should have its own enclosure. Basically you will have several different flocks consisting of a rooster and his hens. Each flock will get its own coop and enclosure. This method works well if you are breeding several different chicken breeds or have an extensive breeding program with one breed.
Keeping each rooster separate with his own hens will prevent fights from occurring. If you want to free-range the flocks, then allow each ‘mini’ flock to free-range at different times to prevent the roosters from coming in contact with each other.
While more coops does mean more work, multiple coops does make managing multiple roosters much easier!
#5. Separate
Lastly, you can always separate the hens from the roosters. Having a hen flock and a rooster flock is functional if the roosters are not allowed to see the hens. Roosters fight over hens. When there are no hens to fight over, roosters will create their own flock with a dominate rooster as the leader.
Having a rooster flock can give the hens a break from having a rooster around all the time and it also gives you more flexibility with managing multiple roosters. Keep in mind that if you remove a rooster from the rooster flock for breeding, he may need to be integrated into the hen flock or re-integrated back into the rooster flock. Changes in the pecking order will occur, however, they don’t have to be major when integration is done correctly.
When you have both a rooster flock and a hen flock, you will want to make sure they stay completely separate from each other. Each sex should have their own coop and enclosure. If you free-range your chickens, allow the roosters to free-range separate from the hens.
The Basics of Rooster Management
Managing multiple roosters doesn’t have to be difficult! The basics of keeping multiple roosters involves these essentials:
- enough space for each rooster
- enough hens for each rooster
- and proper introduction to each other
Roosters need to establish a pecking order before they can peacefully co-exist together. Once that is established, each rooster will know his role in the flock and everyone can get along when the pecking order is respected by all members of the flock. Having multiple roosters on the homestead can be helpful and beneficial! Manage them properly and you should have a happy, healthy, and stress-free flock, no matter how many roosters are present!
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by Alexa
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