Rooster Mayhem

[Scorpiochick]

OK so an update and just a couple questions. I took the advice a few of you had and we moved the 3 most aggressive Roos into their own bachelor pad. My fiancee was wondering should we have the cage surround with something so they cant see the females when they are in the cruising the backyard. I think he has a good idea, but as always you all are the experts lol. What he wants to do is alternate days, let the girls and the 1 main rooster out for one day, then the next day they stay in their coop and the 3 boys get their outside time. so every other day everyone gets outside time. We really are whats trying to do whats best for everyone here and my heart is breaking for our little girls, they wont even come out of the coop anymore cause they get picked on so much. Please let me know any advice,tips,if this is a good or terrible idea.We have had them all since 2 days old,and love them all.TY BYC!!

 

[Rainier]

My situation is a bit different in that we got dual purpose birds because we intended for them to be both egg and meat providers.

I feel for you and your girls. We got 20 chicks in April. We ended up with 12 cockerels and 8 pullets. The girls huddled under the large bush/tree in the run and were so skittish it was horrible. They hid in the coop and if they were eating and one of the 9 came over they would run away. We sent 9 cockerels to freezer camp. We got chickens not only for the eggs but the meat as well. We knew that at some point we would eat some of our flock.

We kept what is in my signature line. It was really amazing to watch. Over the next several days we noticed the BR cockerel would "call" the hens when he found something to eat. In fact if he is eating and a pullet walks up he walks away or waits for them to eat before he tries to eat. He is also nice about mating. The others were not. They were just mean about it. Today my daughter got really excited and she said "now I know what you mean about the hens." She watched the BR walked up and do his dance and the hen squatted down for him. There was no feather pulling, squawking or pullets trying to get away.

The 9 also attacked us (broke skin) so it made it easier for us to slim our flock down to what we did. I have found that the mean ones are exceptionally tasty!

Now we have happy hens who follow the BR around and roam all over our yard and their run.

We did not do a bachelor pad but in theory it would work. The only thing is I thought I saw somewhere that the bachelors shouldn't "see" the girls, but I could be wrong. We only have .5 acre so we don't have the room for that.