I have 1 roo and 2 hens. Neither of my hens are laying and my roo seems to have made friends with 1 hen who he doesn't mate with. My 2nd hen is getting terrorized by my roo since he's turned all his attention on her. Why is he only mating with 1 of my hens and do I need to get a 3rd hen to solve this issue? When the hen he is mating with comes out of her coop (which is rare) he becomes aggressive towards her. Any advice or suggestions are appreciated!
My suggestion is to get rid of the roo. Unless you intend to hatch your own eggs, you don't need a roo. And even then, I'd not keep a roo unless I had 10 or more hens.
We have 2 roosters that are aggressive when it comes to mating with the hens and it stresses them out to the point that they are not laying up to their potential. Someone here suggested to me that i get rid of mine to relieve that stress. I would suggest the same with yours. Good luck
I have one roo with 5 hens. I let them free range in the day time and they get along good. I think it is the roosters temperament unless he is young. Or perhaps the free ranging gives the hens more room to escape.
Thank you for all the suggestions/advice. I know our roo should be rehomed. I was hoping there would be a way around that since we've gotten attached to him, but of course we need to do what's best for the flock.
I had roosters too, and one played the boss, scared all the hens up into roosting most of the day, he wouldn't let them out of the coop. I re homed him, but then the next roo took over same behaviour. So I found the roo's homes, and since then they are less stressed and having lots of fun in the hen house
I love roosters! But, they are a challenge in themselves. I have had 4 roosters, and I rehomed 2 after training them so that new owners could pick them without fear. It took a full year to train them. I would have kept them all, but then I would have needed 40 hens! If left to their own devices roosters will simply operate on instinct and personality. Now - you really need to have at least 8 hens for each rooster, 10 or more is best. And yes, they do have preferences as to what hen they like or don't like. But no hen should be purposely harmed by the rooster. Chickens are flock animals, if you put the roo in a pen by himself, he will get depressed. Even your two hens is not enough to call them a flock. When one dies the lone hen will become depressed. Depressed and stressed hens stop laying. It is my guess that the neglected hen is not laying because she is depressed, it's lonely being on the outside. The popular hen is not laying because she is stressed. It has to be hard on her constantly being mated. Soon she will lose her back feathers to the rooster's toe nails. It is always best to give animals quality of life according to their species. Even if you decide to rehome the rooster, try and add at least 3 more hens to make a flock.
The 'rooster' to hen ratio of 1:10 that is often cited is primarily for fertility efficiency in commercial breeding facilities. It doesn't mean that if a cockbird has 10 or more hens that he won't abuse or over mate them. Many breeders keep pairs, trios, quads, etc It all depends on the temperaments of the cock and hens and sometimes housing provided.
