To many roosters?

[gryeyes]

I have a terrible time even thinking about giving away any of my boys, whether I hatched 'em in an incubator or they hatched under one of my hens. They are my babies... And I have around 13 of them with lots and lots of hens and pullets. The ratio still isn't the greatest, but there are no horrendous fights. Just some scuffling which is shortly over, determining who is higher in the pecking order. That's amongst the cockerels, the youngsters. Everybody knows Carl is the dominant Roo.

The other day I saw one of the cockerels sidling up to Carl, who was resting on the ground, not standing up. The youngster, already taller than Carl, stoke a step closer so that he was right next to Carl's tail feathers.

Not even getting up, Carl turned his head and only slightly raised his hackles (neck feathers). The young roo decided he needed to go do something else. Doot de doo, not doing anything around here, nosirree! Carl went back to his nap.

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

Love that story lol what kind of chicken is carl ?

 

[ChickenWisperer]

Like I said in another thread, I would never have any less than 8 hens to one rooster for the sake - and the happiness - of the hens. Unless you're a breeder ensuring fertility or working with multiple pens...

My AM roo successfully serviced 15 hens with a 94% fertility rate.... and I still got rid of him because many of the hens would run from the sight of him. They definitely weren't happy.

 

[gryeyes]

Carl is an EE. He's just over 2 years old now.

 

[The Lisser]

Quote:
I had the same problem when I started out with chickens. We bought 10 chicks, 7 of which turned out to be roosters. Once the roosters started feeling their hormones the poor pullets were forced into hiding!

We had already built a coop and a temporary run - we decided to keep the hens with the smallest rooster in the coop/run, and let the other boys be our "bug control" patrol (we have livestock barns that the roosters use for shelter). We bought some pullet chicks from a hatchery to join the girls, and are working on making a bigger run. Over the past year, we've added a few more boys from clutches hatched by our broody hens, and after a week or two, they become accepted into the boy flock. I have really grown to love these silly roosters - (good thing I got used to crowing). They come running to greet me any time I go out of the house and happily gobble up any leftovers.

here's a pic from last winter:

 

[Stone13]

The roosters got out of hand tonight and hurt one of the hens and then came after me, bad idea. So I had to eliminate 2 right away and I have 2 isolated. My girls are getting beat up and almost killed, I can't have that. I hated to do it but they were out of control, I thought it was a full moon. I am gonna keep the tame roo and the alpha with my girls to see how that goes. But the others have got to go. I live in Lake Village, IN. If anybody wants them thanks for all your help. It's nice to have a chicken family. Jim

 

[sourland]

Jim, that was a good decision.

When the stress and possible injury/death of the hens becomes a reality, excess roosters must go.

 

[LizaBlue]

Admittedly, I haven't read this whole thread, but here's my 2 cents: We had 4 roos and 10 hens. One roo was barred rock, the other 3 black australorp. The lorps formed a gang and did what Dinner (head roo) told them to do. If he picked a fight, they joined in. If he jumped a hen, they gang-banged her. Roofus, the barred rock, got treated like one of the hens, if you get my drift. I gave away one of Dinner's flunkies, and that made the pecking order go haywire. Lothario became top dog, Roofus got his own 2 ladies and territory, and poor ol' dinner was ostracized. It hurt him so bad that his comb shrunk and he just slunk around. Well, Lothario was 10x worse than Dinner ever was, so he became dinner for real, which finally made a good chicken out of him (bbq'd, yum). That left Roofus and no-name. Without all the roosters, the guineas went insane and wouldn't let the chickens have any of the 2 acres, so they had to go. Since everytime Roofus tried to make time with a hen, no-name busted up the party and feathers went flyin', I let him go with the guineas to a nice fella who "doesn't eat his pets." Admirable for a man with 78 guineas - he must be deaf. Due to an uncaring neighbor who has never contained his Akita, and a fallen tree over our fence, we lost some hens. Our flock of 1 roo, 7 hens, and 2 young male turkeys is about as peaceful and happy as it can be.

I understand getting attached to and loving your roo's, and not thinking anyone else can give them the life you would provide, but after seeing how their characters developed when the numbers allowed them to "do their rooster thang," I would never choose to have more than one roo contained with hens at a time. A rooster without competition has freedom and confidence, and it is just a beautiful and amazing thing to watch - you learn things about chicken behaviour you would never imagine possible. I read that you could have 1 roo or 3 to maintain balance, but I didn't like how it worked in my flock - it just caused alienation and friction when there was 3. With one, I have a gentleman roo who escorts the ladies after they lay to the outside water, guards the hens after I clip their wings, hollers like mad when one jumps the fence, purposely drops treats/let's hens eat them out of his mouth, and dozens of other things that never happened when there was more than one roo. By keeping them in competition, I was holding them back. Not only is Roofus happier now, but my hens are no longer nervous and don't struggle during mating. I would love to have multiple coop-run set-ups so I could have many flocks, but I love free-ranging them, and only have 2 acres.

Good luck with your decision

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

Quote:
I love him hes sooo hansome.

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

Quote:
Aww so sorry.

If it gets that bad I know some people who would take one of my roos, and treat him good.

I guess you got to do what you got to do.

Sounds like you made some good choices on the keepers though.