Hi Everyone!! I have now had my flock of chickens for over a year now. In the beginning I purchased 5 pullets and 1 straight run he became a rooster. I had two baby chicks last Easter weekend 1 hen and 1 rooster. We have had our ups and downs with the whole chicken thing!! I had one of my horses kill a hen that got in her stall I am now having an issue with my young rooster....Everyone is mean to him and it has gotten worse. What should I do with him? It breaks my heart that the hens are just evil!! I really like him much better than the other rooster who is always looking for a fight. Does this get any better? If I re-home the older rooster will the younger one be accepted? Can chickens inner breed? These are just some of my questions... Thank You for listening and I look forward to your knowledge
Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. I'm so sorry that one of your hens was killed by a horse. You either need to get rid of both roosters, or get 15 more hens to go with them. The recommended ratio of roosters to hens is 1 rooster for every 10 hens. Your hens are stressed by the imbalance in your flock. If you decide to keep one rooster, I would get rid of the more aggressive rooster and add 5 more hens. I currently have 25 hens in my flock and no roosters, and I get loads of eggs without all the aggression, fighting, biting and feather plucking, non-productive mouths to feed, crowing in the middle of the night, and over-breeding and battering of hens that goes along with having roosters (especially too many of them). My hens are stress free, and enjoying life without any roosters around. In answer to your second question, chickens can breed for 4 or 5 generations before inbreeding starts to create health problems. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with your flock.
Hello there and welcome to BYC! So sorry you are having troubles with aggression. An older rooster is going to fight with a younger rooster or any rooster for that matter. So you may need to rehome one of your roosters. You might want to wait until he grows up and then decide which roo to keep or let him grow up and get him a harem of hens. For now, keep him completely separated or find some hens that do get along with him. Usually there are a few that get along with everybody. Roosters will mate with any breed. They do not understand breeding with their own kind. So yes, they will inter breed. Have you stopped by our learning center yet? Lots of great articles on all the aspects of keeping your birds...https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center If you have any further questions, feel free to ask. Welcome to our flock!
Hello and Welcome To BYC! You've gotten some good answers and links from Michael and TwoCrows. with adding the young rooster to the flock, even if it is only hens in the flock, you still need to combine them slowly. Keeping the new/younger one in a cage inside the coup for a couple of weeks to a month at least (and waiting until they are the same size and he is mature). The chickens will get to know each other more and sort of work out a pecking order before actually coming in contact with each other. Letting them free range together is a good idea and should help... It will take a couple of weeks to get the pecking order sorted out. It usually goes faster with adding a rooster to a flock, than adding another hen, but it still takes awhile sometimes. There is a nice article in the Learning Center on integrating flocks you might like to check out, the part about actually combining them is after the quarantine section https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock
Sorry, I miss-read your post. I though you were asking about inbreeding rather than interbreeding. Yes, as TwoCrows said, chickens can interbreed. Some hatcheries will purposely interbreed two different breeds to produce hybrids for specific qualities (examples include Sex Links, Easter Eggers, Austra Whites, Cornish cross, California Whites, etc.).
Glad you joined us! I'm sorry about the hen that was killed by a horse. Unfortunately, accidents do happen. It is relatively common (at least in my experience) for young roosters to get picked on by hens and other birds. As the rooster matures, though, that will change: roosters are nearly always dominant over the hens. If possible, you could keep your young rooster separate until he's older. Or, you can leave him with the hens and let him fend for himself. Hens might be a little bossy, but I've never had them injure a rooster. Sooner or later, they'll accept him into the flock. And yes, chickens can inbreed. Inbreeding isn't preferable, but it shouldn't cause any ill effects for at least several generations.
Hens seem to enjoy giving a young rooster a hard time. With some maturity, the tables will be turned.
Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help. Two Crows, Kelsie and Bantam Lover have given you expert advice. Good luck!
