Ruff Roo

[13Bettys]

I have 27 hens and 1 Roo. He is almost a year old and very friendly with humans. A good portion of my girls have bald backs/heads from him though. He is not mean just really ruff with them. Is there any solution aside from separating him from the flock? I don’t know that it actually would but I feel like this would be cruel and make him “sad” since he has never been separated. Please do not post to grt rid of him, it’s not happening and I know a lot of people say there is no need for a Roo unless you want to hatch eggs. I did not intentionally get him (was sold as a pulley) but he is part of the family now.

 

[50-45-1]

A good rooster is worth keeping.
They do make saddles for overworked hens back.
Also if your rooster has spurs it may be a good idea to remove them.
Otherwise i can think of no remedy for his overly rough treatment of the hens.
Good luck

 

[13Bettys]

So I have another question, how well do the saddles work with a Roo?

 

[50-45-1]

Do you mean your rooster is loosing feathers also?
If so this means you have a feather picker, which is a whole different problem.
Below is a link for instructions for the chicken apron.

https://www.homesteadingtoday.com/threads/chicken-apron-pattern.332193/#post-4135395

 

[Backyard Bruce]

A good rooster is worth keeping.
They do make saddles for overworked hens back.
Also if your rooster has spurs it may be a good idea to remove them.
Otherwise i can think of no remedy for his overly rough treatment of the hens.
Good luck

Remove the spurs completely? I just trimmed my roos spurs(went a little too deep) I am all ears if there is a way to remove them all together.
My hens head and backs are bare as well OP.
And sorry don't mean to hyjack your thread, just expanding on it a little, please forgive.

 

[13Bettys]

No lol I meant how well does it stay on and everything with the Roo still doing his thing, ruff

 

[13Bettys]

Remove the spurs completely? I just trimmed my roos spurs(went a little too deep) I am all ears if there is a way to remove them all together.
My hens head and backs are bare as well OP.
And sorry don't mean to hyjack your thread, just expanding on it a little, please forgive.

No worries! We are all on here to share knowledge and learn what we can.

 

[llombardo]

Remove the spurs completely? I just trimmed my roos spurs(went a little too deep) I am all ears if there is a way to remove them all together.
My hens head and backs are bare as well OP.
And sorry don't mean to hyjack your thread, just expanding on it a little, please forgive.

I was reading and people use those nail covers that are used i cats nails. Not sure onthe sizes but I eould think that if the end is pointy them the cap would fit.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You can leave your rooster with the flock and accept the feather loss as long as there's no skin damage. Otherwise penning him separately where he's still a part of the flock isn't cruel. You can try saddles but those make the hens uncomfortable. I'd rather have the rooster in time out for a while, than put hens through saddles for the whole year.

 

[13Bettys]

Well I’m going to try saddles for a bit. We are working on building a separate enclosure at the end of the existing run so they can see each other if we have to separate for any reason. I have 6 saddles made so far, this is one . I have plenty of scrap material so no cost to make and the girls don’t seem to mind them so far. At first a couple were funny but it didn’t last but a few minutes. One would be ok then look behind her and see it on her back then jump, squawk and run . It was quite comical but as I said it o didn’t last long. Only a few times.