Rooster overeating hens

[A_Fowl_Guy]

I planned on parting with all my roosters in the beginning. But I’ve grown so attached to them and I don’t have the heart to give them to another person to make stew out of them. It seems unfair.

You must give them a great quality of life and that includes culling when needed or giving a bird away. It’s a fact of life in chicken keeping no matter how hard or unfair it seems.

 

[-BOGGS-]

Have you had that rooster more than a year? Might just be a spring time phase..I had rooster that would get extremely mean during spring time..then perfectly fine a month later..I always assumed it was because of his hormones and wanting to breed...I do agree with most though that nothing good can come from that many roosters in a area that size

 

[Banditschickens]

Well I have a friend she just lets them free range at her barn.
She now has about a dozen to 18 roo's I gave her.
YES she knew they where Roo's and No she don't eat them.

 

[Matilda Belle]

Not what I wanted to hear but I appreciate everyone’s honesty.

How many Roos would be okay for 100 square feet run and 32 square foot coop?

 

[roosterhavoc]

You can always free range them. Once you get down to 1 toss him into the 200 sq ft pen with the hens. Problem solved.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

I totally agree more room is better. I do let them free range when the weather is nice and I can supervise them. I don’t want any predators to kill them.

They do seem content. Rarely do I see issues between them up until this recent problem.

You're fine as far as space goes..... especially if they all get along for the most part.

 

[TLCMidMichigan]

Get more hens. About another 3-4 hens would do him.

 

[roosterhavoc]

You're fine as far as space goes..... especially if they all get along for the most part.

Do you keep your super special giant shamos that way?

 

[Anndie]

The thing is that unfortunately it can change so suddenly, one roo decides it is time to move up in the pecking order, and then you come home to a bloody mess. I have currently have 7 to 60 ratio of roos to hens, and they still occasionally fight, and they are all free ranging. I had one beautiful SL Wyandotte roo that was top, and when he lost that spot it was a mess and he never really recovered. We ended up putting him down and it was very sad.

 

[leighks]

My rooster overmated my hens last summer, they all had bare backs. As a new chicken owner I didn’t know that could happen. As you already stated, it’s not fair for the hens. My fix was to partition part of the coop and run off with chicken wire so he could see the hens but be kept away from them. It works out pretty well. As long as he can see them and be close to them he’s pretty happy. He will be 2 years old next month, I’m hoping he will cool his jets in the next year or 2 and then can be reunited with the hens

Initially when I separated him, I kept him out in the run only. He was miserable when the hens went in the coop and he couldn’t go in or see them. He made the saddest cry, like a quacking duck. His appetite decreased and I had to hand feed him. Finally we made a window into a door so he could get into the coop and see the hens and sleep under the same roof as them, but still be separated. I’m fortunate to have a really big outbuilding as a coop, so it was easy to partition that off too.

Not sure how old your roo is, but when mine was just over a year old I tried the hormone implant. He was too old at that point for it to be fully effective. It did decrease his mating and aggressiveness, but only for a few weeks. If your roo is young it may work for him better than it did for mine. I also talked to the vet about caponizing (neutering) him but at an older age it’s a very risky surgery since the testicles are internal and near the aorta. I have heard about people caponizing their own cockerels, but in my opinion it isn’t something that should be done without pain meds and anesthesia- ouch!! Since he’s your pet I’m guessing you wouldn’t anyways.