If you want to produce fertilized eggs and your own batches of cute, fluffy chicks, then you'll have to keep at least one rooster on your property. While a single, well-socialized rooster can be a useful addition to your flock of hens, an aggressive rooster or multiple roosters can quickly cause problems.
Making Roosters Get Along
You cannot make a rooster, or any chicken, get along with other living creatures if he doesn't want to. A bird that exhibits problem behavior can be managed as necessary or even retrained to minimize the amount of problems he causes, but you can't simply force the rooster to behave. Problem roosters may have to be sent to new homes or separated from the other animals permanently in order to prevent harm from occurring.
Start Young
Your roosters will do better in the social setting of your chicken coop if they've been socialized from an early age. Spend time with your young male roosters to make them friendly and tame. Make sure your roosters spend plenty of time with hens and even other roosters if you're planning on having more than one rooster in your coop. A poorly socialized rooster is more likely to behave in an undesirable manner if he's brought into the coop as an adult with no prior experience dealing with your other animals.
Plan for Success
Roosters can be territorial, especially if necessary supplies are in limited supply. Make sure you have plenty of room, food, hens and nesting boxes inside your chicken coop. You'll need to have multiple hens for every rooster; otherwise, roosters may fight over hens. Roosters who are competing for resources are more likely to behave aggressively towards their competition. Free-range chickens have more room and resources, therefore roosters are more likely to get along in a free-range situation then they are when confined to a coop.
Last Resorts
If a rooster is truly dangerous or aggressive toward your other birds, you'll have to remove him from your flock entirely. You can place a rooster in a coop or enclosure by himself to make sure he will not cause any additional damage to your other animals. Some roosters can be reintroduced to the flock with changed behavior after being separated for a couple of weeks, others require lifelong isolation for the protection of themselves and the other birds.
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Writer Bio
Jen Davis has been writing since 2004. She has served as a newspaper reporter and her freelance articles have appeared in magazines such as "Horses Incorporated," "The Paisley Pony" and "Alabama Living." Davis earned her Bachelor of Arts in communication with a concentration in journalism from Berry College in Rome, Ga.
