Rooster hounding hen

[FreeBirthMama]

I need some advice. We just added 2 roosters to our flock of 10 hens. My first time with roos. The Buff Orpington roo is great. He's fitting in well and the hens are accepting him no problem. But the Americana roo has fixated on my Araucana and is driving her to distraction! He has been herding the other hens, but is only mounting the Araucana. Constantly! She has taken to hiding under things or climbing up high to escape him. He stalks her until she comes down and then jumps her. Poor girl. What can I do for her?

 

[1muttsfan]

Get rid of the rooster. 10 hens is really too few for 2 roosters, and they are likely to end up fighting. And he will continue to hound your hen.

 

[The Kibble Goddess]

You could try pegging your rooster out. I keep 3 roosters during the breeding season and that is a bit much for my small flock. I googled 'rooster tie outs' and ended up buying the kind they use on OEGs. Pick a protected area where he has sun, shade, water, and something to hide under and tie him out during the day/while you're around. The boys can roost with the girls at night and then be tied out again the next day. Or you can alternate tieing one out each day and then swapping for the other the next day.

 

[1muttsfan]

that also would certainly make him much more susceptible to predation, so you might not want to use that method if there is a risk of predators, even stray dogs and other animals like that.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don’t know how mature your hens are or how mature the roosters are. I don’t know how much space you have, the personalities of your chickens, hens and roosters, your management techniques, how long they have been together, or many other things. You could write books about that and most of it will be opinion anyway. Each chicken has its own personality and each flock has its own dynamics. The best we can do is guess based on our experiences and sometime I guess way wrong. Our situations are all unique. Each flock has its own dynamics.

I always suggest you keep as few roosters as you can and still meet your goals. That may be none, one, or several. That does not mean you are guaranteed problems with more roosters, just that you are more likely to have problems with more.

I am not a great believer in magic hen to rooster ratios. Some people keep flocks with very low hen to rooster ratios, some people have problems with one rooster with 20 to 30 hens. Each situation is unique.

I don’t know why that rooster has fixated on that one hen but he obviously has. It may be something that fixes itself with time or it may not. I could make some guesses but it’s probably not important. They’d just be guesses. I think the other two have given you some pretty good options. What you do pretty much depends on your goals and why you want roosters.