I have 2 different chicken areas. In one I have 3 roosters and 15 hens. In the other I have 5 roosters
and 25 hens. They roosters are tearing my hens backs up and some are almost bald, ( why is it they pick on just certain hens?. If I pen the roosters by themselves will they fight very bad. I want to give the poor hens a break and this is the only thing I can think to do. Does anyone else have any suggestions, other than getting rid of some of the roosters (I can't, they're my breeders). Thanks so much for any and all help.

I've only been raising chickens for two years so I don't know very much, but I did have two roosters living together with more than enough space and no hens within miles and one of them killed the other. I was told that roosters with no hens would get along, so I don't know if there was another reason or not, but I don't put my roosters in that situation anymore.
~chikiechik~

Lemar:

If you mean putting the males from both pens together, yes they will fight and you could have some losses. Just taking the males from one pen would be OK, you will have some squabbling but generally, the pecking order is set. As chikiechik advises there are no guarantees.
Is there a specific reason you need so many males, if you cut back to say.. 1 in the small pen and 2 in the large pen, you will still get good fertility and save the hens a lot of "backache".

James

Lemar, It has been my experience that the fewer
roosters you have the less problems you have. These
are extremeley territorial beings. As James suggested
you might consider lessening the amount of problem
children you have.

I LOVE roosters myself. I have 45 chickens total. 15 of them are roosters. I fenced in 1/4 acre yard for all the chickens. I've never tried keeping hens and roosters seperate. You must have some very agressive roosters. I've never had my hens loose any feathers. I see one adolescent rooster that is a little more agressive than the other but, he's never torn off any feathers. I notice that alot of times a rooster will attempt mating and another rooster chases him off the hen. The rooster that chased off the other rooster will not attempt to mate the hen. I notice that behavior with all the chickens. My roosters are black tailed japanese, silkie, polish top hat, americana, and phoenix. What breed are your roosters?

I think some hens must have feathers that break or pull out more easily, because I have one hen that has a bear back and two that are fully feathered. They are all mixed breeds. Then again, maybe my rooster just mates with that hen more frequently.

I have rhode islands, dominiques and some mixed breeds.
I keep the mixed in a different yard. I also have some
sebright bantams (of course they are in a pen by themselves. I guess I'll try to decide which roosters I can let go this weekend, going to be hard. I really like all my chickens, even those mean roosters.
Thanks for everyones help and suggestions.

The silkie breed rooster is about the most peaceful there is.

I have 3 Silkie roosters that hatched in September along with their 3 sister hens. My question is can I keep them all exisitng happily together? I notice that one who is "Buff" in colour is sometimes out alone almost as if he's been driven out....the others are all black & black with a gold neck area. I sometimes wonder if its because he looks different than the others. I don't want "Little Norm" to be hurt by his bigger brothers or his father "Elvis"!

Heidi:

Generally, males which are raised together will get along peacefully. I don't know the temperament of Silkies but have heard that they are generally even tempered.
All you can do is watch for any sign that would make you think he is going to be harmed. If that happens, then you may have to remove him. I don't think his feather colouring will have an impact, they have always been together so they know one another well.
Most squabbles between males raised together happen when maturity is coming on and females are present. The young males will fight for dominance and mating rights. If the father is also in the pen and is strong and healthy he will likely control the young males. That many males can be very hard on the females so you will have to watch for injuries to them as well.
All you can do is watch closely.

James

I agree that males raised together are peaceful. Some farmers have notices that having more than 3 roosters in the same large cage with room to run around prevents fighting. Having less than 3 roosters causes a lot of problems. However, I have no idea if that's true.

I lived on a farm with aproximatly 20 chickens ,one being a rooster. then we got a srait run of 5 bantam(ish) chickens. 2 of them where roosters, and my older one alwayes picks on the others. Whenever we let the chickens out to roam, the big rooster doesnt let the other 2 in (he seems to have a particular problem with one. recently I had to get rid of that one because he was mean and attacked the neighbor kid. the problem is almost gone now)the mean rooster we had to get rid of really was a bully, but his brother was nice. does rooster interaction have to do with thier personalities?
by the way, im new

spotza