More than 1 rooster

[Country homesteader]

This Sat I'm going to be getting(2) 12 week old roosters. One is a Buff Orpington and the other is a Easter egger. There is already one rooster here and has been the only one since the chickens were first gotten back in 2014. What kind of issues/problems am I looking at? If problems/issues arise how can I put an end to it before it gets out of hand?

 

[tortoise]

The #1 problem is rough breeding of your hens. They aren't so finesse about breeding when they're competing with other Roos. Breeding injuries can be pretty serious. We didn't cull extra roosters fast enough in the past and one poor hen ended up with a deep 5-inch gash on her back. DH is a vet so her doctored her up, and surprisingly, she survived.

#2 problem is the dominant rooster (the cock) attacking the submissive roosters (this is where the name rooster comes from), so that they literally roost and may loose access to food and water. If that happens, they might start eating eggs and teach the hens to eat eggs too. We had that happen here over winter. Our dominant cock would only leave the roosters to roost on top the nest boxes. We didn't get eggs for months - even after taking the roosters out. Getting hens out of the coop on free range has resolved the egg-eating.

And sometimes it works out okay. Our other flock has a cock and a rooster. The rooster is a year younger, raised in the flock by a broody hen. They have minor conflicts over breeding rights, but the hens are in good shape and we haven't seen any major scuffles or roosting behavior from the young one.

 

[Hinotori]

I've only had luck with roosters that grew up knowing each other. Others try to kill each other.

I've also had roosters overbreed hens. Had to stitch up the favorite hen. I use saddles for the small hens in with the giant silkies rooster as the size difference causes issues as well.

 

[Country homesteader]

Wow! I'm so glad I'm going to be having a family member help me integrate them. Sounds like I may have really big bad issues and may regret getting these other two roosters. The person who is giving them to me lives in Brooklyn, NY and isn't able to keep them and like that person couldn't see the roosters getting destroyed.

 

[Denim Deb]

How many hens do you have? If you have enough hens and have the room to do so, you can separate them into flocks, each w/its own pen.

One problem you can come up w/if you have too many roosters is, they will gang rape the hens.

 

[Beekissed]

I'd have a separate pen for them to live in until they get big enough for you decide which rooster you want to keep~your original one or one of the new ones, but unless you need more than one rooster~have a flock of over 20 hens to service and want to reproduce their flock genetics...trying to integrate young cockerels into an existing flock matrix is so troublesome as to not even be worth the bother, both for you and for your poor hens, not to mention the cockerels.

Other than keeping one for a replacement breeder, you can raise them in that pen until they are big enough to eat or build pens for use in breeding to these birds for their traits.

 

[Hinotori]

Oh and once roosters have had separate hen flocks, trying to get them to get along is very difficult. Rooster can get along if they are in a pen with only other roosters and cannot see any hens. I usually have a bachelor pen. When down to three silkie roosters in there I tossed them in with the large fowl. 21 old hens there who do not put up with nonsense. The boys get along fine because they can't handle them all. Watching a silkie mount a brahma is hilarious

 

[Country homesteader]

I don't think my new roosters have been around any hens or a big flock of hens. I'll just have to wait and see.