Keeping Multiple Roosters in a Flock
by Meghan H
Published September 16, 2019
Do you believe a chicken yard isn’t a chicken yard without a rooster or two? When I first started out in the wonderful world of chickens I didn’t want a rooster. We ended up with a rooster in our original 10 chicks and I discovered roosters don’t only crow in the morning. A year went by and our flock tripled in size, and I realized I wanted a rooster in my flock. I had about 30 chickens with no plans to add more anytime soon, so I brought in an older cockerel to introduce to my girls.
Now a few years later my flock has grown to almost 200 chickens, and at any given time I’ve had 5-20 roosters on my farm. I’ve had some trial and error with this number of roosters, but have learned to follow a few general guidelines so my chicken yard remains peaceful. Here are some tips for keeping multiple roosters in your flock that I find helpful.
Plenty of coop and run space:
If you decide to keep multiple roosters in a flock, you will want to double or triple your coop/run space. The general rule for space per hen is 3 square feet of coop space and 10 sq feet of outside run space. Of course the more space the better, but if your space is limited, these are the guidelines for happy birds. Roosters who are competing against one another in a smaller space, without a place to escape, can lead to someone getting hurt. Having more space available does help out when there is a little fight, so the rooster getting picked on can escape to safety.
Correct ratio of hens to roosters:
Keeping a larger ratio of roosters in your chicken yard can cause unnecessary fighting in your flock. A good ratio is 10 hens for every 1 rooster. Roosters are very protective of “their” hens, and if there are too many roosters in your flock this can cause fighting over another rooster mounting a hen that is not “his” hen. Also, another reason for keeping a larger ratio of hens to roosters, is your hens can begin to lose their neck and tail feathers from being mounted too often.
Keep roosters separate from your hens:
Did you order straight run and end up with quite a few roosters? Or maybe you ordered our fry pan bargain and are raising those roosters for meat. Either way, if you keep these guys separate from your hens, they will establish their own pecking order and learn to coexist. A word of caution though, if you do try to place them back in the chicken yard where there is already a rooster or two, there may be some serious fighting and injuries. They will see the new guy(s) as a threat to their hens and won’t want them interfering.
Introducing a new cockerel to your flock
If you want to introduce new chickens, including roosters, to your already established flock, follow these steps for an easy transition period. First, be sure to introduce the new chickens to the yard over a period of time, where they can see and hear one another but are protected by a fence. The two different ages will establish a new pecking order and the transition will go more smoothly. The second tip is to introduce the new cockerel(s) before they begin to crow and their wattles are red. This will help the new pecking order and the other established rooster(s) in your flock will accept the new cockerel(s) without fighting/sparring.
Remove any aggressive roosters from your flock
I give my roosters a few chances before deciding to find them a new home or purpose. However, sometimes they are too aggressive towards me or the chickens in my flock. Getting chased or attacked by a rooster is not one of my favorite activities, so in those cases they must leave the farm. There are some breeds of roosters that are calmer than others, but just like any other animal they all have their own personalities and those calmer breeds can still become aggressive.
Following these few suggestions will hopefully ease any rooster aggression issues and help transition new roosters into your flock. If you are thinking about adding a rooster to your flock be sure to take a look at our blog on the many great reasons for owning a rooster. We would also love to hear any tips and tricks you have for keeping multiple roosters in a flock, so please comment below!
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We have 15 pullets and 7 cockerels that are about 3 months old. We want to keep one for near future chicks but are wondering if we should keep 2 just in case something happens to the flock like a predator attack one rooster hopefully survives. But worry 2 roosters would be too much for 15 hens. The rest will be placed in a rooster bachelor pad on another piece of property for gardening away from the hens for either culling, rehoming or possible extra backup roosters for the backup rooster, lol. Any helpful thoughts on this would be great.
Also, one rooster I like is a bit bow legged, he is 2 weeks older than the others and is starting to pull some feathers out of some hens and cockerels (hopefully just juvenile hormones). He has the same father as the other chickens but is the only bow legged one. Would he be a bad choice to breed with our hens since he’s bow legged?
Hi Lina. Thank you for reading our blog. My general rule of thumb for rooster to hen ratio is 1 rooster for every 12-15 hens. Since your roosters have all grown up together, two of them will likely get along OK, but it sounds like you are already seeing some excessive feather wearing on the hens’ feathers. My opinion is to keep only 1 rooster with 15 hens, and if something happens to him you have the “backup” property to get another one from.
If you plan to hatch chicks from your flock, I would not select a bow legged rooster as the father. It could be a genetic trait he may pass on to any offspring, just to be on the safe side.
Hello. I have 4 young Buff Orpingtons, one of which turned out to be a rooster. I’m trying to find him a new home bc I only have room for 7 birds comfortably which apparently is too small of a flock for one rooster.
My question: what is the best way to introduce new chicks to the flock? My chickens are a little more than 8 weeks but new chicks will be tiny. Can you direct me to some good sites for information?
Thank you
Hi Michael! We have some great info here: https://blog.meyerhatchery.com/2018/04/adding-new-chickens-into-your-existing-flock/ and here https://meyerhatchery.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/18189358000653-I-Have-a-Rooster-What-Can-I-Do-With-Him
Best of luck!
I have a very small flock, 4 hens and 3 roosters. I know I need to get rid of some roosters or get more hens or both. I think the obvious choice is the rooster that chases all the hens and tries to fight the other roosters. When the flock is out in the yard, the entire flock constantly moves away from him periodically even if he is not bothering them at the time. I really like and enjoy the other two roosters and although they don’t try to fight they do knock each other off the hens when trying to mate. Once I get rid of the one rooster for now, I wanted to put them in a large fenced in garden and have them be out all day. They would still have a coop in the garden to enter at night. But would share the garden together during the day. Is this a bad idea? They already share a coop and small run during the day and at night. They only get let out to roam the yard for about 3 hours in the evenings.
Hi Veronica. Thank you for reading our blog and for asking your question. It does sound as if removing the dominant rooster may be the first step is restoring some enjoyment for you with keeping your flock. If and when you do re-home that top roster, it will change the pecking order within your flock so be watchful for how the other two roosters get along. One of them will naturally assume the lead rooster title.
On letting your flock be in the garden all day, I suggest allowing them to have access to their coop even during the daytime. The hens likely already go inside to lay eggs, and the entire flock needs to have access to it during times of bad weather or when aerial predators fly overhead. It’s not a bad idea to let them have access to a garden as long as they also still have access to shelter when they want it. And of course, as long as you can tolerate the scratching of the earth and dust bathing where you may not want them to do it!
I have a very, very small flock of only 4 bantam hens. My problem is that one of the hens turned out to be a roo. All are six months old. I would like to keep hm, if I could and was wanting thoughts of keeping him in a separate coop still beside the girls. Is that cruel to do or should I try to rehome him all together? Thanks in advance.
Hi Kenny. Thank you for reading our blog and submitting your question. A flock of 1 rooster to three hens is perfectly acceptable. If you decide to keep him in his own separate pen away from the hens, he may eventually learn that this is his way of life. But there are benefits to keeping a rooster in your flock: he helps sort out the pecking order, watches for predators in the daytime, and sounds an alarm call when a threat appears.
Question. I’m going to keep a healthy small flock by circular breeding. It means I would be introducing and taking away a grown rooster from the flock periodically. I won’t go into details. I will choose 3 hens I want new chicks from. Take the single rooster out of the rooster house (three roosters or more living separate from the hens)
I’ll put the three hens and rooster together separate from the flock and let them makes babies. After I’m sure I have a good clutch I’ll send the hens back to the flock and the rooster back to the rooster house.
I really don’t want to torture my chickens with mishandling when breeding. But I have a small property and 20 grown chickens and their young chicks is about all I can handle.
How’s can I go about this task in a effective manner?
I forgot to add I want to do this Without buying new chickens every year.
Hi Dakota. Thank you for reading our blog. What you describe sounds complicated. Roosters are happiest when they have a flock of hens to protect and care for, rather than hanging out in a rooster bachelor pad.
A few things to consider with your plan: 1) you’ll need a small coop with a small run to house the 3 hens and chosen rooster for about 2 weeks at a time to allow for “getting to know you” time. 2) pulling hens from the main flock and giving them an unknown rooster is stressful for all of the birds, including the hens left behind as you will continually upset their the pecking order every time hens get pulled. 3) after you get the 3 hens fertilized by the rooster and return them to the main hen flock, how will you know which eggs are the fertile ones to collect? 4) do you plan to incubate the fertile eggs in an incubator or have a broody hen do it? Hens do not go broody on command, it’s up to them.
Hello! I have a question with regards to coops. I am brand new at keeping chickens. We’ve had chicks now for almost 2 full weeks. They are in a custom brood coop. We have 25 chicks right now of various breeds, to include some heavier breeds such as Orpingtons and some of the lighter breeds such as leghorns. We have one know rooster, a red sex link. The Rhode Island reds are females, as are the leghorns, silkies, and 3 red sex links. The rest are straight runs, so who knows? We have been considering our coops now for the past week for when it’s time to transition from the brood coop to the outdoor coop. We are finding it difficult to find a coop to accommodate 25 – 30 chickens. I don’t have the skills to build one, at least not by the time they will need to move to a permanent coop. Is it ok to have several coops and just split up the flock amongst 3 coops? What is any are the draw backs? Thank you in advance!
Hi Bill. Great question. You can certainly split up the flock and keep smaller groups of them in a few coops. Be aware that they will establish a new pecking order within each group and mixing the groups together may cause some aggression among the groups if they are allowed to free-range all at the same time in your yard.
Hi, I have a rooster that has all his hens bald headed. 13 bald headed hens. Doesn’t this mean he is aggressive? I like him even when he was attacking me like I was a hen. We got him to stop that after a while. But his son is now 6 months old and he will not stop attacking him. I think I need to give him away. Any ideas?
Hi LaDonna. Thanks for reading our blog and for your question. A rooster grabs onto a hen’s feathers on the back of her head to hold on during the mating process. It doesn’t mean he’s aggressive, just that 2 roosters for only 13 hens is 1 rooster too many. They are probably competing for mating opportunities with the hens and are being a bit quick about it, which means the hens’ feathers get pulled out. I would plan on giving away one of the roosters.
I ended up with way too many roosters I don’t want to kill them so who can I give them to
Hi there! I would recommend reaching out to your local 4H, kids often need some for fair. You could also reach out to your local university extension office and they may know of someone who could benefit from them.
My husband purchased a deal (suggested by his friend) of little chicks–about 14 of them–without knowing which would be hens and which would be roosters. Half of this brood turned out to be roosters and half hens, and, he, thinking of them as a group of brothers and sisters, kept them all. We have five acres of land. We have an old barn with very sizeable areas that had been used to house a horse, a pony, and a goat, and in part of that same barn is a 12-sectioned coop area for the hens to lay eggs. Hay bails insulated this barn in the winter, and the chickens were able to leave the barn and peck around in a large fenced area where the horse used to trot. Many of the roosters and chickens made their way out of that area into the back yard and especially in the grass where they were able to find all kinds of bugs to eat. It sounds ideal, but it was not. The roosters would perch on the trusses of the barn and would swoop down with talons onto our heads when we went to fetch the eggs. The roosters would create a pecking order (raising chickens must be the origin of the meaning) so that there only some roosters and their harem of chickens able to eat the feed, and the other chickens and roosters were left out. When those outliers tried to go for the feed, they were attacked mercilessly. The bald tracks left on the poor chickens backs after roosters continually either attacked them or mated with them was abhorrent to see. In my opinion, then, one rooster is all one should have if you want any kind of peaceful community of chickens. We don’t have chickens or roosters anymore because to me the experience was terrible.
We have two roosters (hatched together, raised together the first 3 months, then separated for almost 2 months, but now back on same farm – it’s a long story haha) Anyway, turns out they are both such GOOD boys!! And we would love to be able to have them coexist and share the 26 hens we have currently, we may be getting another 12, but that isn’t the case yet. Anyway, my question is – right now we have George over in a separate area with 3 hens, they are doing well, we have had him for almost a week. The other guy, Daryl, is with the main tribe – the other 23 hens, in a separate fenced run. They free range about 4-6 hours a day. Ultimately I want everyone to be able to tolerate each other at least, even if they have crow offs or spit spat here and there, I just want everyone to be able to eat, drink, mate, and tolerate one another…..with mostly levels of peace. Is this possible? And how best should I go about slowly merging George into the large flock? His 3 hens were originally from the large flock. They can all see each other and hear each other as they are across from each other a good distance, but still can especially when free ranging. They have not free ranged together though. Didn’t think that would be wise, but maybe I’m wrong? Would that be better? We have 3 acres and only do chickens. Which we LOVE! We hope to get more land soon! But for now, this is what we have to work with….and desperately want to keep both boys! We LOVE THEM BOTH!!! We have been told several different methods….but haven’t felt comfortable with any quite yet. For example: “just throw them in the same pin and let them spar it out, only interfere if things start getting too ugly.” Or “Just slowly move the one boy closer to the main group of hens and rooster, so they can adjust to seeing each other over time and then one night just shove him and his girls in the coop and hope for the best.”
I don’t know what to do, I have never blended roosters, and don’t want to do it wrong. I feel like I have 1 chance to getting this right. And don’t want to mess it up. Maybe we care too much? And we should just let nature have its way and let the chips fall where they’re going to fall?? Please help! Any advice or tips would be helpful.
These boys are both 5 months old, almost 6 months. Beautiful boys outside and inside, so sweet, but Daryl does have the upper hand because he has been here longer and is with 23 hens. He has only mated 11 of them. The other 3 we put with George, and then there is a group of 12 almost 5 month old hens, who have not started laying yet, so he ignores them, but isn’t mean to them, it’s just like they aren’t old enough yet. Anyway, I know each situation is different and unique in its own way…..and I care so much for our hens and our roosters…..I just want everyone happy and healthy…..and feel so bad keeping George and his 3 hens separated…..I want to blend so badly! But I know patience will be key slice of this pie! Any tips and suggestions would be appreciated! Thank you 🙂
HI Jessica. From what you describe, it sounds like you are nearly to the point of letting everyone free range together while you supervise the 2 roosters closely. After a week or so of doing that during the day, you can likely just move the new rooster and his hens into the coop at night and let everyone wake up in the morning together. We recommend introducing new chickens this way. Keep at it!
Hello-a new issue for us. Bought 11baby chicks-two have turned out to be roosters. They are 3 months old and friendly so far -as they were raised together. But when mating starts will this be an issue? We will extend the chicken run but have to keep in that as we have many predators.
Hi there! A ratio of 5:1 hens to roosters should be okay, especially if they were all raised together. There will likely be a head rooster in the pecking order and the other will be lower, but you shouldn’t have issues.
Hello,
We are very new to having chickens… We bought 12 rhode island/new hampshire red chicks from a local farm, and the owner said if we end up with more than one rooster that he would do a swap for us. We had them on our porch in two brooder boxes until they were about 11 weeks. The coop is massive and so is the run – my hubby always goes big on everything he builds… LOL – so confinement isn’t an issue. We can’t allow them to free-range outside of the run due to the predators we have all around our property. A couple days after they turned 14 weeks, I found the smallest hen pecked to near death in a corner of the run one afternoon. I didn’t realize the poor thing was being bullied until it was too late; it happened so fast! We had to put her down because the damage was too extensive unfortunately. Our grandson was crushed as he was the one to name her Nugget. Fast forward to 16 weeks (07/24), and we are now 100% positive that we have 6 roosters and 5 hens (the hens are still smaller and look more like the pics I’ve been researching so we hope they are really hens). The roosters are massive with beautiful plumage and because they were all raised together, they are getting along, but my fear is that they are close to breeding time (if not already doing so – like I said, we’re new to this and still learning). Six roosters is way too many for 5 hens, and we know this, so we want to rehome 5 of them and keep one before it’s too late for our hens. None are laying yet, and we’re just about ready to transition their organic grow food to organic laying food and open up the nesting boxes. We’ve kept them closed so that they don’t sleep in them as I read that could be a problem. Once we rehome 5 of the roosters, when should we open up the nesting boxes? Any other advice you have for us? We welcome all comments and suggestions!! Thank you!!
Hi Darlene! Welcome to the world of chickens! It’s a fun ride! I’m sorry to hear about your pullet. I am sure that was hard.
I would definitely re-home the roosters as they will over mate your hens. You won’t want more than one for 5 hens.
Rhode Island Reds can start laying at 16 weeks, so I would go ahead and open the nesting boxes and put fake eggs in there to help give them the right idea. Some people will use golf balls or wooden eggs for this. They still might not lay where they should for a minute, but hopefully they’ll learn quickly!
We’re always happy to answer chicken questions at Meyer Hatchery! Feel free to reach out to our customer service team anytime! info@meyerhatchery.com or give us a call at 419-945-2651
Hi. we have two young hens and one cockerel. We were told to remove the spur at the back of the foot. Is this necessary? How do we do that?
Hi there! It is not needed to remove the spur, but you can if you would like. We have a great YouTube video explaining exactly how to trim the spur, if you’re interested!
Hi we have two young hens and one cockerel. Our neighbors have two roosters (adult) and my hens. I want to give our cockerel to. my neighbor. Will the adult roosters beat him up? will the hens accept him? Will our hens miss him?
Judith, It is sometimes difficult to introduce a new rooster to a flock. There will be some pecking order disputes. You’ll want to be very careful and slow with the introduction and make sure there is plenty of space and safe places for the rooster being introduced and know it is possible that they may not accept him. Your hens may miss him as he is part of the flock.
Hello! I’m quite happy to have found your blog. I have a very small backyard in which I intended to have six hens only. TOTAL!! I originally got them to raise with my rescued peahen and they all flocked together wonderfully.
Then I got chicken number seven, told it was a pullet (also told it was a purebred Ayam Semani). Turned out to be a roo with a lot of genetic issues… not purebred. He, Onyx, is a sweet boy, however, and none of his issues are medically, threatening… he just looks kind of funky,. OK, so one roo with six hens, and a peahen!, not so bad. All was well for a couple of years.
At three years old, my peahen got so sick I had to pull her from the coop for six months of recovery. She can never go back in so I got her two hatching eggs, which were both successful, and she now has a companion peacock and another peahen in a separate flight cage.
In my original chicken coop, which has three separated levels totaling about 50–80 ft.², I lost two chickens, and so added a couple of day old hatchlings to the flock via my broody who had been sitting feggs for a couple of weeks. She accepted them both. One died within 24 hours, and the other, Agatha, followed mama around like a champ — well-protected until at about 2 to 3 weeks old got caught on a wire trying to escape “daddy,” and a game of baby toss, and was ripped open from the back of the head to just beyond the wing — about 4 good inches. Unable to get to a vet in time I literally super-glued this chicken back together (a surgery my vet was subsequently impressed with), and baby Agatha went on to a full recovery with no sign of injury!
Of course, by the time I could consider a return to the flock, it was obvious I had a second roo on my hands. Damn. So, I got him a couple of pullets of his own and built a separate chicken coop, just a little bigger than the first. I ended up pulling a hen from the first coop (bullying issues) and integrating her into the new one, and adding two more pullets, one of which I recently lost to unknown causes.
So, each coop now has one roo and four hens. They also have a shared free range-yard (I sectioned off about half of the remaining free space in my backyard) that is about 20’ x 25’ of space with both coops in the middle. I have a short movable fence with which I surround one coop at a time and every other day, one flock gets full use of the yard, and the other one gets a little fenced-in expanded space around their coop, about 150 additional ft.² of the available ~450 ft.². It sounds complicated, but it’s not too bad.
Twice now, however, something has happened to open up that divider and the flocks have gotten mixed. On the first occasion, I found Aggie, a magnificent show-worthy Double-laced Barnvelder, cowering up in the nest boxes of the other coop (the way the divider opened, he could not get back to his own), which is ironically where he started with momma 3 years ago. Onyx and all 10 hens were just fine together. On the second occasion, the divider was knocked down by wind and debris, and Onyx’s flock infiltrated Aggie’s day out. Aggie freaked out and managed to fly out of the space altogether before anyone could blink, and everybody else went about their business. I was there when it happened and within three minutes, had captured every chicken and put them back where they belonged.
All things considered, can I free range them together if they have access to their separated coops throughout the day and to return to at night? It seems the original pecking order established still stands, and the entire time they are out, they are basically together, (but thinly separated). I would like to put automatic doors on the coops which is useless if I have to set up the divider every morning as well.
I also intend to add an additional hen to each flock so the inevitable set up would be six hens and one roo, each with a separated coop, which is fully secured at night, of 50–100 ft.², and a shared free-range yard during the day of ~450 ft.² with full access to their respective coops. The peafowl are fully separated.
(I am also working on purchasing a property of 2–5 acres, but between the lifespan of chickens and property development time, some of those timelines may resolve themselves.)
Thank you for any insight on this!!
Hi Mel! What a journey you’ve had with your poultry! It’s definitely clear you’ve put a tremendous amount of thought, care, and effort into caring for your birds, even in a small space. Based on your setup, free-ranging the two groups together with access to separate coops seems feasible. I would just really monitor Aggie and Onyx to make sure they stay peaceful. You might start with some supervised free-ranging and just watch for how they all interact with each other – while you’re close by. There ultimately might still be a little bit of bickering, but I would assume they will work it out quickly. Let us know if there is anything else we can help you with! Good luck!
I have two roos and 22 hens. One was obviously the alpha. His name is Keanu and the beta is 007. Keanu has a huge comb and got frostbite during one of the Michigan cold spells. I left him alone but as it was healing the hens started pecking away at it and one day he was pretty bloody. I removed him and put him in the barn where he was treated and is almost fully healed. Now however the beta rooster, 007, has become “the man” and wants to fight Keanu when I bring him out there. I couldn’t keep him in my hospital in the run due to it being too cold so they have been seperate for about 2 months but are brothers. How should I go about working to get him back into the flock? Do I need to just let them have it out and then have two bits to fix wounds on? I really want them to coexist again but maybe I am nieve. Thank you for your help. It is starting to warm up so I could possibly move him into the hospital coop set in the run, by himself, or with a few hens so they have a coop and smaller run inside the big run where everyone else will be during the day. It was too cold earlier to do this for him with the frostbite and such so he got removed to heal. He misses his girls I am sure. I have been told I need to get rid of one of them as they will never get along now. I have also been told to build a seperate coop and run area but I don’t think that is possible with the current layout and coop size. In the winter they all need to be together to keep warm enough.
Hi Nikki! It can be more difficult with roosters, especially in the Spring with breeding season starting, but I would do slow introductions like mentioned here: https://blog.meyerhatchery.com/2018/04/adding-new-chickens-into-your-existing-flock/
You could also separate both the roosters from the hens then introduce them both back into the girls slowly. Hope this helps! Good luck!
We hatched 20 leghorn chickens around July 4th. We got 8 roosters and 12 hens. We already had 12 hens. We hatched them from them there dad was a leghorn rooster but a bigger one forget the name. But we have a chicken tractor in our field. We want to put 6 roosters in that for them to live all seasons or until we find a home for them which would be better. Can they survive Ohio weather inside of the chicken tractor I don’t wanna put them in there and have them all freeze to death. How should I go about the situation
Hi Anthony,
Thanks for your comment. Typically a tractor does not provide enough protection during the Winter months. They will require a space that is protected from drafts and snow. If you can close up the sides (leaving a little space up high for ventilation) and provide them with fresh straw, they might be OK but I would expect some frost bite on their combs.