Large Roo to Large Hen/Small Roo to Small Hen ??

[TreehuggerMo]

I know this is a little late to think of this but... we have a mix of silkies, sizzles, cochins and wyndottes. Love them all and so far they all get along great (17 weeks). My question is will the smaller silkie roos naturally match up with the smaller type hens and vs/vers for the larger breed hens n roos. We have roos and hens of each size. Should I watch out for a problem here?

Mo

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Likely they will, but our Cochin roo will breed the LF hens and the Serema will rape them, lol
It also depends on who likes who

 

[TreehuggerMo]

Yikes!! Should I be worried about the resulting egg sizes if they get mixed up? I mean I am sure there won't be a problem if a small roo somehow catches a large girl but if the reverse happens......
P.S. Love your lama clip - it is great!!

 

[Wrooster]

Yikes!! Should I be worried about the resulting egg sizes if they get mixed up? ....

That's not how it works.

We had one big rooster, several Bantam roosters, only one Bantam hen, and a bunch of full-size hens. The Bantam roosters were half the size of the hens but they were jumping on them all the time. Can't recall if they ever paid any attention to the one small hen. Got to where they were tearing up the big hens' backs too much and we finally decided that enough was enough. They went to the stewpot and the survivors are much happier. So are the humans.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Yikes!!  Should I be worried about the resulting egg sizes if they get mixed up? ....

That's not how it works.

We had one big rooster, several Bantam roosters, only one Bantam hen, and a bunch of full-size hens. The Bantam roosters were half the size of the hens but they were jumping on them all the time. Can't recall if they ever paid any attention to the one small hen. Got to where they were tearing up the big hens' backs too much and we finally decided that enough was enough. They went to the stewpot and the survivors are much happier. So are the humans.

In my flock, the banties preferred the bantie hens, I think it was mostly because the bantie hens were easier to breed. But I was not in any way saying banties won't breed the LF hens.

 

[Wrooster]

In my flock, the banties preferred the bantie hens, I think it was mostly because the bantie hens were easier to breed. But I was not in any way saying banties won't breed the LF hens.

Our flock was very unbalanced both in sizes and in male-female ratio. If we'd had one small rooster and 5 or 6 small hens instead of the reverse, they might have behaved better. But predators and the stewpot eventually balanced it out.

When I said "That's not how it works" I was talking about egg sizes, not the mating.

 

[WickeeChickee]

I have a question along these lines too. I have two silkie roos and six BO pullets - the roos are 14 weeks and the buffs are 17 weeks. Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this? What are the chances that the buffs will allow the silkies to mate them? So far the roos have always been completely dominated and bossed around by the girls...