5 hens, one roo. Keep together in coop at night?

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bigdogmomtn1967

bigdogmomtn1967

Hatching
Dec 29, 2015
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We have one silkie, one barred rock, two well summers, and one easter egger....all girls.
One of our easter eggers turned out to be a roo. So six chickens all total.
We put them all up in an enclosed coop 6x8 feet at night.
I'm noticing a lot of feathers in there.
They're only about 4 months old.
Is the roo picking on them? Should he be kept separately at night?
They were raised from babies together.
He is getting teenager-y and chasing them around the chicken yard during the day.

They run the enclosed run and the chicken yard during the day with access also to the coop.
 
Welcome! This is a great site full of helpful people. When you get a chance check out the learning center, it is a good place for lots of information.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center
They should be able to be kept togeather, being raised from chicks they should be comfortable with each other. The feathers could be mini molts, from growing.
With the rooster, what looks to you like over agressive behavior, is probably just your Rooster trying to win dominance. Unless you see blood, it is probably just normal chicken behavior. If you see blood, then you might have an onery rooster, that needs to be dealt with.
 
Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. X2 on OrganicFarmWife's post; if you haven't done so already, definitely check out our Learning Center at https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center. There is lots of useful information there. You should consider either removing your rooster from the flock or else getting some more hens as the recommended ratio of roosters to hens is 1 rooster for every 10 hens. As they mature and their hormones kick in, too many roosters (or too few hens in your case) will become very hard physically on your hens, over-breeding them, biting and plucking the feathers from their necks and backs, battering them, and potentially, seriously injuring them. The only reason you really need a rooster is if you want to fertilize your eggs for hatching and 1 rooster can easily handle 10-15 hens in this regard. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Cheers.
 
Thanks! We're new chicken owners. We lost one of our barred rocks to marek's. We're putting poly vi sol vitamin drops in their water. They get two scrambled eggs each day with l-lysine powder and st. john's wort drops in them. We are also still giving medicated crumble in with their feed (organic grains). So far we haven't lost another one. When Judy died and was necropsied, we cloroxed everything and moved them to the outdoor coop. They were in a large dog kennel in the house because the coop wasn't done yet.

We have Phoebe, Rachel, Monica, Laverne, Shirley and Bernadette (silkie). Rachel is now Rachel roo. I want another silkie to keep Bernadette company because she hangs back a bit. I want another female barred rock (Monica is my fave....she loves me), and another Easter egger....since Rachel is a boy.
 
Sorry for your loss. There are some excellent threads on Marek's disease - just put that in the search box & they will pop up. Some breeders hope to achieve a natural immunity to Mareks by breeding only survivors who remain robust and culling any who aren't. As far as I know survivors will carry Marek's for the rest of their lives.
 
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I'm sorry for your loss and hope the rest of your flock stays healthy.

Thank you for joining us!
 

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