They nearly pecked her head off =o(

Sorry about your bad luck.
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I have a suggestion...if you're looking for good egg layers, have you thought of getting hybrid sex-link chicks? They are easily identifiable by their color when they are first hatched and there is no mistaking which ones are roos and which are pullets. I have 4 Golden Comet sex-link pullets and 2 Black Sex-Link pullets and they lay the very best/most/biggest eggs of all the chickens I have and I knew from the very beginning that they were all girls! They are all very friendly and were easy to get attached to. When I first got my chicks, I ended up getting attached to a couple who turned out to be roos and I had to re-home them.
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With the sex-links, at least you know you're not getting attached to chickens you can't keep. I can't have roos in town.

I know your frustration at trying to figure out how much space you need by reading books! I have quite a few chicken books and they all say something different. Everything from 1.5 sq. ft. per bird to 10 sq. feet!! It's tough to figure it all out. We had 11 chickens in a coop that gave them about 3 sq. ft. per bird. They were a bit too crowded, so we made a small coop that I can eventually use as a brooder coop that our three youngest pullets live in. Now they all have about 4 sq. ft. per bird and it works a lot better. Living in town we have very limited space. We also have two chicken tractors (run out pens) so they can get outside on nice days and be safe from the predators we have around here...mostly hawks and stray dogs during the day. Being able to get outside and have a change of scenery helps the chickens frame of mind a lot too.
 
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I have had chickens for about 12 years now and have never had a cockerel. This was a deliberate choice to try and avoid the horrible experience you have had. I buy my pullets at POL and then I know they are female and we have been lucky so far with the pecking order. I put 4 new pullets in with my older girls on Sunday and they are getting used to each other. I am lucky that they free range on 2 acres in the day and are shut in their shed and run at night only. the older girls are cross at having new arrivals but the pecking is only warning stuff at the moment and will stop when they are used to each other. I think it would be good to think carefully about giving your girls plenty of room and occupation and reduce the number of cockerels or get rid of them altogether.
 
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We got them specifically for the fresh eggs. Of course I would not be adverse to sex-links. I will have to do some research on how to tell them apart early on.

And we do live on 1/2 an acre. During the day they get to free range but in "tag teams". We let the girls and 1 roo out for a bit and when they go back into their run, we let the other 7 roos out of their (separate) run.
 
You definately have an overanbundance of males. By relocating the girls into another pen, you might have a chance to stop the pecking and fighting among the boys, as there won't be anything to quarrel about. Keeping the roos although a pretty sight, however, might not be your objective.

Just to give you perspective: I started my first flock this year with ten day old "pullets"... turned out 2 were boys! As someone said before, chick sexing (usually done by vent-sexing) is not perfect unless you choose sex-links (hybrids where boys and girls are distinguisable by feather coloring). If you really want to make sure you get girls in the future, get those sex-links or "started pullets" or even mature birds.

Best of luck and keep us posted!

Oops! I had missed the previous posts, so much of what I just wrote had already been said...
 
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First of all i am sooo sorry for your loss, I had a standard silver laced cochin hen that had the same type of injury. Her neck was ripped wide open right down to the neck bone. Despite my efforts to keep the wound clean and keep her isolated she only lived 3 more weeks like that before she died so your hubby was right in culling her or she probably would have suffered bigtime.
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Roosters can be sooo vicious
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i am sad to hear about the others passing
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It does get better i promise you that. You just had a bad start due to the fact that you had sooo many roosters in your "straight run" batch. Stay positive and things will get better
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