Too much to handle???

[Scorpiochick]

OK, I will try to make this short and sweet. We picked up 10 bay chicks on April 30th. So they are pretty much grown cruising the backyard, we didn't know how to sex them when we got them,I just knew I wanted gorgeous different breeds. Wellll we got em. and out of that 10, 4 are roosters. and one I swear is turning out to be the meanest thing i have ever seen. He is a mottled houdan. Anyway the other 3 are a frizzle, a blue Cochin and a buff polish laced. I have handled and spoiled these ones since they were 2 days old, half of them now are just turds. Anyway what do we do, here's the thing, they pick on each other, seems like its way worse int the morning when they are first let out. BUT they are chasing my sweet little hens and Biting, I mean HARD, ripping feathers out and making them scream,what the hell?? My fiancee grew up in Wyoming and says its pretty much nature. I feel like I am gonna go out there one day and find one of my baby girls dead. Why are they being so awful to them. Do we need to get rid of all but 1? Will they eventually work it out?
Like I said, they have grown up sooo gorgeous and I'm attached to ALL of them it would break my heart to get rid of any of them.ALL advice would be appreciated. here is a pic of my 4 young men,now you will see why it would be so hard.

Wild Thing (frizzle)



Domino (mottled houdan) SOOOO MEAN!



Dexter ( blue cochin)



and Hopper, not yet mean to the girls (buff polish laced)



Please help, TY

 

[donrae]

What your cockerels are doing is perfectly normal. They're wanting to mate, but the pullets are still on the young side and aren't ready, won't be for another month or so. If you only had one cockerel, it wouldn't be such a big deal, but with this ratio they can gang up on one girl and make life pretty unpleasant for her. You have a few options...

Pick your favorite and get rid of the rest.
Get rid of all the cockerels. Chicken lovin' isn't always for non-country folk.
Build a bachelor pad, separate housing for the cockerels. Kept separate from females, males tend to get along well, especially since they've been raised together. You need to make housing so the pullets aren't strolling the fence line, though. They need to be apart.

 

[aart]

What your cockerels are doing is perfectly normal. They're wanting to mate, but the pullets are still on the young side and aren't ready, won't be for another month or so. If you only had one cockerel, it wouldn't be such a big deal, but with this ratio they can gang up on one girl and make life pretty unpleasant for her. You have a few options...

Pick your favorite and get rid of the rest.
Get rid of all the cockerels. Chicken lovin' isn't always for non-country folk.
Build a bachelor pad, separate housing for the cockerels. Kept separate from females, males tend to get along well, especially since they've been raised together. You need to make housing so the pullets aren't strolling the fence line, though. They need to be apart.

This^^^^^

Remove all but one to an out of sight enclosure, even temporarily, and things will calm down considerably as it will take the cockerel 'competition' aspect out of the equation.
Went thru this in late spring....dominant cockerel was a holy hell terror one day, and just a bumbling teenager the next after removing the other cockerels.

 

[Chickie Baby]

I hate to say this, but you will need to get rid of 3 roos. Just too much on the girls. Seems like the ratio of roo to hens is 1 to 10-12. I have the same issue. I have 3 Roos and 13 hens. Too much to handle on my girls!!! It saddens me to have to get rid of them.... Currently I'm trying to figure out which is the easiest yet most protective since they free range during the day.
Good luck to you

 

[Stiggy]

Firstly you have to few hens/ pullets for that many roosters. The recommended ratio is 1 rooster to 10 hens. Otherwise the hens will get over mated, stressed and injured and the boys will fight.

Your girls are screaming because the do not like or want to be harassed by the boys, and they are being injured and frightened.
The boys will ( if they are not already) be starting to fight each other over mating rights and whos the top roo.

If you have a mean rooster I would suggest getting rid of him ( some will agree with me and other will disagree) mean roos that threat the ladies badly and are aggressive are both another mouth to feed and they breed mean chicks ( genetically linked aggression) .

I would suggest getting rid of the mean one, and making a bachelor pen for the other 3 boys until they are grown up/ you get more hens/ you can decide which one to keep.
2 roosters can get along provided they know their place and have enough hens to go round ( I run 2 roos's together and they are fine ) however adding more to the mix complicates things.

We all get attached to our babies and I realize how difficult it is have to remove them, but it is in the best interest of your hens health and well being.