Full Size Roo and a Silkie?

[nuttyredhead]

Will he break her back if he gets the chance to mount her? So far they have been seperate but yesterday was day 1 of intergration and he was quite taken with her. She was able to get away but i ended up caging him for fear he would kill her. The size difference is huge!

Any thoughts?

 

[PattySh]

I adopted a bunch of bantam hens this summer. I had a juvenile flock of Buff Orpingtons about half grown at the time. As the Orpington roosters matured they were really hurting the small hens so I had to rehome the bantams. Poor bantams they had moved around several times! Roosters were far too big for them tho.

 

[Blue]

I'd be worried if he was that much bigger than them. Is there any way you can maybe keep the bantams in a separate enclosure and maybe get them their own roo? As an alternative to that, you could also try to rehome your large roo and get a smaller roo for all the ladies. I have an Old English who has all my bantam hens plus 2 LF Buff Orpingtons, and he manages to...umm...service them all.

I was surprised when I cracked that Orpington egg and saw that it was fertile, then I was like, "Go, little dude!"

 

[sourland]

12+ pound rooster mounting a 3 pound hen? I think the logical answer is self evident.

 

[nuttyredhead]

Quote:
Deep down I know. I think I am putting off the inevitable, having to rehome my roo. He is wonderful and I hate to do it but i cant lose my little ladies either!

 

[nuttyredhead]

Quote:
There really isnt anyway to keep them seperate long term, and even now the roo keeps flying over the fence to see them!

 

[Blue]

I'm not sure what kind of set-up you have for your bird, but if you have an enclosed run, the flying problem could be solved by putting some of that plastic garden netting over the top of the run. That's what I've got over my bantam's run, and so far it's worked wonderfully.

Since you really don't want to re-home your roo, have you thought of covering the run with the netting and then using some PVC hardware cloth to divide up the run and coop so the hens could be on one side and the roo on the other. That way they could still see each other, but the roo couldn't bother the hens. I recently divided our big chicken coop this way so my silkie roo and his 2 standard hens (one of which has turned out to be roo- which raises a whole other issue) could stay in the same coop as our big roo and his hens. So far it's working quite well. If you do try this, though, keep in mind that zip ties are your best friends when undertaking such an endeavor.