Keeping Multiple Roosters in a Flock
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.
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.
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.