roosters

[the3ofus+oursixchicks]

i have a delima and need help. i am discovering i have 3 roosters. Rocky,Buddy and now that the other one is a rooster George. The delima is I only have 3 Buff Orpington hens. Will I be forced to get rid of 2 of the roosters? my husband says so. they get along pretty good as of no the 3 were raised together. Rocky is we dont really know what. he is the wild one he is sweet but you have to watch out for him. you can also pick him up. he is constantly pretending he is finding food and trick the hens but i know when he gets a little older he will be a good food finder for the girls. so that is a plus. he has gotten my daughters leg 2 times . he acts with us like he does the hens. you go outside he can be far off and hear your voice and comes running. only to do the feather dance. and chase you if you run. Buddy is our Barred Rock he is a good boy you dont have to worry about him bothering you. he is huge so i wouldnt really want to pick him up. he doesnt want petted either. he just wants to be a chicken. he has never harmed anyone of us. He stays to his self or with the other flock. George is good to but he has pecked my hand while i was petting him. he left a pretty big whelp. its like when you try to pet him he gets hypnotised in a daze. this morning i bent down to pick up a tiny stick and he ruffled his neck feathers like he was going to fight me. it was just about an inch long so i know he didnt think i was harming him. any way they are all different. my question can you have that many roosters with 3 hens> my husband say i will eventually have to keep them seperated from each other because they will fight. i dont want that. but i dont want to give them away either. i couldnt stand the thought of someone not treating them good or eating them. so can anyone help me?

 

[Happy Chooks]

First off, Rocky needs to go. If he's chasing, wing dancing and attacking now it will only get worse when he's older. Your daughter is more important than a rooster. I've been hit as high as waist level by a rooster and I'm 5'8". (he's gone now)

And yes, 3 roosters to 3 hens is way too many. You either need to get more hens or get rid of the extra boys. 1 rooster will be fine for up to 10 hens. If you keep them all your hens are going to be terribly over mated and miserable.

 

[the3ofus+oursixchicks]

i know......my daughter is a little afraid of him. i dont want her to have to worry when she is out in the yard playing. i tell her just to walk by him and pretend he isnt there. he just appears out of no where. i already feel sorry for the hens they are 2 buff orpingtons and one barred rock. they are extremely gentle the barred rock is a little more shy. the roosters arent that bad with them but they do chase them. they are so much bigger than the hens accept for rocky he is the smallest the other 2 are big. to big for the hens right now. i keep a divider in the middle of the coop for times i have to be away from home. but they mostly free range. but they are all able to get to the sleeping house. they all as of right now sleep on top of it. i have a divider down the middle of the top of the house. its just the top to a storage tub but it serves the purpose. in the mornings when i go out to let them out the girls are still either on top of the house or on the top of the divider between them. i feel sorry for them i guess they are frightened. thanks.

 

[kaybats]

Two of my RIR's turned out to be roos and they were all getting along just great...up until just recently. Actually, about a week or so before I got my first egg now that I think about it. One of the guys (the slightly bigger of the two)was becoming WAY to aggressive toward the other. I finally had to separate them for the littler guy's own safety. It's gonna have to stay that way at least until my babies get old enough to move into the coop. I don't want ANYBODY to get hurt.