Spring is in the air, and our 11 month old rooster is quite happy about it. He's with 5 hens of the same age and though he's been trying to figure out this whole breeding thing for several months now, he's got the swing of it and, well, stays busy.
The problem is that he is tearing our hens' backs to pieces. It started with broken feathers appearing on their backs just above their tails (on some more than others, he apparently has his favorite girls) and now it has progressed to bare spots and scratches on some. Here's an example of one of our hens:
A week or so ago, we took him out of the coop and put him in another coop by himself. He did nothing but pace and pout and crow, then refused to go in at night and insisted instead on roosting outside in the pen. At his age, his spurs are not big but they were forming points so we took him to the vet and got a good lesson on how to trim them (she preferred using a dremel, which worked great). Hoping that would solve the problem, we put loverboy back in with the girls.
Unfortunately he's still damaging their backs when he's breeding. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what we can or should do next? Would trimming his toe nails help any?
Also, is there anything we should be applying to the scratches on the hens backs? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!
The problem is that he is tearing our hens' backs to pieces. It started with broken feathers appearing on their backs just above their tails (on some more than others, he apparently has his favorite girls) and now it has progressed to bare spots and scratches on some. Here's an example of one of our hens:
A week or so ago, we took him out of the coop and put him in another coop by himself. He did nothing but pace and pout and crow, then refused to go in at night and insisted instead on roosting outside in the pen. At his age, his spurs are not big but they were forming points so we took him to the vet and got a good lesson on how to trim them (she preferred using a dremel, which worked great). Hoping that would solve the problem, we put loverboy back in with the girls.
Unfortunately he's still damaging their backs when he's breeding. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what we can or should do next? Would trimming his toe nails help any?
Also, is there anything we should be applying to the scratches on the hens backs? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!