Fishychick
Songster
Help! I have a Chicken Game of Thrones. I don’t know what my next move is. I let my chickens have babies and now it’s a mess! I do no not want to kill any of the roosters! Nobody will adopt them so that’s out. Here are the players:
Born April 2018:
Angel – Easter egg rooster, tries to kill me but not bad with the girls
Perky – frizzle naked neck, nut job, mostly defeathered, runs around screaming
Billie – calm black frizzle cochin, nothing bothers her, slow, a lot of father loss
Daffy – broody gray frizzle brahma, now sitting again on nothing, dominant when she gets off nest
Born April 2019, hatched and raised by Perky but Billie is the biological mother of most except Dusty who I think Daffy is the mother:
Georgia – huge black cockerel, crows now
Dusty – huge gray cockerel with feather feet
Iris – huge white cockerel
Hope – smaller white cockerel, I love "her"
Ariel – white frizzle pullet
Dulcinea – black frizzle pullet; I think she’s laying eggs
Their accommodations consist of the following:
Main house with power and roosts = 38 ft2
Main run with tons of roosts = 233 ft2
Quarantine house (two sides only, no roosts, no roof) = 27 ft2
Quarantine run (two tiny roosts) = 56 ft2
The quarantine house and run consist of 23% of the total square footage.
The cockerels mostly get along. Sometimes they puff up and show off but no physical contact that I have witnessed. The older hens bully the younger hens and used to bully the cockerels but now the cockerels are trying to gang rape Perky who runs around screaming. Last night, she was insane. I was able to catch her and put a dress on for the first time but that made her heavier, and she couldn’t get out of the way of the rapists. This morning, she was in the quarantine house area looking half dead so I closed her in. I got the other four hens in there with her. They all hate it. The girls are slamming in to the wire to try to join the boys and vice versa. They want to be together. The pullets are bullied by the hens and have no place to go but they are safe from their brothers. But, they love their brothers, spending all day with them. I've only seen the pullets jumped a few times.
The problem with keeping birds full time in the quarantine area is that the contractors never finished that area so the house only has two sides (fully enclosed though) and holes in the roof so it’s not rain or wind proof. The quarantine house was supposed to have electricity too but it does not so no light, no water heater in winter, and no heaters. It was also supposed to have a door to the outside but it doesn’t so I have to fight my way to the quarantine run through the main run and any roosters in there. The door in to there is huge (for a wheel barrow to fit) so it’s very hard for me to get in and out without birds getting past me. There are also only two tiny roosts in the quarantine area while the main run and house are full of them. I'm going to try to jerry-rig a roost in there tonight. I can’t fix this all up myself. I have no friends to help. I don’t have a day off until the end of October when a 60-year-old handyman is supposed to come and maybe put more sides on the house. So, I have two areas, one nice and huge and one small and not set up properly for chickens. Who should I put where for now and after it's fixed up? I had planned to put Georgia, Dusty, and Iris in the smaller area after it was fixed up, leaving the 5 hens and 2 roosters in the main area. I've had two roosters at a time before, it can be done. Now, I’m thinking I just want to keep males and females apart completely. But, the small area is just too small and not fair to anyone! Perky is attacking Ariel and Dulcinea in there even though Perky herself should be half dead from the rapings. Should I just put them all together again? Leave the girls in the tiny inadequate run to suffer (but not be raped)? Put some of the roosters in there instead (where the close quarters may mean fights)? At some point, someone is going to die but it might be me! I'm never letting my chickens have babies again. I guess I'll just have to wait for them to die off to get things back under control but that could be 10 years (my oldest rooster was 10). And, once again, I remind you that I am not going to murder my roosters! As my late mother said when asked how she could eat chickens but not her own chickens, she said, "I didn't know that chicken." I know my babies, and each is beautiful with a different personality.
Born April 2018:
Angel – Easter egg rooster, tries to kill me but not bad with the girls
Perky – frizzle naked neck, nut job, mostly defeathered, runs around screaming
Billie – calm black frizzle cochin, nothing bothers her, slow, a lot of father loss
Daffy – broody gray frizzle brahma, now sitting again on nothing, dominant when she gets off nest
Born April 2019, hatched and raised by Perky but Billie is the biological mother of most except Dusty who I think Daffy is the mother:
Georgia – huge black cockerel, crows now
Dusty – huge gray cockerel with feather feet
Iris – huge white cockerel
Hope – smaller white cockerel, I love "her"
Ariel – white frizzle pullet
Dulcinea – black frizzle pullet; I think she’s laying eggs
Their accommodations consist of the following:
Main house with power and roosts = 38 ft2
Main run with tons of roosts = 233 ft2
Quarantine house (two sides only, no roosts, no roof) = 27 ft2
Quarantine run (two tiny roosts) = 56 ft2
The quarantine house and run consist of 23% of the total square footage.
The cockerels mostly get along. Sometimes they puff up and show off but no physical contact that I have witnessed. The older hens bully the younger hens and used to bully the cockerels but now the cockerels are trying to gang rape Perky who runs around screaming. Last night, she was insane. I was able to catch her and put a dress on for the first time but that made her heavier, and she couldn’t get out of the way of the rapists. This morning, she was in the quarantine house area looking half dead so I closed her in. I got the other four hens in there with her. They all hate it. The girls are slamming in to the wire to try to join the boys and vice versa. They want to be together. The pullets are bullied by the hens and have no place to go but they are safe from their brothers. But, they love their brothers, spending all day with them. I've only seen the pullets jumped a few times.
The problem with keeping birds full time in the quarantine area is that the contractors never finished that area so the house only has two sides (fully enclosed though) and holes in the roof so it’s not rain or wind proof. The quarantine house was supposed to have electricity too but it does not so no light, no water heater in winter, and no heaters. It was also supposed to have a door to the outside but it doesn’t so I have to fight my way to the quarantine run through the main run and any roosters in there. The door in to there is huge (for a wheel barrow to fit) so it’s very hard for me to get in and out without birds getting past me. There are also only two tiny roosts in the quarantine area while the main run and house are full of them. I'm going to try to jerry-rig a roost in there tonight. I can’t fix this all up myself. I have no friends to help. I don’t have a day off until the end of October when a 60-year-old handyman is supposed to come and maybe put more sides on the house. So, I have two areas, one nice and huge and one small and not set up properly for chickens. Who should I put where for now and after it's fixed up? I had planned to put Georgia, Dusty, and Iris in the smaller area after it was fixed up, leaving the 5 hens and 2 roosters in the main area. I've had two roosters at a time before, it can be done. Now, I’m thinking I just want to keep males and females apart completely. But, the small area is just too small and not fair to anyone! Perky is attacking Ariel and Dulcinea in there even though Perky herself should be half dead from the rapings. Should I just put them all together again? Leave the girls in the tiny inadequate run to suffer (but not be raped)? Put some of the roosters in there instead (where the close quarters may mean fights)? At some point, someone is going to die but it might be me! I'm never letting my chickens have babies again. I guess I'll just have to wait for them to die off to get things back under control but that could be 10 years (my oldest rooster was 10). And, once again, I remind you that I am not going to murder my roosters! As my late mother said when asked how she could eat chickens but not her own chickens, she said, "I didn't know that chicken." I know my babies, and each is beautiful with a different personality.