- Thread starter
- #151
ChickenTender1203
Chirping
- Mar 9, 2022
- 195
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He is gone. He went on his own.
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We had 5 roosters with him and a total of 25 hens. 13 pulleys and 3 cockerels I'm the younger flock. And 2 roosters with 14 hens in the older one. He was a part of the first, older flock which now has only one rooster. We were separating 2 of the cockerels into a pen because they go after all of the girls in both flocks and they don't give up when they chase. We are leaving the larger, less aggressive one with them. We just started using the pen for them. We were planning on having Megamind with them if we could get them to get along. We left them out of the pen for the past 2 days because it was pouring on Tuseday and felt bad so I let them out yesterday too. They will definitely be going back in the pen today if I can find an extra bucket to use for water.I'm sorry about your sweet rooster.
You hung in there and did all you could for him.
Try to get some rest for yourself. Tomorrow access your hens that you are concerned about.
You do mention roosters (plural), sometimes when there's more than one, they need to be managed, especially if hens are getting hurt or bruised up. Managing roosters can be anything from moving them to their own pen(s), rehoming, processing for food - just depends on your space, setup, your keeping practices.
The hen with the limp is still (barely noticeably) limping. I saw yesterday that she had her foot curled and picked up. Today I noticed that another hen was kind of limping. I picked him her up and she was curling her toes on the foot she was limping on. Didn't see a scab but she was fighting so I didn't have a lot of time. Neither of their feet look swollen. The hen that was bleeding from getting mated still has some dried blood and a weird stub and the area just seems kind of swollen maybe with bumps. Another hen seems kind of off. I caught her laying down in a bush earlier. Haven't heard her make any sounds lately. She is normally very skittish and will make panicky noises when you go near her. The two young roos together are actually not getting along as well as I thought. Although they were raised from the same brood and grew up together. One had a bloody comb today and it was on his feathers a bit too. I saw one of them get on the one with blood (I think) they look exactly alike so it's hard to tell who is going what. But one of them got on the other like it was a hen and the other one was shrieking. I ran over to them and got the blood one out of there. He went after some of the pullets shortly after.How are the hens you were concerned about?
Moving some of the roosters is a good idea. Cockerels can be a pain at times until they mature, but sometimes too many adult males can cause drama as well if they are competing against each other (often doesn't matter if there's plenty of females). Then you can end up with hurt hens that get in the middle or whatever. Now, I'm not fussing at you! I've had hens hurt by roosters, so have been there! So... when that happens, you have to come up with a plan, some more pens/housing, etc. and move them around to calm things down and protect hens. You're not punishing the roosters you separate out, do keep that in mind. You are managing your flocks so they are peaceful, that there's no bullying, injuries and everyone is relatively happy.