rooster chaos!

[autumnjanene]

So I have a flock of 16. 8 roosters and 8 hens (had to buy them in pairs at the small animal swap). Our wyandotte is bulling the hens to the point where they run out of their run, then the Wyandotte blocks the entrance so they can't get back in. I've penned up 4 other roosters in the anticipation of culling them if need be (buff orpington and easter eggers). I'm waiting to see if separating them will change the flock dynamic at all. I really don't want to get rid of the wyandotte for breeding purposes. Any advice?!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

If your Wyandotte is a young roo he might not have learned his manners around the ladies yet. Yes they do improve with age sometimes. On the other hand, some roos are just mean to their hens and you don't want to breed a mean roo as the offspring may end up just like him.

So if you think he might mellow with age, I'd make a rooster pen for all the boys. They tend to be nicer when they don't have girls to fight over.

**I am not unbiased - I had a Wyandotte roo that we had to cull due to him attacking me and drawing blood on my youngest child.**

 

[autumnjanene]

Thanks for the input! Our Wyandotte is somewhere around 5-6 months old (we got him from a small animal swap so age is unknown). Full red comb but no spurs yet. I'm going to see if isolating 4 of the other roosters will help, if it doesn't it looks like I'll have to get rid of the trouble maker and get other rooster in the spring for breeding. I guess I could always combine a Buff Orp with the wyandotte hen, that would make for a pretty chick!

 

[autumnjanene]

Well, we got sold two buff orpington roos, making our count 4 roos (wyandotte, BO, EE and silkie) and 11 hens (1 wyandotte, 7 BO, 2 EE and 1 silkie). Our EE is clearly the alpha, he crows and goes after any roo that is being rough on his ladies. The past few days he's had his eyes set on the wyandotte.

I'm going to watch them for a few days to see how the new pecking order goes. It should be a little better now that we got rid of 2 males but we might have to get rid of another, which would be a really tough decision who goes!

If it comes down to that, it'll probably have to the the BO (who really isn't a pure BO anyway). Then in the spring replenish with more pure BO's.

 

[Red Barn Farms]

At first we went through about the same situation as you have described. It didn't take long before we built a separate area inside the barn to hold all our roosters. Now a days it's so much nicer and quieter and our hens seem so much happier. We now only 'pair up' hens and roosters for breeding purposes.

 

[autumnjanene]

Since we're going into the colder months and we're already backed up with so many projects at the farm I don't think making a bachelor pad will be feasible until next spring. I'm either going to get rid of our BO mix (don't really want to breed him since I don't know what he's mixed with) or get some more girls at a swap this weekend!

Oh boys....

 

[dl9976]

more than 1 or 2 with those 8 hens...is going to be problamatic.....chickens need about 1 roo per every 8-12 hens..they are going to wear out the hens, poor things...each chicken has a job to do...7 is the # of hens you need in order for all the posititions to be filled with a rooster involved so that is good...just few too many roos together.... I have in the past sucessfully allowed 2 roosters to live together in a pen..but, only 2 and they were raised together from day 1...them being raised together makes all the difference in the world.