Rooster among the hens feed question

[Snakebiteholloway]

So I have a wonderful black jersey giant rooster. He's only about 7 months old, but shows the best habits already.
He lives peacefully with 13 hens.
I'm trying to figure out how to feed him more protein without the hens eating it up.
Because they do.
They are almost all laying and I feed them high pro layer food and supplement with the plethora of berries and fruits and grains and insects on my property. I allow them to free-range as often as I can be home to supervise.
The problem is, he lets the hens eat first.
So his protein intake is shortened. If I separate him he won't eat. He just crows and the flock masses the fence nearest him.
I tried hand feeding, same problem.

Any ideas?
All suggestions appreciated, I'm new to chickens. I don't eat bird or eggs, oddly enough. I just like my chickens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The problem is, he lets the hens eat first.

As he should. As Canoe said, he is not laying eggs so he needs a lot less protein per day than the hens do. He eats enough. You don't want him to get fat, that would be unhealthy.

Trust your chickens, they know what they are doing. Don't try to micromanage them, just let them be chickens.

 

[Mrs. K]

DatCampG - I used to think that too. But I have kept chickens for over a decade, and I really do not see that. In extreme weather - either cold or hot, mine just kind of hunker down. They do not eat the same amount day in and day out, but they tend to eat more when it is nice out.

I do agree with good quality feed, but I feed just once a day. When I check it at night, if there is much left, I feed a bit less the next day, it if is empty a bit more. 24/7 draws in rodents in my area.

Mrs K

 

[3KillerBs]

I am on the free-freeding side, keeping the feeders full 24/7/365 except that once a month or so I let them empty it so I can clean the dust out of the bottom of the pan (I use it to make a wet mash).

I would be concerned that you have your rooster on layer feed, which contains more calcium that is recommended for non-layer birds. On the advice of many people here at BYC, I switched my flock to All-Flock feed with oystershell on the side once I added non-laying birds.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

As a good flock guardian, he should let the hens eat first while he stands guard.
Why are you worried about his protein intake? Actually fully grown roosters need much less protein than hens. They are fine with about 13.5% protein. They aren't pumping out a lump of protein every day like the hens are so they don't need as much.
Your treats of berries, fruits and grains are possibly
lowering the protein intake of all your birds.

 

[RoosterML]

Nothing more to add both responses above summed it up well.

 

[Outta Here]

TO: snakebiteholloway
It is not necessary to feed higher ratio protein to the rooster. It is good to keep in mind that for fertalization the proper rooster to hen ratio, is one rooster to six to eight hens. Which means the coop has a deficit of one rooster at this time.
"The rooster can eat the same protein as the hens with no problems", unless you decide to have it tied out and separated from all the other birds then you can feed high protein.

TO: Mrs. K
I have guienas that were raised with my chickens and I have farm cats, so I don't have a rodent problem. The reason I give my chickens all the feed they can eat is because I have found the more they eat the better they lay. Some days just like people, they require more food due to weather, exercise, pre molting, molting, etc..
I keep my chickens feeders full and I top off once a week. It is (less work for me) which is good because I have lots of other farm chores.
I know I get about fourty+ eggs daily right now, due to the Texas heat. I have raised chickens for thirteen years. My parents, grand parents, and great-grandparents raised chickens when I was growing up.
Every place is different, different condtions.

(\_/)
( •_•)
/ > Have a great week.

Rooster to hen ratio: It depends on the breed. The lighter more active breeds, like Leghorns, can handle up to 12 hens, the larger and mellow only 6. However, there are exceptions: My big, mellow Bielefelder rooster is rated at being able to cover 12 hens. My Barred Rock only 10. The Black Jersey Giant can handle 9. It's best to look up what your particular breed rooster can handle. Cackle Hatchery has this info with each breed under the sidebar Breed Facts. https://www.cacklehatchery.com/product/barred-rocks/

 

[JacinLarkwell]

For around 10 years, we fed everyone layer feed when they were old enough to swallow pellets instead of crumble. Out of all that time, we had maybe one bird start to show problems from the extra calcium (still not 100 percent sure since it was also possible this issue was frostbite). My males lived long lived (several are now hitting 6+ and I culled an 8 year old last spring because he turned agressive).

As to the flock ratio, if they are not necessarily needing every egg to be fertile, it doesn't matter. Plus it's possible that male they own would bareback hens if they had fewer or may not let another male near them. He doesn't care about a so called ratio, the hens that he can see and get to are his, that it.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

X2
Birds that aren't producing eggs on a regular basis aren't layers, regardless of age and sex.
Those birds really shouldn't be fed layer feed as their primary food. 4% calcium is too high for a bird not regularly building egg shells.
The shell makes up 10% of the weight of the egg and regardless of the size of the egg or age of the hen, the shell is just a tad over 6 grams. 94% of that eggshell is calcium. Why would any bird not utilizing that much calcium need 4% of their diet to be calcium.

 

[3KillerBs]

My grandpa has been feeding his flock of hens and roosters layer feed forever and they have all been doing great with no problems at all! Its also cheaper

It's cheaper because you're paying feed prices for rocks/shells.