Hiya peeps! What's the best age to take roos away from Mammy-hen?

[2-acre-zoo]

We have 4 chicks, and I think 3 are roos....I'll keep one because we lost our fine fella to a fox last year and one of the chicks is really gorgeous. The other two? Meh, could do without 3 roos fighting it out over my small flock.
I got the eggs from a neighbour as all my hens are hybrid layers and don't seem to be fertile. I've had hens for 3yrs now, and I love them to bits ....one of the girls was broody on and off all last year and this year finally got to hatch some. What a great Mammy she is! So I don't want to freak her out by taking her babies away - at the same time, I don't want my kids getting too fond of the roos that'll have to go. Hmmm, what d'ya think?
Can't get good pics till the eldest boy gets back from school (mine have turned out hopeless!), but I'm nearly sure there's 3 roos. Will leave off doing anything drastic till I'm sure, but any advice on how Mammy will cope with the loss??!

 

[Bengalcats1]

She will be fine, she will still have 2 with her so she won't mind at all, just be Sure they are boys before you get rid of them. I always keep mine Way longer than I should before I find them homes. After a while she will move on anyway and her babies will be fine with each other, but my hens baby theirs for a really Long time, they still sit on them or with them when they're almost the Same size....funny to see

 

[2-acre-zoo]

Thanks bengalcats, yeah...I'm thinking I'm not nearly sure enough yet on gender and the Mammy is so good with them- my boys will just have to get used to the idea of (shhh!) killing the roos - Ew, don't like to think about it, but everyone and I mean EVERYONE locally already have too many roos themselves. I took pics that weren't any good but I've modified them slightly so will post them up for gender guessing purposes! It doesn't help that they are ALL complete mongrels! See what ye think?

 

[2-acre-zoo]

Woops, only posted 8 times before, so no pics yet......this is 9.....

 

[2-acre-zoo]

.....and 10......now lets see can I do pics

 

[2-acre-zoo]

Am thinking girl....

Possible roo?

Same guy...

another fella?

DEFINITE FELLA!

and the brown one again....

 

[donrae]

Just start emphasizing to your kids NOW that two will probably have to go. I think it's best kids learn this lesson and get it over with, it will make things so much easier in the long run, esp if you're going to keep birds long term.

Btw, you don't currently have a roo? I'm not getting you when you say your hens aren't fertile cause they're hybrid layers...........my sex-links are as fertile as my pure breds...........?

 

[donrae]

The barred one is a boy. The other two, still hard to tell from the pics

 

[2-acre-zoo]

Ok donrae, I don't necessarily believe they ARE infertile but people keep telling me they would be. That's interesting that you're saying that, cos it would be nice if they were! We had a roo for a year and during that time none of my 10 girls got and stayed broody, so I wasn't able to find out. Since we've had no roo though, the current Mammy hen had been sitting on and off all last summer and autumn. She ran herself down in doing that too (even though I kept moving her off) and lost so many feathers I thought she wouldn't make it through winter. This spring, she sat on two clutches of her own eggs after we'd had the roo from next door coming over to see his neighbouring girlfriends and I thought her eggs might be fertile then, but nothing doing. So I got some of the neighbours eggs, sat her on and hey presto! 4 chicks! So, as I say, I'm not at all sure she is infertile - it's just the way it seems at the mo, combined with hen keepers telling me they're not good sitters/unfertile when they're hybrids like her. I don't know much though! Am on a steep learning curve! Thanks for the input.....

 

[mother o' chicks72]

how old are they? the only one that screams roo to me is the last one.