Rooster Issues Who Do I Keep?

[ikatiemay]

Our flock all came to our coop at the same time. They are all 1 year old. We got a rooster (americauna) just for the fun of having a rooster crow. We soon found out one of our girls was a guy. We then had 2 roos. We have lost a couple hens to various things so we are down to 7 hens and 2 roos. We really think we need to get rid of one. the black Australorp is the largest and I think the dominate one. The americauna looks like he has been pecked alot and i suspect its the other roo. The Australorp is friendly and lets me hold him, the Americauna really rather I didnt but puts up with me. Neither roo is agressive to us YET!! Our hens are really suffering alot of feather loss, one has a bald head and some of their backs are bare. I have chicken aprons on some of them. SOOOOOooo how do I know which roo to keep? Also what does moulting amount to? I keep wondering if some of the feather loss is that. Its hard to decide which poor guy looses his home. They seem to be constantly after the girls and trying to keep the other one away from them. We have 6 new girls comming soon. We raised them from peeps at my sons house and they are ready to come home but I really think 2 roos is crazy! can you help me make the decision on who goes??

 

[Blue]

Quote:
The general rule of roosters to hens is no more than 1 rooster to every 10 hens. This isn't a hard and fast rule, and there are exceptions, but it sounds in your case like your hens are definitely being overbred. The addition of more hens may help as it will put you with 13 hens. If I were you, I'd wait a bit and see if the new hens solve the overmating problem.

 

[ralleia]

I'd vote for keeping the Black Australorp--they're one of my favorite breeds and so far the most all-round docile breed that I've lived with. I haven't any experience with the other breed however.

Bare backs definitely sounds like excessive mountings by competitive roosters, and a bare head can be caused by a rooster grabbing the hens head to catch her.

 

[rebel-rousing-at-night]

Quote:
Sounds like to me you need to make that decision soon for your hens' sake. I'm sure you feel bad that you need to re home a roo but your hens are paying for having both at this time.

Ask yourself which roo you like the best.Will you be more happy with friendly or standoffish?

As to that neither roo is agressive yet is what you can go by now.Hopefully the one you keep will never be agressive but we never know when or if a roo will go mean.

Feather loss can come from molting and other things too.I bet a lot of the feathers are from the roo that gets pecked on.