Roosters "Tearing" up Hens

ThornyRidge

Songster
11 Years
Oct 28, 2008
255
2
131
Ok so first I have too many roosters.. but I am a NO KILL farm.. all my boys have got along too.. I have never had roosters fight.. however I have 2 large breed roosters (EE and Silver Spangled Hamburg) These two brutes seem to be taking many feathers off hens backs and heads.. my little bantam roosters and silkie roosters don't do this.. heck my silkie roosters don't even crow since the new addition of these big brutes.. this winter I am gonna split up a few in different coops but they share same fenced area.. any other suggestions.. I actually like roosters.. they are so much more pleasing to look at.. too bad they crow alot and sometimes fight .. I would love to have many different varieties of roos too..
 
If each rooster doesn't have about 10 hens of his own, the hens are going to be over-bred and that leads to abused hens with open sores if left unchecked. When I have too many roos but do need to keep them, I set them up in bachelor quarters, preferably out of sight of the main flock so they won't get too frustrated.

Over-breeding the hens leads to FEWER eggs because the hens are so overstressed. For the health of my flock I never let too many roos remain with the flock. Also when I discover that several roos are fond of the same hen, I move her out of harm's way to keep them from running her ragged.

HTH
 
Quote:
How come just when I get to bragging how my Silver Spangled Hamburg was such a gentleman . . . the rug gets pulled out from under my feet??

Of course, my hens were standards rather than banties so they outweighed the Hamburg by nearly double.

The opposite must be true with banties . . .

Steve's digits
 

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