Removing roos from flock in batches. Cons?

[Hope119]

I hope I am in the right part of the message board for this..

Here is our situation.
We hatched our chicks back in April - they were born around April 23rd and will be 4 months old in a week.
We think we have 9 pullets and 14 roos (+1 roo disappeared few weeks ago). Quite high percentage of roos

. We plan to leave just one and... remove the others... to a freezer camp, probably. I feel that pullets could live a happier life if roos were not there with them, but we don't have any separate place to put the roos. We also would like for them to grow more, at least some of them. On the other hand, some of them are bossy and very noisy too. What are the negative sides of removing, lets say, 6 roosters and then another 7 later, in about a month? I understand that they will need to establish a new pecking order once some of them are gone. How hard is this process for them? Would anyone advice not remove them in batches because of it? I was thinking to first remove those that I think are high in the order - I think they are the noisiest ones, plus few big ones.

Thanks!

ps.. OT: I see a thread about being attached to your roos... well all of our 24 (now 23) chickens have names too.

 

[bigstack]

personally I had almost the same situation. I removed the first 8 roo's beginning with the most agressive. I still have 8 more to dispatch this weekend. I will still have a 7 hens to 1 roo ratio. I think they will and have recovered the pecking order very quickly. The order as it is now will basically stay the same just every one moves up to fill in the spaces. There may be a few scuffles but I have not seen any real fights. My hens are taking a beating now! The roo's are in compitition to mate.

Good luck and God Bless!

 

[Hope119]

Thanks for sharing your experience, bigstack! I am glad to know that removing in batches is an option.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've removed as many as 4 at a time with no bad results. In your case, I'd consider leaving the one most dominant rooster until the last batch. He should keep his position without too many challenges by the others in the shakeup and he may actually break up fights between the others. My dominant one does that. As far as which ones to take out first, I agree with the ones that are most into chasing the pullets.

 

[simplycreative]

you may consider leaving 2 roosters instead of just one, just in case something happens. once you weed out the most aggressive in the first batch, watch the remainders and pick out the 2 that seem highest in the pecking order and are attentive to the girls. You want to have to good roosters that will take care of the small flock.


simplycreative

 

[bigstack]

When selecting my roo's to remove.... I chose the ones who challenged me the most, first! Then i began removing based on attitude and genetics/looks! I picked my favorites and marked them with a zip tie around their legs so they would not blend in and be grabbed by mistake! I picked the gentlest, biggest, and best looking to keep. But I did not keep a few good looking birds because of their attitudes. I don't want to be attacked by any Roo!!! Even if he is Beautiful! It was hard at first but. I just kept telling myself.... Soon they will have spurs! Plus the girls are looking better and more peaceful with fewer boys chasing them all day.

God Bless!

 

[Hope119]

Well, don't you think that 1 roo is plenty for 9 hens? I read that 1 roo per 20 hens is a good number. I know when my friend had 6 hens and 1 roo, that was too many roos and some hens had difficult life at times.

No picking a rooster to leave for me - my daughter has picked one already (well, initially it was a different one, but out of 24 chickens that favorite one was the one to disappear) - I am not totally agreeing with her choice (I like other one better because of his colors and small comb - less chance of frost bite, I think), but will most likely go with her decision this time.

As of leaving the highest one... I think that the two that are the highest in order, are the noisiest ones... therefore, they'll probably go first, especially that the one I think is the main one (by coincidence named Tsar) is pretty big and pecks often.

 

[bigstack]

it really depends on what you want. If you are breeding for chicks/birds you really don't want more than 8 hens to 1 roo. your fertility can suffer. But if you just want eggs 1 / 20 is fine. But if you have less than 6 hens then hens can suffer. It all depends on your circumstances!

God Bless!

 

[Hope119]

no breeding plans

And the rooster is a brother to all but one hen (same father for all, both parents are the same for some), their parents were also sisters and a brother, so it might not be a good idea to breed them.

 

[sourland]

One rooster to 9 hens is fine. Two roosters to 9 hens is one too many. If you are not planning on raising chicks, you really don't need any, but they are neat to have around. That is, they're neat as long as they don't have a bad attitude.