# Are all roo's at the top of the pecking order?



## Sarah10Chickens (Sep 2, 2013)

Hi. If you had 3 roosters in a flock of 10 would all 3 automatically be top of the pecking order?
I am asking as after establishing I have 2 roosters who are top of pecking order, I have noticed my croad langshan looking slightly like a roo but he/she is pecked my other hens they are girls for sure. If it was a roo would it not be automatically 3rd in the pecking order after the other two?


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## Apyl (Jun 20, 2012)

One will be top. Others will fall in line in the flock. If you only have two rooster one is definite alpha and the other is 2nd. If both were top they would be fighting constantly. With more roosters they will start at the bottom and work their way up. Pecking order just doesn't go with roosters, you can have hens who are higher up the pecking order than roosters. Its an entire flock dynamics. Just be careful though, with to many roosters your girls will be mated ragged and can get hurt.


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## Sarah10Chickens (Sep 2, 2013)

Thank you for explaining. I thought that all roosters were at top as in first second third order. Yes one rules over the other rooster, so the one that is lower in the pecking order could well be a rooster too. We aren't allowed to keep roosters unfortunately so they will go back to the farm we got them from & be replaced with girls. Which is a shame. 
Thanks for your help


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## expertnewbie (Mar 11, 2013)

Right now I have a rooster that is so sweet but he is afraid of a hen slightly bigger than him, therefore he only mounts the smaller hen. Will he eventually mount the larger hen?


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## 5chicksowner (Mar 27, 2013)

I have a bantam rooster that I'm giving back to my friend (no Roos in this neighborhood) that is at the bottom of the pecking order! All my girls just make sure he keeps his distance. They force him to stay up on the perches I put up in their coop. And every now and then one of them will go up there and make him move to a different spot! Cruel wives are they!


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## Sarah10Chickens (Sep 2, 2013)

I always thought they were top!! 
Looking at your pic, did you have a triple yolk egg!?


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## 5chicksowner (Mar 27, 2013)

No that was just a pic I found in a different post


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## piglett (Jun 21, 2012)

expertnewbie said:


> Right now I have a rooster that is so sweet but he is afraid of a hen slightly bigger than him, therefore he only mounts the smaller hen. Will he eventually mount the larger hen?


 remove the 1 big hen for a couple days
this will change the packing order in the flock
once you add the hen back in she will be at the bottom of the pecking order & should fall into line under the rooster

it could also be that the rooster is still too young to be the flock leader
in time he should come into it on his own as long as he is not some tiny banty


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

My 2 youngest roosters get their backsides whooped by my older hens. They don't like them and wont have anything to do with them. However we let our prettiest one out the other day and they love him, he is only 9 months old and they follow him every wheres. However my 2 Delawares are only about 6 months old and the one we really want to keep the most gets whooped daily by my older hen, and he even cries like a dog when she gets him good.

However after finding up that Stormy was fighting with the younger boys the younger ones got put into a pen by themselves for a day but then we saw that Stormy wasn't allowing the ladies to roost at night so now its back to separating him, and keeping the Delawares back in with the girls. I sure hope tonight will be easier for us to get them all to bed. I am so tired of the chasing of hens all over the yard because he wont let them go to the coop.

But yeah some roosters are lower on the pecking order then others are. My snowball is even lower then the older ladies at this point.


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