Rooster is hard on hens

[vegaburm1]

Mine are bad too, and I have 11 hens to one roo. Poor girls, almost all of them have no feathers on their backs, and they get sunburned and red and scratched. And my kids are afraid of the roo. I am considering having him for dinner. Perhaps I will try putting him on craigslist or something as I'm really not into eating them.

 

[briteday]

We have a separate smaller pen for the rooster, when he's not needed for fertile eggs to hatch. We had 12-15 hens this year andhe wore most of them bare. So now he has his own little dog house inside a dog run that we placed in the regular chicken run. I'll let him go back with the girls when the weather gets cold in the winter so he has others to help stay warm. and then he'll stay with the girls for the Spring so we can collect fertile eggs to hatch. It has worked out rather well so far.

 

[Ravishaw]

Quote:
I have to admit I chuckled when I read this...

Susie? Sue?

And the words from Johny Cash came back to my mind in the Silverstein song... "Life ain't easy for a roo named sue."

 

[Mother of All]

I was having the same problem until last week I caught my roo and cut his spurs. I also carrier-ed him around for about 15 min. now he is calm and not chasing us around. my hens backs are starting to look better.