Rooster Chat

[jenniferlamar70]

It's definitely a possibility. It will be me trying the stick (used like a cane, not waving it) first. Even my dogs who are pretty desensitized to crazy kid movements, noises, toys being thrown, would go nuts over the kids waving sticks around, haha. If it ups Merlin's aggression level at all, we'll scrap that idea.

Please believe, my children's safety absolutely comes before any of our animals. As a mother, I've absolutely thought numerous times about what could have happened, and how bad it could have been, just like I do every time they even scrape a knee. The only immediate solution to get rid of that rooster yesterday, would be to kill him. Re-homing (although I don't believe it will be successful because of the sheer number of roosters around) is absolutely an option, and would take time. A fence is happening as soon as we can get it put up, that also takes time and if there is something I can do to help the situation in the meantime, I'd like to know about it and try it. We are looking into every possibility, which is why I'm here asking advice just in case there is a behavioral something that we can try/fix.

I think the temp fence is a good idea. Just until your little ones are older. It's a difficult situation. The thing is young children just don't have the capacity to sense that kind of danger. We are about to have our fifth babe. My two youngest are 4 and 16 months. They just want to "snuggle" the chickens lol. If we need to rehome a rooster I have a trick lol. We sell a trio. Two laying hens and the rooster. We offer at a steal of a price and advertise to non slaughter homes only. It does take time. However people will take a rooster to get a good deal on hens lol.

 

[mlcrowley]

I think the temp fence is a good idea. Just until your little ones are older. It's a difficult situation. The thing is young children just don't have the capacity to sense that kind of danger. We are about to have our fifth babe. My two youngest are 4 and 16 months. They just want to "snuggle" the chickens lol. If we need to rehome a rooster I have a trick lol. We sell a trio. Two laying hens and the rooster. We offer at a steal of a price and advertise to non slaughter homes only. It does take time. However people will take a rooster to get a good deal on hens lol.

Congrats on the new babe coming! How exciting! That's a good idea with the trio, I could see how that would help rehome the rooster quicker. Problem for me is we only have 5 hens, I'm not sure I want to give up 2 of them. Haha. We've been planning a permanent fence around our immediate "backyard" for some time because hubby is tired of chicken poop on the back patio all the time. He wants to keep them off the small concrete patio and little bit of grass lawn we have in the back and let them range over the rest of the property, so a fence is in the works for sure. We may put up something quick and temporary until we make the permanent fence happen though.

 

[bobbi-j]

Congrats on the new babe coming! How exciting! That's a good idea with the trio, I could see how that would help rehome the rooster quicker. Problem for me is we only have 5 hens, I'm not sure I want to give up 2 of them. Haha. We've been planning a permanent fence around our immediate "backyard" for some time because hubby is tired of chicken poop on the back patio all the time. He wants to keep them off the small concrete patio and little bit of grass lawn we have in the back and let them range over the rest of the property, so a fence is in the works for sure. We may put up something quick and temporary until we make the permanent fence happen though.

Since your main goal at this time would be to keep kids and chickens separated, maybe something quick and temporary like deer netting would work?

 

[mlcrowley]

Since your main goal at this time would be to keep kids and chickens separated, maybe something quick and temporary like deer netting would work? 

That might be perfect until we get a more permanent fence up!

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Congrats on the new babe coming! How exciting! That's a good idea with the trio, I could see how that would help rehome the rooster quicker. Problem for me is we only have 5 hens, I'm not sure I want to give up 2 of them. Haha. We've been planning a permanent fence around our immediate "backyard" for some time because hubby is tired of chicken poop on the back patio all the time. He wants to keep them off the small concrete patio and little bit of grass lawn we have in the back and let them range over the rest of the property, so a fence is in the works for sure. We may put up something quick and temporary until we make the permanent fence happen though.

Thanks and yeah it's hard with only 5 hens lol. Springtime is here though and with the money from selling your trio you could probably buy point of lay pullets. Of coarse if they are more just pets that's no a possibility lol.

Since your main goal at this time would be to keep kids and chickens separated, maybe something quick and temporary like deer netting would work? 

Deer netting is a good idea. It's only a little cheaper then hardware cloth though and we use that as temp fencing. It works really well! We always use Tue deer netting for the roof. If it's to thin birds get caught in it. Wild and chickens lol. So if you use deer netting make sure it's heavy duty lol

 

[Amelia Egghart]

My roosters have both discovered the most horrible thing!

They can bite me through the hammock!

LOL

 

[lcertuche]

I hate it when chickens bite. Pecking is not so bad but biting has brought blood. I use to have a juvenile cochin mix that would bite me every chance it got.

 

[GreyKat]

Hi everybody, I thought I'd share my experience with our EE roo, Bowie. He is a year old now and was a surprise. We were supposed to get 6 pullets... a few months later one of those pullets started crowing! I was googling "crowing hens", the denial was strong. Lol. Then he started trying to mount the girls. No questions then! It has been a rollercoaster with him. He is good with the hens but somewhat people aggressive. Usually he just sideeyes me when I enter the pen but a handfull of times he's come at me. I will stand my ground until he starts pecking the ground. He comes at my husband almost every time my husband tends to them (which is much less often than I do). The first real attack was on our friends' 4 year old. Scratched his cheek! I was horrified. They are farmers though so they took it in stride. We live in a subdivision with neighbors very close. No one has complained about the crowing though. Free eggs help. He's not much more annoying than all the dogs and airplanes (we live next door to the airport).

We tried the No-Crow for a little bit. It worked. He gave a strained, muted crow that made us so sorry for him. It was breaking feathers around his neck and he would do this backward dance like he thought he could slip out of it. We checked it every week to make sure it wasn't too tight. Finally, we decided the crowing was worth dealing with to allow him to express himself naturally.

He's a gorgeous boy!

And it's been very "educational" having him... I know much more about chicken mating rituals than I ever planned on when I went into backyard chickening last year. Lol. But alas, he has become more pain than he's worth. I'm actively searching for a new home for him. He hasn't done anything worthy of making him dinner in my mind yet. But he does wear on the girls. Had to get them aprons.

I'm wondering if anyone has had issues with the rooster scratching the hens when he mounts them. Two of our chickens have had open wounds on one side under their wing. Could this have been caused by spurs and then exacerbated by the cannibalistic little turds?
Here's Bowie wearing his bowtie no-crow collar:

The bowtie lasted about a day. Red. Who thought that was a good idea? Hens just kept pecking at it! But he looked so dapper we decided we'd store it away it for special occasions. When's Chicken Prom?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

None of my hens ever get scratched by the roosters, only some feather wearing. I do routinely trim nails and spurs on mine as well as removing any overly rambunctious roosters, either temporarily for a few months to mature or permanently.

 

[lcertuche]

One of my girls feathers are in pretty bad shape. She must be their favorite. Dogs got two of my rooster so maybe that will help. Now we have one adult and one juvenile who mostly runs, lol. The girls all follow the older one now and he seems to be taking over being El Hefe. I think they were mostly fighting each other instead of their job. It was the same when I had a dozen cockerels this summer. I just bought what was suppose to be 5 New Hampshire pullets. I suspect at least 4 are cockerels. Time will tell. At least they will be good for tick patrol until they go to freezer camp. Someone recently offered me a brown Cornish and I may take her up on that. Eventually I will need to whittle down the male population or build up the female population. Probably be whittle-ing...