TinkerHedge
In the Brooder
- Feb 12, 2024
- 4
- 42
- 19
Hello, chicken family!
I have an odd predicament. Please pardon the long-ish story as I try to get to my point/problem. (The story is necessary.)
We have an amazing rooster. He's the kind everyone would love to have. He protects the flock and will let you hold him. He's so well-mannered.
Except...
More than a year ago, one of our hens went broody. We decided to let her hatch the eggs and we ended up with 4 healthy chicks (3 hens, 1 rooster). She raised them on her own too. As the young rooster grew up, he kind of found his place and we decided to keep him. Our flock free ranges during the day and we live near the woods, so having the 2 roosters to help protect the 13 roaming hens proved very beneficial.
Except (yup, another "except")...
Our alpha rooster -- this young rooster's daddy -- does not like sharing the hens. He will chase his son all over the yard. We even have a separate run for the younger rooster, because his daddy won't let him in the main run, which is also where all of the hens choose to be. As soon as we let the chickens out in the morning, our alpha chases the younger one all around the yard for a couple of minutes. Some days the older rooster tolerates the younger one being among the flock (when they're grouped together), others he chases the younger one away. Most of the hens avoid the younger one, but one of the hens (one of the ones born when he was, which I guess makes her his sister) is fairly close to him. Then there's one of HER sisters that is close to her but avoids their brother. (Drama, drama...)
We've been making our circumstance work for more than a year. The younger one knew his boundaries and the alpha kept him in his place. Most days, the flock would be broken into 2 or 3 groups, and the roosters watched everyone quite well.
However, recently, they've started to actually fight. The younger one is still timid most times but then he'd suddenly stand his ground and a full-blown cock fight would break out. Yes, we always broke them up as soon as we saw it happening, and it's been a couple of times a week now for the last month. Many times their combs and waddles would end up a little bloody. (No other injuries.)
For the younger rooster's benefit and safety, we've decided to rehome him. Obviously, most people don't want a rooster unless it's for the freezer.
One of our neighbors has 5 hens and no rooster. Her hens are less than a year old, so the ages of those are close to that of our young rooster. We talked to our neighbor and she said she does want a rooster for her hens, because they also free range during the day. So we made arrangements for her to welcome our young rooster into her flock, and that's already going so well. He seems less stressed already and those hens flock to him when he calls them.
Sadly, his sister that was closest to him seems to be very depressed. She eats a little but she keeps to herself and pouts a lot. Her own sister, who is pretty close to her, is doing just fine and tries to stick with her sad sister, but her sister couldn't care much less about her.
Obviously, her brother has moved on.
Is there any way to get her out of her depressed state? She's otherwise healthy (no sign of gleet, no pale comb, and based on the egg count appears to be laying) but I also know depression can kill a chicken. We did have that happen once: when one of our Buff Orpington hens succumbed to her condition (she was an internal layer) her twin sister passed a little over a week later (we knew she was depressed; she stopped eating and drinking completely and nothing we tried worked).
We've considered giving the sister who's close to him to our neighbors, but then we're concerned that the sister who's close to HER would in turn become depressed. And we can't give both hens to our neighbor, and the other sister wouldn't want to be with her brother (she avoided him when he was here).
I now this sounds like a chicken soap opera. I'm just hoping she'll be ok.
Does anyone have any ideas?
I have an odd predicament. Please pardon the long-ish story as I try to get to my point/problem. (The story is necessary.)
We have an amazing rooster. He's the kind everyone would love to have. He protects the flock and will let you hold him. He's so well-mannered.
Except...
More than a year ago, one of our hens went broody. We decided to let her hatch the eggs and we ended up with 4 healthy chicks (3 hens, 1 rooster). She raised them on her own too. As the young rooster grew up, he kind of found his place and we decided to keep him. Our flock free ranges during the day and we live near the woods, so having the 2 roosters to help protect the 13 roaming hens proved very beneficial.
Except (yup, another "except")...
Our alpha rooster -- this young rooster's daddy -- does not like sharing the hens. He will chase his son all over the yard. We even have a separate run for the younger rooster, because his daddy won't let him in the main run, which is also where all of the hens choose to be. As soon as we let the chickens out in the morning, our alpha chases the younger one all around the yard for a couple of minutes. Some days the older rooster tolerates the younger one being among the flock (when they're grouped together), others he chases the younger one away. Most of the hens avoid the younger one, but one of the hens (one of the ones born when he was, which I guess makes her his sister) is fairly close to him. Then there's one of HER sisters that is close to her but avoids their brother. (Drama, drama...)
We've been making our circumstance work for more than a year. The younger one knew his boundaries and the alpha kept him in his place. Most days, the flock would be broken into 2 or 3 groups, and the roosters watched everyone quite well.
However, recently, they've started to actually fight. The younger one is still timid most times but then he'd suddenly stand his ground and a full-blown cock fight would break out. Yes, we always broke them up as soon as we saw it happening, and it's been a couple of times a week now for the last month. Many times their combs and waddles would end up a little bloody. (No other injuries.)
For the younger rooster's benefit and safety, we've decided to rehome him. Obviously, most people don't want a rooster unless it's for the freezer.
One of our neighbors has 5 hens and no rooster. Her hens are less than a year old, so the ages of those are close to that of our young rooster. We talked to our neighbor and she said she does want a rooster for her hens, because they also free range during the day. So we made arrangements for her to welcome our young rooster into her flock, and that's already going so well. He seems less stressed already and those hens flock to him when he calls them.
Sadly, his sister that was closest to him seems to be very depressed. She eats a little but she keeps to herself and pouts a lot. Her own sister, who is pretty close to her, is doing just fine and tries to stick with her sad sister, but her sister couldn't care much less about her.
Obviously, her brother has moved on.
Is there any way to get her out of her depressed state? She's otherwise healthy (no sign of gleet, no pale comb, and based on the egg count appears to be laying) but I also know depression can kill a chicken. We did have that happen once: when one of our Buff Orpington hens succumbed to her condition (she was an internal layer) her twin sister passed a little over a week later (we knew she was depressed; she stopped eating and drinking completely and nothing we tried worked).
We've considered giving the sister who's close to him to our neighbors, but then we're concerned that the sister who's close to HER would in turn become depressed. And we can't give both hens to our neighbor, and the other sister wouldn't want to be with her brother (she avoided him when he was here).
I now this sounds like a chicken soap opera. I'm just hoping she'll be ok.
Does anyone have any ideas?
