Rotating Roos?

[gpac]

I currently have 10 Hens to my 1 RIR Rooster. They pretty much are out in the yard/run all day long. I was hoping to get one or maybe two more Buff Orpington Roosters to some day breed with my Buff Orp Hens. My question is that would it be okay to rotate the new Rooster(s) with the Hens. I would alternate days that each rooster would be out with the hens or be cooped up for the day. My thinking is that since there would be only one Rooster out with the Hens every day that the Hens would be fine. (Ratio wise). My concern would be for the Rooster cooped up that particular day, and how will it affect him?

 

[KooKoe]

I'm no expert here, and a bit of a girl, so bear that in mind.......

My chickens would have HUGE issues with that! The hens are particularly fond of their roo. I have two flocks. one caged and one free ranging. I have from time to time tried to 'rotate' my hens and honestly, my hens will have NOTHING to do with my new roo. They simply throw him off or even fight with him! It took about 2 weeks of constant exposure to the new roo, for my girl to finally accept him. now she is hostile towards the old roo. Maybe it has to do with the breed, but in my personal opinion, I don't think it can work on a 'day to day' basis.

I think if you want breeding with the new roo, you will have to put the hens in the coop with him for several weeks, until breeding is over. and even then, once the chicks are there (If the mother will be raising them), she should remain with the roo until the chicks can fend for themselves, because if you put her back with the old roo, the old roo could attack the chicks.

hopefully someone else could pipe up here. Like I said, I'm not expert.

 

[donrae]

How big is the yard/run? If there's plenty of space, both roos might be okay with being out. I've had a ratio of about five to one and everyone did fine, that was ranging with an acre available but they stayed on about a third of that for the most part.

Honestly, I don't know how the scenario you're describing would work. I'd think after an adjustment period, everyone might get along. Keep in mind you'd have to sequester your BO hens with the BO roo for a few weeks to ensure your chicks were purebred, if that's your desire.

 

[gpac]

Unfortunately I do not have a large area for my chickens. That is part of the reason why I didn't want to add another rooster to my flock. I did not take into consideration that I would have to sequester the rooster with the hen(s). That will probably be my best option to ensure they are pure bred. I also did not account for how my hens would accept a new rooster. I guess that answers my question. Thanks my BYC Peeps!

 

[Mahonri]

I recently rotated in a new FBCM roo in with my marans girls.

They are temperamental. I've only seen the new roo mount one of the hens.
The last two days the new roo has attacked me while changing the waterer... he drew blood today.
The seller can now come pick him back up or I'm baking him with stuffing this weekend.

The old roo has been free ranging the back yard and is upset that he can't get in with his hens. He has never even made an attempt at coming after me.

 

[sourland]

If you were to rotate the roosters on an every other day basis, you would be unable to determine which rooster fertilized the eggs= lots of mutt chicks. If that was your intention, OK. To have purebred chicks you would have to seperate the breeds. The sperm from one mating may continue to fertilize a hen's eggs for as long as 4 weeks. Three weeks is generally accepted as the rule of thumb, but some peoples' experiences indicate that sperm remains viable longer than that. The every other day rotation would be stressful on both the roosters and the hens.

 

[KooKoe]

hold on! so If I remove a hen from my rooster, she can still lay fertile eggs for up to 3 weeks???????????

 

[sourland]

With diminishing levels of fertility, a hen can produce fertile eggs in excess of 4 weeks after te rooster has been removed.

 

[GraceAndPickles]

So I know this thread is ANCIENT, but I was thinking about a similar set-up (having a "bachelor pad" for each roo and letting them take turns free-ranging with the girls). Anyone else out there able to weigh in on the idea? During breeding season each gentleman would entertain 2-3 ladies in his "pad" around the clock for a 5-6 weeks to give me some eggs to hatch, but the rest of the year I want them to be able to get out of their relatively small enclosures.

 

[Sara Ranch]

I am not sure how much this will help you...

I adopt roosters that need to be rehomed. The majority of the roosters adopted live in the Roo Barn. I have rooms set up to accommodate the siblings that come in together.

Every once in awhile, I am blessed to be able to adopt hens. Girlfriends for the boys!

I have successfully integrated a few roosters into an existing flock.

I have successfully given a loner rooster (the one that sleeps on my deck by choice) a girlfriend. They definitely want to be together. When girlfriend was rounded up with a few escapees, the two sought each other out through a fence.

I have tried introducing a girl to a rooster, one on one. Even several girls to a rooster at a time. That hasn't worked well. (Roosters too horny for it to make it work well. The girls simply don't respect the roosters. Since the roo's are suppose to protect the gals. Hard to do if they can only think about mating. If the girls don't respect the guys, they won't listen when there is danger.)

What I am currently doing -- and it has been working well -- is the boys can see the girls. If there is a love connection, I'll put the two together.

Rotating guys in/out - not likely to work, based on what I have experienced so far. Mainly because the roosters want to mate and the girls get tired of the excessive mating. The excessive mating does cease after everyone has been together for a week or more... but you are going to run into the same thing again, when you bring in a different rooster. The celibate rooster will make up for lost time, girls will be tired of overmating, and blah. No respect. Lots of stress. The outside rooster - angry that he's on the outside. Again.

I know, I know. I give the chickens a lot of say in the matter.

Just sharing my experiences. You can try it and share the results with us.

As someone post in the previous run - if you are looking for pure breeds, then be careful with rotating roosters. If you don't care, no worries about that.

And a rooster flock works. I have several that are just roosters, no girls. They see girls. They talk to girls. But they don't have access to girls. They do fine. No anger issues.