Rooster vs Hens

[coriwee1983]

After raising 2 cockerels my 4 older hens still rejected them so I gave one away.He's now 2 yrs old and they still reject him so I'm separating my older hens and giving them their own space. I'm attached to my older girls and don't want to get rid of mine. Its a fun hobby(most of the time!)

He’s a good boy just a bit much for my older hens that have gone years without having a rooster in their flock. Looks like the other hens are starting to submit to him but my dominant hen wants nothing to do with him so she hides from him and is now a bit of a loner. I’m just scared that she’s going to get hurt being alone without the protection of the rest of the flock. She doesn’t attack him at all, just ghosts him and the rest of the flock now that they’re hanging around him. Makes me sad for her. Thanks for your reply, I really appreciate it!!

 

[coriwee1983]

Always solve for peace in the flock. I solve so that I am happy too. You actually have 3 problems:

• old non productive hens
• juvenile rooster
• no eggs 2/6 laying

You speak of rehoming, but few people will want non laying hens. I do not think you are comfortable with culling birds, but may be mis-reading that. Even if you can rehome a few of them, that would give you room for a couple of chicks this spring. Which would help your egg problem.

Now, there is a possibility that the old girls will come back into lay with warmer weather. But they won't lay like the young ones.

When I read your post, I sense that you don't like the young rooster with the old girls causing strife. Go ahead and let him go, either to your soup pot, or down the street. That would give you a lovely all hen flock.

The thing is, you need to change something or it going to cause you and the girls more strife.

Mrs K

Thank you Mrs. K! I’ve raised my originals from day old chicks. I call them older hens but they are only going to be four. Not sure why they all abruptly stopped laying last April when they had been laying consistently since about 16 weeks. They were our first flock so maybe that’s normal. They are all crossbreeds so I’m not sure if that has something to do with it either. We originally got them for eggs so it does make it challenging that 6/8 are not laying. My heart is just sad at the thought of having to cull them. But… We’ve given them a really good life. I am particularly fond of my dominant hen who will not submit to the rooster and is now spending her time away from the flock because of it. I’m worried she is going to get hurt without the protection of her flock. Honestly, he’s a good rooster and I think we will rehome him and just keep hens. Less fuss that way I suppose. His two sisters are with him all the time. Do you think they’ll acclimate to the flock without him? I’m thinking about keeping my dominant hen, rehoming or culling the 5 others that aren’t laying, and getting 2 additional pullets to add to the flock sometime in May. That will give us 6 layers and our dominant chicken to watch over the flock. I’m just not sure that with the pecking order changing since the roo took over, if she’ll be able to regain her space as the flock leader?? What are your thoughts?

 

[Mrs. K]

Everyone has different opinions, rightly so, as we all have different set ups, but you asked for mine, so here they are:

• 4 year old hens are old hens-keep the dominant one if you want, I am keeping Mrs. Feathers. But 4 year old hens are just health issues waiting to happen. (I do know that many many people on here keep hens until 8-10 years, but I have never come close.) A lot of hens are apt to start dying from what I would consider old age. I do know this is hard to do, I have 3 in my yard right now, that should make the soup pot. I will love to have my own home canned broth, and chicken soup on my shelves...it is just the doing of it.
• I have never had a dominant hen be that good at flock management. Might be my country. When I free range, I truly range with coyotes, bobcats, hawks and eagle and coons.
• The two pullets that are hanging out with the rooster is because they are laying are higher up than the non laying hens. So I question if that hen is still dominant. When they leave the flock like that, sometimes that can be a sign that something is wrong and may die soon. Not always, but... she is four years old.
• If you remove the rooster, it won't have any long term effect on the pullets.

I do like a multi-generational flock, where the birds are different ages. My ideal goal is to have a bird 4-5 years old, 3 - 3 years old, 3 - 2years old, 3 - 1 year old, and the current years chicks.

And a good rooster, but not all roosters are good ones, I only keep a good one.

This year, I am pretty close to my ideal. But I have had coons, wipe me out, coyotes take everything but 3, and have had that happen multiple times over the years. Once weasels got me. I just kept working out my system, and now, finally, I really have a predator proof set up.

I guess my best advice would be, you just keep fiddling with it, sometimes you get more chicks, sometimes the chicks are all roosters, sometimes the chicks don't live. Sometimes you get a bird that does not work in your set up, sometimes you get other problems - just keep fiddling with it.

Good feed, clean water, adequate shelter and the reality that they don't live forever, and a merciful end can be a gift.

Good luck,
Mrs K

 

[Mrs. K]

I feed layer feed unless I have chicks. When I have chicks hatch, or bring them in, I feed chick feed to everyone, with oyster shell on the side. I also feed chicken scratch, but I get it from a local feed store, and it is mostly wheat, but it has some corn in it. All kitchen waste, except potato skins and onion skins and citrus goes to my chickens.

 

[coriwee1983]

Everyone has different opinions, rightly so, as we all have different set ups, but you asked for mine, so here they are:

• 4 year old hens are old hens-keep the dominant one if you want, I am keeping Mrs. Feathers. But 4 year old hens are just health issues waiting to happen. (I do know that many many people on here keep hens until 8-10 years, but I have never come close.) A lot of hens are apt to start dying from what I would consider old age. I do know this is hard to do, I have 3 in my yard right now, that should make the soup pot. I will love to have my own home canned broth, and chicken soup on my shelves...it is just the doing of it.
• I have never had a dominant hen be that good at flock management. Might be my country. When I free range, I truly range with coyotes, bobcats, hawks and eagle and coons.
• The two pullets that are hanging out with the rooster is because they are laying are higher up than the non laying hens. So I question if that hen is still dominant. When they leave the flock like that, sometimes that can be a sign that something is wrong and may die soon. Not always, but... she is four years old.
• If you remove the rooster, it won't have any long term effect on the pullets.

I do like a multi-generational flock, where the birds are different ages. My ideal goal is to have a bird 4-5 years old, 3 - 3 years old, 3 - 2years old, 3 - 1 year old, and the current years chicks.

And a good rooster, but not all roosters are good ones, I only keep a good one.

This year, I am pretty close to my ideal. But I have had coons, wipe me out, coyotes take everything but 3, and have had that happen multiple times over the years. Once weasels got me. I just kept working out my system, and now, finally, I really have a predator proof set up.

I guess my best advice would be, you just keep fiddling with it, sometimes you get more chicks, sometimes the chicks are all roosters, sometimes the chicks don't live. Sometimes you get a bird that does not work in your set up, sometimes you get other problems - just keep fiddling with it.

Good feed, clean water, adequate shelter and the reality that they don't live forever, and a merciful end can be a gift.

Good luck,
Mrs K

I wish you were my neighbor.. you are very kind and I appreciate your insight. I do see a lot of people in other groups and on this forum talking about having hens that are 8, 9, 10… 18 years old and I thought I was doing something wrong.

I spoke with my husband last night and we have a final plan. We also think it’s best to keep a multigenerational flock so we don’t end up a. Eggless and b. Have to cull an entire flock and start from scratch. We are planning on getting 2-3 pullets in April and culling the older hens at the end of the month. Once the two 4 yo hens are done laying, we will cull them and get two more next year.

We are in Minnesota and located off of a country road in a small rural township near a river. While we too have many predators near us, we’ve been very lucky that we’ve never had any issues with them attacking our girls. I’m sure that one day, we will too experience this but fingers crossed we don’t. The coyotes come close and we’ve had them in our yard but our flock is locked up tight at night. We get foxes, eagles, hawks, and there are some possums, and raccoons but most are night hunters so it works out well. I’m so sorry to hear about your flocks. I’m sure it’s devastating when that happens!

I’ve gained so much hands on experience with our first flock and with all the fancy-schmancy things people have for their chickens, I’ve learned that as long as they have the essentials they are very resilient. Much the same as children in my experience. Everyone told me I had to get all the things for my oldest son and in the end, we only really used the essentials and donated everything else because it wasn’t needed.

May I ask what type of feed you use for your flock?

Again, thank you so much for taking the time to help me out. I truly value your opinion and your insight has been invaluable to me.

 

[coriwee1983]

I feed layer feed unless I have chicks. When I have chicks hatch, or bring them in, I feed chick feed to everyone, with oyster shell on the side. I also feed chicken scratch, but I get it from a local feed store, and it is mostly wheat, but it has some corn in it. All kitchen waste, except potato skins and onion skins and citrus goes to my chickens.

Do you use pellets or crumble? Do you prefer a specific brand?

 

[coriwee1983]

After raising 2 cockerels my 4 older hens still rejected them so I gave one away.He's now 2 yrs old and they still reject him so I'm separating my older hens and giving them their own space. I'm attached to my older girls and don't want to get rid of mine. Its a fun hobby(most of the time!)

I get it and I love that for you. I hope your girls live long beautiful lives!! And your roo too!

 

[Mrs. K]

Sometimes pellets, sometimes crumbles, sometimes this feed, sometimes that. I don’t fret it.

 

[Seaslug]

Just wondering if your more mature girls had any type of stress around the time that they stopped laying. We have a very dependable California White who was five last year. She suddenly stopped laying after a flock mate was killed by our neighbor's dog. Then we ended up getting additional chicks (i.e. upset things with a flock integration) and the summer was incredibly hot. She did not lay for seven months of 2024. She had a very quick and clean molt earlier this winter and a month ago began to lay again. She was always a reliable 5-6 eggs/week layer. At six, it is more like 3/week, but am I thrilled that she is laying and not in henapause, like I feared.
I am glad you are giving your hens until at least the end of the month, because you may find that they will restart. I think that they may be more sensitive then we give them credit. Anyway, that has been my experience. I hope everything works out with your hens.

 

[coriwee1983]

Just wondering if your more mature girls had any type of stress around the time that they stopped laying. We have a very dependable California White who was five last year. She suddenly stopped laying after a flock mate was killed by our neighbor's dog. Then we ended up getting additional chicks (i.e. upset things with a flock integration) and the summer was incredibly hot. She did not lay for seven months of 2024. She had a very quick and clean molt earlier this winter and a month ago began to lay again. She was always a reliable 5-6 eggs/week layer. At six, it is more like 3/week, but am I thrilled that she is laying and not in henapause, like I feared.
I am glad you are giving your hens until at least the end of the month, because you may find that they will restart. I think that they may be more sensitive then we give them credit. Anyway, that has been my experience. I hope everything works out with your hens.

Glad to hear your hen bounced back! My girls stopped laying last April out of the blue. I was beside myself trying to figure out what was wrong. No changes to the flock, environment, food, free range schedule, etc. I started to assume that illness was the issue. I started adding vitamins to their water and monitoring closely but I never observed anything. There was major road construction on the county road we live down for 7 months due to all the rain we received. It’s the only difference that I could find. They all molt in October so it wasn’t that. We ended up hatching the babies in July to add hens since our weren’t laying and to quench one of the broody hens desires to be a mama. I think that this upset the balance of the original flock for sure.

We did end up rehoming our rooster to a local chicken ranch; they were looking to add an additional bloodline to their flock. He’s happily helping make all the babies he could possibly dream of. They will be sending me pictures of his first hatch. I’m so excited and happy for him.

As soon as he was removed from the flock, my dominant mama chicken flew out of the coop and looked up at us like… “Are you sure. Is he really gone?” And she slid right back into the flock leader role she was born to play. She’s intergraded back into the flock seamlessly and the hen house is back to the calm and peaceful environment it once was.

Two additional hens have started laying again since then. We have set up a trail cam in the coop to figure out which hens are laying. I’ve also located a large chicken ranch in my state that take any age chickens and allow them to retire there. We are going to give the girls another month before we decide what we are going to do.

I appreciate you sharing your experience!!!