One of our hens is a rooster... do we keep him?

[lrenwick]

One of our three "hens" is a rooster -- should we keep him?

Our plan was to keep just a handful of hens and reap the benefits of fresh eggs. But our favorite hen, Jupiter, has become quite rooster-like the last few weeks and this morning we caught him crowing at the crack of dawn.

My hubby and I aren't sure what to do. Is it OK to keep a rooster with just two hens? I've heard mating can be violent and cause injury for the hens if there aren't enough hens around to appease the rooster's mating desires...

We love Jupiter, but are willing to sell him/give him to a good home if that's our best bet. Should we keep him and get two more hens, making the hen to rooster ration 4:1? Or should we find a new home for Jupiter?

None of our chickens are laying eggs yet, they should be old enough to by September. Jupiter, the rooster, is a Cochin-Orpington mix. Sasha is a Barred Rock and Constance is a Black Sexlink.

Any advice on our rooster situation is greatly appreciated!

 

[ralph a]

If you do not mine the crowing give him a chance. Not all roaster are heavy breeders.I have some here that are one to one .While in the past one roaster and six hens was not enough hens . A flock looks nice with a roaster

 

[BeachMomma]

I'm in the same situation, 2 pullets and 1 roo, about 13-14 wks old. Since we knew ahead of time that there is a chance he could get too rough with the girls, we're making a "time out" mini coop & run next to our current one.

It'll also serve as our quarantine coop incase it's needed in the future.

 

[Naliez]

The rooster's breed is supposed to be docile, maybe he will be a good roo for your flock. I would wait and see. A long time ago, I had one rooster and one hen. He was best friends with the hen. Never hurt her at all. The only reason we got rid of him is because for some reason he decided he did not like our oldest child. He was fine with everything and everybody else, even smaller children but it was definitely situation we didn't need escalating so he had to go

 

[donrae]

With such a small flock, I'd rehome him and replace him with two egg producing hens.