Rooster troubles?

[StandardLover]

Hello.
I am in 4-h and I show poultry. I have bantams and standard. I have 23 chickens total with three roosters. My coop is 16ft by 8 ft. I have three sections seperating my three flocks, a rooster in each. I have been noticing ALOT of mating going on with my bantams. Do roosters usually damage the females? I cant have lost, or broken feathers on my bird. Also do they stress out the hens, and make their life shorter? Thank you, StandardLover

 

[centrarchid]

They can damage feathers if they cover (mate with) hens too often or are overly aggresssive when doing it. They can be stressful as mating for most species does involve some level of stress. Decreasing life hens I doubt in your arrangement but lifespan of rooster may be shortened. Males of animals I work have shorter lives when bred continously for extended lengths of time.

 

[umanduhbree]

If you are planning on showing your birds, then a month or so before you show them seperate the roos and the hens. That way they won't have any feather damage from mating.

 

[StandardLover]

Is there anything that I can do to maybe stop him from mating so much?

Would cutting his talons help the hens any?

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

standardlover if you want your show birds to be show birds then you gottta baby them, most of whatever we show gets pampered as looks are ALL. I would keep them apart until you got that blue ribbon, then let them have a normal life, it takes time to grow beaautiful feathers and that can be gone in a second. Trimming nails would help, but then you gotta emory board them smooth, and the beak? Pull out those neck feathers? The judges won't look twice and that's not first place baby.
Either show em or breed em, not both,

 

[SunnyCalifornia]

It goes both ways too, I have a trio of OEGB's. One hen plucked her sisters neck feathers out, and pulled all the saddle feathers off the rooster! Obviously, he's a very mellow fellow, but just looks bad. Had I known more about rooster/hen relations when my kids joined 4H, I would have not gotten any hens, and just stuck with the rooster.