Removing roosters from the group

[alishka02]

We have 3 roosters that we have to send to a new home because we're not allowed to keep them in our neighborhood. They are 13 weeks old. This will only leave us with 2 hens once they are gone. How will this effect the hens? I've heard they can get extremely stressed. They haven't been together that long, but I was curious. Any tips? And any tips for the roosters going to a new home? Introducing them to new chickens?

 

[DeepDishChix]

If there is two hens I think they will be fine, since they will have each other. If there was only one hen left then it would be an issue, but they should be fine. Hope this helps!

 

[donrae]

My hens never seem to care when a rooster leaves. If a hen and cockerel were brooded together and fairly bonded she may look for him some, but overall there's no drama.

On the other hand, the other night I sold all the hens in one of my pens after dark. Poor rooster woke up with no ladies! he was quite distressed, let me tell you

 

[alishka02]

Great, thank you DeepDishChix and [URL='https://www.backyardchickens.com/u/60960/donrae']donrae!! [/URL] We still haven't found a home for the roosters yet, but just wondered because I've heard when chickens are separated from a group they can become very stressed. Especially since it's a very small group.

 

[Mrs. K]

Chickens have very small brains, and if you pull birds from the flock for a very few days and then put the bird back, they will attack like it was a stranger to the flock. So frustrating when people pull birds for what they are sure are good reasons, and then try and blend them back together.

A lot of people personificate their birds, but truly, it won't be much of a problem. A single bird does need a friend, but even then, when you introduce them, there will be squabbles. You might want more hens, though, do not add chicks to grown birds, they will kill them. Try and add equal size and slightly more numbers than the established flock. There may be a few squabbles, but should go well if you truly have enough room.

But they really do not mourn if there are other birds still remaining, and if you get rid of randy aggressive roosters, they may just cheer! (just kiddling)

Mrs K

 

[Free Feather]

Chickens have very small brains, and if you pull birds from the flock for a very few days and then put the bird back, they will attack like it was a stranger to the flock. So frustrating when people pull birds for what they are sure are good reasons, and then try and blend them back together.

A lot of people personificate their birds, but truly, it won't be much of a problem. A single bird does need a friend, but even then, when you introduce them, there will be squabbles. You might want more hens, though, do not add chicks to grown birds, they will kill them. Try and add equal size and slightly more numbers than the established flock. There may be a few squabbles, but should go well if you truly have enough room.

But they really do not mourn if there are other birds still remaining, and if you get rid of randy aggressive roosters, they may just cheer! (just kiddling)

Mrs K

That is not always true. My favorite hen ever was a Buff Laced Sebright named Dove. She was odd and no one liked her except for my Black American Game Bantam hen, Crow, and they were the best of friends, did everything together. Dove would even sleep in the nest beside Crow when Crow was broody, and lay eggs in her nest. The hatch rates were horrible, but that is just what she wanted.
My dog killed and ate Dove in front of Crow when she got loose when I was not around. Crow was screaming and screaming her little bantam screech, and continued to do so and pace for hours. That was back in February, and Crow still acts forlorn, always seems like she is looking for something, to the point where I might give her to a friend to give her a chance to find what she might be looking for, whatever that might be. Hopefully not for Dove. She has went broody several times since. She pulls all of her breast feathers out and sets for a few days, but gives up. It just seems like she is trying different things and searching all the time, never content. She is still sad.
That is a pretty extreme case, and you might not see it. In this situation, the roosters will probably want the hens back, but you may not see any signs of the hens missing the roosters. But, that does not mean they do not care. I do not care what anyone says; chickens can and do care about eachother. You only have to watch a diverse flock closely with each other for a while to see this.

 

[Mrs. K]

At free feather - that is a very unusal situation. However, one can never say with complete certainty what or why something is happening with live animals. We can only report on what we have seen hapen in our own flocks.

A bird left alone, will have a different reaction than a bird left in her home territory with a flock mate most of the time. I am assuming that the pullets were probably closer to each other than to the roosters, which tend to be aggressive due to their wanting to mate before the pullets are ready.

When separating birds, I think that the birds remaining in the home territory will have less stress than birds that are moved to a new territory. Change in territory is hard on chickens.

Mrs K