New roo... stirring up the coop?

[Riven]

To begin with I had one young rooster I guess who was a spring hatch, and a bantam roo, then a huge fat roo of my kids' ( it's a meat variety they got with some chicks this spring).

Neither of the other two bothered anything, the bantam rooster would chase down the hens and breed them ( or try anyway) and at that time we we getting about 5 eggs per day out of 6 hens, we also have about a dozen pullets coming up soon.

Three weeks ago we got a new pair of std. cochins, the roo was in kind of sad shape the guy said he used to be the boss but then the others there started putting him in his place.

The day after we brought them home my mom sent her three barred rocks to my house who were all laying at her place.

Since these events egg production has been decreasing, all the way down to two eggs today...

It looks like two of the RIR girls of mine are starting to molt, so I figured that might explain some of it, and I thought maybe a little stress with the new girls, but everyone gets along fine... except to new roo. He seems to just pick on everyone for no reason. They can just be standing there doing nothing and he'll go after them, especially the pullets, the older gals put up with it less. We haven't seen him breed anything or even attempt to. And he was picking on the fat roo a lot, so we moved him ( the fat roo ) onto his own.

We've checked for lice or bugs, secret egg nests ( they have a 8X12 coop and a very large pen), they have food and water all the time...

Any suggestions? Could this new roo be stressing the girls out? My husband thinks he is and that we should separate him or just sell him.

Does this sound right to anyone else? I hate to just pull him if it's not him, or if it's some kind of adjusting period, but it seems as more time goes, the more he picks on the others...

Suggestions?

 

[Uppity Peon]

To paraphrase you have a flock if hens and roosters of various ages and you wonder why you are not getting as many eggs as before some additions were made to the flock.

First you need to find out if they are laying. They may be laying but you just aren't getting the eggs because of a pest or the chickens eating them. You could try watching them more closely, or you could use these techniques to evaluate your laying hens:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/livestocksystems/DI1182.html

If you think they are not laying any more, it may be because they are molting, broody, stressed or sick. I have also heard that mixing pepper into the feed can "kick-start" them into being productive again. I can't imagine why this would work, but maybe it reduces the worms that may be in their gut and robbing them of nutrients.

 

[Riven]

I'm in the coop several times a day and around all day, so I don't think that there is anything getting the eggs, if there is anything they'd have to climb a 4' fence to get in, and my dogs would let me know if they saw anything doing that!

I've not seen any signs of anyone eating eggs either, no goo in the boxes or anything.