Rooster starving other roosters?

[tiki244]

I think one of my roosters is keeping three others from eating. They seem to always be on a perch when I go out there and wont come down. They are also getting skinny. You can tell the one rooster is the boss. Do they do this? If so----Should I seperate the top guy or the bottom guys?

 

[Redfeathers]

I would separate them for sure if he is preventing the others from eating. Which way would be easiest for your situation? Are you breeding them for eggs or do you just have an abundance of roosters?

 

[Matt A NC]

A dominant Rooster will keep the others away if he can. The best thing to do is to take out the bottom guys. If you take out the top the others will start fighting for dominance and you end up with the same problem again. Also if you put the top guy back that will cause more problems.

Once mature I never have more then 1 rooster per flock of ladies. If I do I have more than 1 feeding station for them. One hidden behind a lean-to works nicely.

Matt
Morganton, NC

 

[tiki244]

I have 8 roosters and 10 hens!!!

I had wanted to get a rooster for each breed of hen and then I got a few extras because I felt sorry for them, I didnt want to them to go to the butcher. I was planning more renovation in the spring, but just realised that three of those guys look pretty shabby.

 

[chicknmania]

Ohhh, yes, they will try to. We had to separate two of our roosters from the others. Our boss roo doesn't try to do this...he will even allow the lowly roos to mate with the hens that he doesn't like...but the mid level roos will try to starve the others or do anything else they can to get them to go away. Especially if there are not enough hens for all of them. How many hens do you have?

 

[tiki244]

well I will get more hens this year and looks like I will have to do some redesigning before spring

 

[chicknmania]

Whoops, I just saw your post about your numbers. They are really imbalanced. There should be something like seven to twelve hens for each standard size rooster, I don't remember what it is for bantys, I think a bit less. We thought we were imbalanced and we have eight roos and about thirty hens. What we did was separate our roos who were low on the pecking order, and we try to give them a couple hens of their own.

 

[tiki244]

well I guess they can each have 1 hen and the 2 of them get 2 hens

at least for now TY

 

[panner123]

The best balance I have found is one roo for every fifteen hens. I get all the fertile eggs I need and my hens don't get beat up or killed. Best of all I don't have many roos fighting all the time. Sorry, but if you keep only 1 or 2 hens per roo, he WILL over work them and kill them.

 

[chicknmania]

We have never been able to keep the ideal number of hens per roo, because the mortality rate is always higher in the hens. However, I think it kind of depends on the rooster whether or not he overworks the hens...we had a Speckled Sussex banty roo and his two hens for a couple of years; he was happy with them and never wanted any more. When one was killed last year he was devoted to the other and again never wanted any more, though he could've had more...and she never seemed to suffer for it. We never noticed him overworking her. Currently we have one older roo, with a very young hen (I know this is not ideal, either, but it just worked out that way...he was isolated from the others for his protection and she was being picked on by some of the others and she just waltzed into his pen one day when we had the door open during feeding time, and told him she loved him, I guess...anyway, the two of them have been together since and, again, I haven't seen him trying to mate with her at all...don't know if he knows she's a bit young, or what, or if the feeling's not mutual, but, anyway, they seem to get along fine.