Separated roosters from hens - when to reintroduce?

SDoni

Hatching
Jul 20, 2016
3
0
7
I'm fairly new to chickens, I've had my flock of 10 for about 3 months now. I was told I was getting 9 hens and 1 rooster, but the two Barred Rocks I have are now old enough that I've determined they are definitely roos!

So total I have 3 Buff Orps (1 roo, 2 hens) 5 ISA Browns (all hens) and the 2 Barred Rock roos. The Reds were 22 weeks when I got them, and the rest about 11 weeks. All were raised together so they don't fight, and are very sweet birds.

The trouble is that now that they are a bit older, the roos have found their voices and their interest in the girls - all the girls, all the time. I realize that younger roos will be a bit more enthusiastic about mating but it's nonstop and my girls are all walking around with dots of blood on their combs.

So I separated the roos into a different run, and I'm wondering when/if I should put them all back together again.

The roos don't fight - I call them the 3 Amigos because they stick together like glue. And my girls egg production has gone up since they aren't stressed from the constant raping (lol!). But I would like to eventually keep them all together, since part of the roos job is protection.

Thoughts? (Thank you!)
 
Well I would keep them separated until spring, if you are sure you want a rooster with your flock. An all hen flock is nice to start with.
I would plan on keeping only one rooster with that number of hens.

By spring all of your hens will be mature, and the rooster that you keep should have settled down.

Really with 9 hens, one rooster is probably enough, cull to that rooster, wait 2-3 months, and then put him with his flock.

Mrs K
 
You have to separate somebody and give away one out of the 3....

Sorry that is not enough hens for active breeding roosters....
 
I'd rather not give anyone away, so how many hens do you think I should have for 3 roos?

Should I just plan to keep all 3 of them separate from the girls until Spring? They can see each other but not get at each other...
 
I'd say about 20 hens for all three,but they say every tens hens to one roo....

You have to have enough to where they can split into different groups...Found out they tend to do that...
 
I'd rather not give anyone away, so how many hens do you think I should have for 3 roos?

Should I just plan to keep all 3 of them separate from the girls until Spring? They can see each other but not get at each other...
Unfortunately you can't always keep every bird, especially every male....unless you have a lot of coop and run/range space.

How big is your coop and run(feet by feet)?
What is your climate? Putting your location in your profile can help folks give better answers/suggestions.

Keeping multiple males often creates a highly competitive environment, exponentially increasing fighting and/or mating activity......
......especially if some of those males are immature and you don't have a strong alpha male.

For new flock keepers, even single males can be hard to manage...there's a lot to learn that first year just keeping females.
 

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