Long story, sorry XD.
I've got 3 mystery breed pullets and 1 standard light brahma cockerel. The pullets are chicks we found hiding in our front yard, and non of us at home know much about chicken breeds. my brother-in-law wanted to get a rooster to keep company to the pullets and to help protect them, so I adopted a light brahma cockerel from an acquaintance that keeps a large flock and got quite a few male chicks in this year's hatch. She told me this breed gets big, but from her experience with her flock, really big roosters can get along well with small hens (her alpha rooster is about 14 pounds, and she has a standard and bantam mix flock).
The four chickens get along really well, and they are all about the same age, give or take a week or two. My problem is that my roo has already hit puberty almost a month ago, and he crows like a big roo at 5 months, and boy is he a handful of hormones. My pullets turned out to be small, two of them are about 2.5 pounds and the largest one is 3.5lbs. The roo is 6 pound or so, and he's "in love" with one of the smaller pullets, a creamy white one. He pretty much chases her and mounts her quite a few times a day, and while I haven't found any bald spots or wounds on the pullets, I think this harassment is getting a bit too rough. We've enclosed a large area in the backyard under the trees to keep the chickens more contained when we're not home, and after all this background, here are my questions that I hope you guys can answer
:
- Is it ok to lock the pullets in the enclosure and leave the roo outside? The backyard is really large and fenced, and the chickens usually have access to it, but I'd like to give the girls a break from him, and yet allow them to still socialize. We used welded wire for the enclosure, so they can see each other easily.
- Once the pullets' comb and wattles turn red and start to lay eggs, is it ok to let them all hang out together and mate? I know I shouldn't have gotten a roo that is gonna be so big, but I didn't know my pullets would remain small, and he's such a sweetheart and my nieces love him. Also the chickens are always together and rarely fight.
- Can a rooster learn to mate gently with hens much smaller than him? I was told my smaller pullets were probably bantam mixes, but they are over 2 pounds in weight now, and from all that I've read, bantam hens usually are under 2 pounds. Somebody suggested that they might be gamefowl, and they do look like a gamefowl mix. So they aren't as tiny as bantams, and homefully they are hardy, but I've been thinking on getting a hen from a larger breed to give the pullets a break and the roo can have some fun.
I hope my questions are not too dumb, I just want to do the best I can for my chickens and avoid having to rehome the roo if I can avoid it. He's so sweet that even being so massive at 5 months my nieces can do whatever they want to him, and he's never tried to bite or attack us.
And here's a picture of my mini flock, since I like to show off my "children" :3
he looks huge in this picture, but he's just pretty lean and tall under all that fluff.
I've got 3 mystery breed pullets and 1 standard light brahma cockerel. The pullets are chicks we found hiding in our front yard, and non of us at home know much about chicken breeds. my brother-in-law wanted to get a rooster to keep company to the pullets and to help protect them, so I adopted a light brahma cockerel from an acquaintance that keeps a large flock and got quite a few male chicks in this year's hatch. She told me this breed gets big, but from her experience with her flock, really big roosters can get along well with small hens (her alpha rooster is about 14 pounds, and she has a standard and bantam mix flock).
The four chickens get along really well, and they are all about the same age, give or take a week or two. My problem is that my roo has already hit puberty almost a month ago, and he crows like a big roo at 5 months, and boy is he a handful of hormones. My pullets turned out to be small, two of them are about 2.5 pounds and the largest one is 3.5lbs. The roo is 6 pound or so, and he's "in love" with one of the smaller pullets, a creamy white one. He pretty much chases her and mounts her quite a few times a day, and while I haven't found any bald spots or wounds on the pullets, I think this harassment is getting a bit too rough. We've enclosed a large area in the backyard under the trees to keep the chickens more contained when we're not home, and after all this background, here are my questions that I hope you guys can answer
- Is it ok to lock the pullets in the enclosure and leave the roo outside? The backyard is really large and fenced, and the chickens usually have access to it, but I'd like to give the girls a break from him, and yet allow them to still socialize. We used welded wire for the enclosure, so they can see each other easily.
- Once the pullets' comb and wattles turn red and start to lay eggs, is it ok to let them all hang out together and mate? I know I shouldn't have gotten a roo that is gonna be so big, but I didn't know my pullets would remain small, and he's such a sweetheart and my nieces love him. Also the chickens are always together and rarely fight.
- Can a rooster learn to mate gently with hens much smaller than him? I was told my smaller pullets were probably bantam mixes, but they are over 2 pounds in weight now, and from all that I've read, bantam hens usually are under 2 pounds. Somebody suggested that they might be gamefowl, and they do look like a gamefowl mix. So they aren't as tiny as bantams, and homefully they are hardy, but I've been thinking on getting a hen from a larger breed to give the pullets a break and the roo can have some fun.
I hope my questions are not too dumb, I just want to do the best I can for my chickens and avoid having to rehome the roo if I can avoid it. He's so sweet that even being so massive at 5 months my nieces can do whatever they want to him, and he's never tried to bite or attack us.
And here's a picture of my mini flock, since I like to show off my "children" :3
he looks huge in this picture, but he's just pretty lean and tall under all that fluff.
