Bachelor Pad

[piglett]

He is 11 months old. The one hen with a bare back is a gold star, and all my gold stars do seem to have bad feathers. I am torn about what to do - I don't want a mean rooster but even if he is mean, I can't imagine NOT having him.

get a second rooster & put both in a different pen

not one that that either has been in before

that way the pen doesn't belong to anyone

they may get along just fine after they work things out between them

it doesn't always work but i have had it work for me before

 

[ChickenLegs13]

He is 11 months old. The one hen with a bare back is a gold star, and all my gold stars do seem to have bad feathers. I am torn about what to do - I don't want a mean rooster but even if he is mean, I can't imagine NOT having him. 

I liked my last rooster too. He was a very large 2-3 year old RIR/mutt rooster named Big Daddy that sired almost 100 chicks last summer. But he was rough on my hens, if he wasn't standing in the middle of the yard looking stupid and crowing, he was chasing the hens. When he'd catch one there'd be a bunch of squawking, flapping and feathers would be flying every where. Not only were my hens barebacked & bareheaded but his own butt was rubbed raw too.
A chicken deal I made this winter included a huge, ancient RIR that I called Ole Grandpa. He looked like a basketball with legs, was so old and stove up he could barely walk, his feathers were a mess, had a bad foot, couldn't fly and rarely crowed and looked like he was 100 years old. I threw him out in the yard when Big Daddy wasn't looking and Ole Grandpa walked up to some hens and said like a gentleman "Buka buka wha wha whaaa" and 3 hens instantly squatted. These were not my young pullets but my old hateful grumpy hens and they did the deed without any flapping or squawking.
So Big Daddy got the hatchet and Ole Grandpa has his hens now. He treats them with respect and the hens thank me for it.
If your rooster is abusing your hens, get rid of him, your hens deserve better.

 

[Chicks Galore3]

I am going to give Mr. Darcy to some friends to take care of. I'm sad, but I'm sure this is what is best. Now my brother won't be scared about going outside to play when the chickens are out. and I guess Dad will say yest to the Silkies and/or cochins I want to get. I am thinking about getting a cochin roo....are they nice? could a cochin "cover" a buff orpington?

 

[woodsia]

I don't have any helpful advice, but I had to chime in to note that I love the name Mr. Darcy, and that you'd probably have an easier time getting rid of him if you changed his name to Mr. Wickham.