HELP with Hen Saddles!!!

[CJkid]

Did you try separating him and if you did did it help any See our rooster is 11 months and all his claws arent their yet and I am afraid he is going to hurt them my all this humping he does

Well first my question is, are your chickens loosing feathers or are you just worried they will from him breeding them?

As far as when I tried to separate my rooster, we could only keep him separated during the day when it would start to get dark and the hens were heading back to the coop i had to also let him go to the coop to sleep and the first thing he would do was breed....
it became more work than it was worth and i decided that if i was going to want to raise chicks i would buy a fresh batch from a hatchery in the spring and specifically make sure one was a cockerel. So for now i can do without a rooster.

I know it looks rough when a rooster breeds a hen, but if you aren't seeing any damage from it I wouldn't worry. I had one rooster for well over a year and yeah the hens always squawked but in the end he wasn't really hurting them. But this other rooster was doing damage and pulling out feathers.

 

[lrayle]

Im just worried they will because he mates them so often like 5 or 6 times a day and that is all 5 hens! over and over

 

[Chickens R Us]

I made saddles for my hens because of my over zealous rooster Casanova. It took them a while to get used to them but they eventually did. Maybe try a color that matches your hen. I made black for my Barred Rocks and Red sex links

 

[CJkid]

Im just worried they will because he mates them so often  like 5 or 6 times a day and that is all 5 hens!  over and over

If there's no feather loss yet I wouldn't worry about it. That is natural rooster behavior. No sense driving youself crazy over a problem you don't have.

 

[Gldnrose]

I am at a loss as what to do also. My hens are taking a lot from my rooster too. One in particular is his favorite and her back feathers are getting worse and worse. She is not featherless...yet, but if it keeps up she will be. She is a Buff Orpington and all her golden colored feathers are gone. I worry about this also with it being so cold here lately, in the negative temps for long stretches.

I was considering the aprons, but with my luck the same thing would probably happen that happened with yours.

I never had any intention on keeping a rooster, but he came as a surprise when I got my six chicks. I've kept him all this while, my husband really likes him (although I am the one that deals with the chickens mostly). I don't mind the crowing and so far he has not gone after any of us. Sometimes I secretly wish he would then I could tell my husband to "take care of him", but I feel awful doing that at the present moment. BUT, I do not like what is happening to my hens, and people have told my husband that it will only get worse come Spring. I don't know if that is true or not. I even posted him here on the free section, almost found a home for him but that fell through and the other was way too far away and I would have to ship him which I don't want to do that.

People I know tell me that finding him a home that actually wants him for rooster duties and not dinner is very hard. My husband and I have talked about that and if that's the case then we might as well do it ourselves. I have never done such a thing, although my husband has hunted birds before and knows what to do.

Just curious, did you find a new home, or was it freezer camp for your rooster? I wish I could just find a new home for him that wasnt for someones stew pot. Nothing is that easy I guess

 

[CJkid]

Believe me Gldnrose I understand your quandary. I unfortunately have had to make that hard decision more than once. As far as our rooster problem went we did decide to rename him dinner. It wasn't an easy choice, I had raised him from an egg we hatched ourselves. But in the end it was all we could have done. I exhausted my other options and my delay in making the decision led to our hens getting much worse than they ever should have.

I have found that it takes a lot longer than you would think for those feathers to grow back. I don't know if your hens would react this way but because some of my hens had bare backs, when the other hens would see the pin feathers poking through they would peck them out. So in order to get fully feathered hens I have had to systematically separate each hen. We got rid of the rooster in the middle of October.... it is now the middle of January and i'm still working on fixing the damage he did.

It is a very hard decision to make, but personally I wish I would have taken care of my rooster sooner.

 

[Southchick]

I hope this isn't too late to post. I just made these for my wheaton hens. I discovered (by accident) a large gash in the side of my hen. I had to separate her to let her heal, then make these to prevent further injury. The others are losing their back feathers because of lover boy here, too. I had already filed down his spurs, etc. he's a young roo, and I'm keeping up with all my growing Roos. The Wheaton roo is just more active/rough/whatever because the other groups don't have damage (with great fertility BTW). I made these and they are great! The others don't mind them, I'm not sure why the others would attack your healing hen. They may be bored? Temperaments in chickens can vary greatly, can't they? I'm for saddles if they are fitted right. I agree that if the others don't like it, to get one that matches the hens coloring. Hope it worked out! Hens tend to get over stuff after awhile, too.

 

[Faraday40]

I just made a simple saddle for our rooster's favorite girl. She's not completely bald yet, but missing so many feathers. Although she didn't seem to mind wearing it, our rooster completely freaked out. He squawked when he noticed it & then all the hens flew around like crazy. Once all the other girls were "safe" inside the coop, our rooster came back outside to attack her.

My fear is that if II don't do some prevention now, the poor girl will go bald. He seems to prefer my 2 golden hens over all the others. I don't know if it's the color or just that they're too dumb to stay away from him. Did anyone have any luck changing the color of fabric?

 

[deddy]

I am having the same problem

. Now not only is my RIR hen bald but it seems to getting infected. I have used a black saddle vs colorful one & Mr Roo hates them all & viciously attacks my Sweet Girl. I really don't want to isolate her because that seems to be hard on her too. I have 2 coops & a large pen. They have plenty of space. In my small coop I currently have (4) 2.5 month old pullets not yet ready for the big girls. I'm considering putting her in there to heal. What do you all think? Will she get along with the babies? This is the 1st time I have had this challenge & ... I'm challenged.

 

[Faraday40]

I am having the same problem

. Now not only is my RIR hen bald but it seems to getting infected. I have used a black saddle vs colorful one & Mr Roo hates them all & viciously attacks my Sweet Girl. I really don't want to isolate her because that seems to be hard on her too. I have 2 coops & a large pen. They have plenty of space. In my small coop I currently have (4) 2.5 month old pullets not yet ready for the big girls. I'm considering putting her in there to heal. What do you all think? Will she get along with the babies? This is the 1st time I have had this challenge & ... I'm challenged.

For me the color made a big difference. When I 1st tried it, they were enclosed in the coop/run.(Didn't go well.) Later I tried the saddles while they were out free ranging in the yard. The hens with saddles could run around a bit and not freak out the others. (They will try to get the saddle off at first & make all kinds of crazy moves.) Also, when I put saddles on 4 hens (instead of one) they treated each other better. There was no way to single out a victim. If the hen was calm, the roo stayed calm.

In your case, I would worry 1st about blood & infection. Definitely treat wounds. If chickens see blood, they can turn into piranhas and mercilessly pick on the wounded. In a pinch you can use the same triple antibiotic ointment you have for humans - just make sure there's no pain reliever in it. (toxic to them) You may only need to isolate the hen until she stops bleeding then disguise the red color. Others may have better advice on that part. (maybe sprinkle corn starch or cocoa; maybe food color, maybe blue cote. I'm only guessing here.)