Advice needed please

[Bookspryte]

I'm looking for advice on a suggestion my DH made. I currently have three coops. In coop #1 I have two roosters and 12 hens. My main rooster, Travis, is a barred rock and the girls seem to follow him around like he's a rock star. It's really cute. My #2 rooster is an EE named RJ. He's a randy boy and the girls hate him. My DH wants me to pull him out of that coop and put him into the coop #2, which currently houses 4 pullets and a confused turkey who thinks she's a chicken. He wants me to put those four hens into coop #1.

Here's my dilemma. RJ is a disappointment because he's beautiful with gorgeous green legs. I'm hoping to keep his genes in my flock and I hope his mating tactics settle down. Neither Travis or RJ seem to have any interest in challenging me, and Travis is good about protecting the girls when he gets too rough.

My main flock has girls from two sets - the 8 original and 4 that are month later. They still haven't completely bonded as a group and I hate to upset the flock dynamics by adding 4 additional girls. Plus, I don't think Travis could cover 16 girls by himself and guarantee fertility of all my eggs.

My DH is handicapped and in a wheelchair full time and all of the chicken duties fall to me. That's not a problem. I love my babies. But I get a better idea from dealing with them about the various personalities.

I have 6 bantam roosters who were given to me by a friend (I use the word loosely). I'm hoping to move one of the two bigger boys in this coop to be the rooster in coop #2 and leave everything as is.

Sorry if this is rambling and confusing. I'm hoping to go with my gut, which says to leave sleeping dogs, er chickens, lie. What do you guys think?

Denise

 

[lovetocook]

Just my opinion but two roosters with 12 hens may be excessive. How are the hens responding with both of them in the coop? How young/old are your chickens?

 

[PeeperKeeper]

I think you need one more coop OR get rid of the bantam roos. Then give rj half the hens and travis the others. Pick out the hens whose genes you want to mix with what roo. If they have all been within eyesight of each other for at least a month, they just might get along with new coop mates. But I'd watch very close. I have 46 hens and 5 standard roos. They free range and have worked out their status ranking pretty well to keep some sort of peace in the fields. But if I move or get rid of one roo, the pecking (fighting) thing starts all over again.

 

[FarmerChick]

let your DH do some control. put your DH over a chicken and let him figure out the housing.

see what happens.

don't worry too much about a chicken----I would let DH have his say and thoughts, try it out and see.

some times we have to let our control just go by the wayside and allow others thoughts and concerns into the situation.

tell him, sure do it, and see. worse is he sees a problem and backs out and changes something.

 

[Bookspryte]

I'm worried about upsetting the status quo now as the weather is starting to get cold. My hens have not been very friendly to the four additions I added to coop #1 a couple of months ago. Adding another 4 girls seems like a prescription for possible disaster to me.

Are 2 roos too much for 12 hens? I thought the ratio was 1/10.

None of my girls seem to have bare backs or anything, although I'm seeing lots of feathers in the coop and on the ground outside. But I think everyone is losing some.

Travis, RJ and 8 of the girls were hatched at the end of March. The other 4 are a month younger. Until the days started getting colder and the daylight shorter, I was getting 9-11 eggs per day. Now I'm down to 1-3. If I stress them out by rearranging all the coops, I worry about what that will do.

Plus, my confused turkey is only used to the 4 hens in Coop #2 with her.

Who thought chickens were such a good idea?

Denise

 

[FarmerChick]

you already made up your mind.

tell DH to leave the situation alone. you will handle it.