naked necks with nasty feathers

[kabear]

Hi...new here. Recently a friend gave us two naked neck roosters.. They were penned and fight at first I thought this was why their feathers were broken and nasty. The top side of their wings looked alot like the "favorite" hen. We free range and they all return to the hen house each evening as did the two new boys. However...they are beasts...two jumping one hen at the same time. The down feathers seem to be coming in better but they still look broken and beat up. We have one rooster and 7 hens, 1 guinea and peeps of 3 hens and it appears 3 roosters. they mostly hang with the ducks they were raised with this spring. Are these two naked necks too much? The others don't seem to be catching anything. I'd appreciate any input

 

[allmypeeps]

If they were penned and confined in a small area their feathers could be broken from 'flapping against wire'. They will not look better until they moult out the broken feathers and grow new ones.

If they have been cooped- and are now just introduced to your flock- they can be super excited for new found freedom and hens, so they may be acting over zelous, give them time to settle in and get used to being apart of your flock. If they don't settle down and you feel your hens are suffering try separating them- they may feel competition for hens if they are the dominating competing type. You may want to rehome one or keep it separate if thats the case.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

I'm trying to add up how many chickens you have, and I'm coming up with 3 chicken roosters and 7 chicken hens (the rest were guineas, right)?

If so, that's part of your problem. You have too many roosters to hens. I have heard recommendations of 8-10 hens per rooster when you have more than one rooster. Otherwise, they will always be competing for control of the "harem." Unfortunately, this doesn't only mean fights between roosters; it also means asserting their dominance by mounting the hens. One rooster will see another rooster mounting, and he'll hop on right after to assert his own dominance. They will go back and forth for awhile until the poor hen is able to escape.

This kind of situation is extremely stressful for the hens, and often the roosters can be more rough than usual, and in a scuffle over mounting a hen, sometimes a hen will be killed.

You might consider a "bachelor pad" set-up for the new roosters so that they have no access to the hens at all.