lots of Roosters in a herd - lessons learned and open questions

I have a herd of 18 chickens and 7 roosters, all old  Arctic landraces. I didn't set out to have so many roosters, but I got them free of charge from left and right. As a true Scrooge, took them all.

This spring, the herd has become a bit unstable. The roosters don't fight, as they have settled the pecking order. But good heavens they croo. All youngsters try to mount the chickens whenever the higher-ranking roo is not paying attention! And then the high-ranking one rushes in to end the romantic têtê-a-têtê. With the poor suitor running away - noisily.

It got really overwhelming. Constant attempts at rape with the victim screaming, the dominant rooster angrily intervening and the badass lovesick roo running away noisily.

So I took most roos away to a different run. And Quelle Surprise!! They are quiet. Potter around like chickens. And my farm is EERILY QUIET.

I didn't even realise the racket they made until it stopped!

I'm not looking forward to the point later this summer when all my young cockerels start crowing. Right now, the roosters have settled their differences and are reasonable, they do a bit of crowing during the day, but our webworm infestation has them troubled by marauding webworms, day and night, so they don't have a lot of energy for crowing.

I'm hoping to get a Bachelor Pen set up for all the extra cockerels before they start up, but the odds aren't high right now.

Yeah, I miss the crowing. It told me where everyone was and what, roughly, they were up to. It doesn't feel right without it.

The main reason I put up with the racket was breeding. Now I have three chickens brooding and I can be sure the eggs will be fetrilised..