Help Injured Rooster

[NicoleGreen]

No, I don't but they are as much pets as for the farm. All 3 were part of my very first chicken purchase, we are in the Clio, Michigan area and only moved here a year ago. So between new area and first experience I am partial to my 16. This is the rooster my husband has threatened to kill more than once and I won't let him. I do plan to use them to clear my gardens next year, didn't get them in this year, and just not ready. He is a beautiful bird, in time we are hoping to sell our own chicks, and having 3 roosters won't hurt come spring when I have 23-30 hens. My coop alone based on sq. footage can hold 60 chickens and there is an indoor run the same size and an even bigger outdoor run. Our intention is not to get any more roosters. And hoping to have a small orchard and a couple decent size gardens I will be able to seperate the roosters with the hens this way.

 

[centrarchid]

Consider Isolating roosters in a bachelor group somewhat separated from hens. That is how I manage my American Dominiques even when they are more than two years old. That scrap a little but not nearly as bad as they do when fighting for breeding privileges with hens. Will help keep hens in better feather until time to produce hatching eggs. More is better in the bachelor groups and make so there are obstructions so they can get out of sight of each other when one is getting picked on.

I even pen them up singly but that does cost a bit for materials and labor.

 

[NicoleGreen]

Thank you, will look into how I could do that.

 

[NicoleGreen]

When you isolate your roosters in the bachelor pad are they able to see/ hear the hens and just not get to them or are they in a totally different area? My husband and I are curious because we are seriously considering this. Another of my hens has its skin on the side of its body tore, about the area of mounting where the feet would sit. We are not to the point of hatching our own yet and I am not quite to the point of killing the roosters. This is our first winter with them and because of windchill/ their affliction to snow/ polar vortex here in Michigan they have been in the indoor run more than the outdoor. All of my chickens are less than a year and we hadnt had problems before the last couple weeks really.

 

[centrarchid]

Mine are penned about 30 feet away from the nearest pen with females lacking a rooster. Some hens move free-range with a rooster but they stay away from bachelor pen per their own accord. Bachelors here see hens but they does not seem to impact discord.

 

[NicoleGreen]

Thank you!