Two roos and its not working -- long...

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

We have had a rough summer here and the chickens, while tended, have not really had my full attention.

So we had a regular Peyton Place going on. My neighbor has chickens too only she will not cull or rehome. So she ended up with ten hens and ten roos. After a little while she separated the boys from the girls for the sake of the girls. Their life is not bad really, the flocks get to free range every other day and on the girls days one of the boys gets to be out....

But, I had one roo and 19 girls. It did not take too long for one of her roos to discover that there were girls in my yard. (C'mon he's a boy - he'd have crossed a highway of broken glass to get to my girls.

) Soon, I could not let my flock free range at all because he was always over and was beating up my roo and dividing my flock trying to convince some of the younger girls to go home with him! He had the life for a while! All day with my younger girls then home to the frat house each night! All the fun, no rooster responsibility. It was dividing the flock and ticking me off. Finally, I said he needs to either become part of this flock and take responsibility for it or be kept locked up at your house. So she gave him to me.

I should have made him disappear or insisted she keep him locked up.

My old roo is a good roo in my eyes. He keeps the flock together when they are out. He doesn't rough up the girls. He always lets them eat first and offers them bugs before he jumps them (C'mon the least you can offer is a tasty bug!) He is very protective though and sometimes runs after my kids. But, the kids occassionally need to be reminded to leave the hens alone.

New roo is not so good, he jumps the girls the second they turn around. He yanks at their feathers so much many have bald patches on their necks and backs. He eats whatever he finds and never shares. He doesn't make any attempt to keep the flock together and has taken them so far afield I had to go apologize to another neighbor for them being on his patio! They had never gotten so far from home before. Worse still he terrorizes the old roo. His only good point is that he tolerates huge amounts of hassling from my kids.

To free range them now I need to keep him leashed to keep the flock nearby. (Yes, it is very humane and careful around his ankle.) Clearly two roosters is not really working. Every night when they go home the old roo comes knocking at the door because new roo has kicked him out. I put him back in and everybody settles. (This is actually very cute in a way.)

I don't care for new roo, but he is better with the kids. And I don't know what to do to either settle the flock or get rid of one roo. If I give him back he'll have to be locked up for good. My kids said he would forget there are girls over here if he was locked up for a few days. DH and I just looked at each other - no he won't....

What should I do now?? It is getting cold and the flock is spending more time locked up (I don't free range them if I am not home and I am working alot now.) Old roo is spending all day in the coop huddled in a nest. The girls keep trying to escape which then never used to do. The flock seems unsettled. Or maybe I am just projecting... Any and all advice would be appreciated!

 

[toletiquesbysam]

I think you know what to do, but just want to hear it from someone else!! Personally I would re-home him. I too had to do this recently with us having 2 roosters and 24 girls and my flock is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much happier!! It was not easy because we'd raised both of them from a baby but I knew it needed to be done and Did It! I listed him on craigslist for free.
You don't want your old roo to be miserable and that's obviously what's happening, so do what is best for all of them and re-home the new guy!

 

[IDIOT HUSBAND]

Get rid of new roo. If he's causing that much trouble put him in the pot. Be sure to tell the neighbor after the fact or she might want him back and then your back to square one.

 

[HEChicken]

Is there any way you can divide your flock and give each roo half the girls in their own separate living and ranging quarters?

 

[emys]

Why don't you build a cage for the new rooster and keep him locked up? The kids can still visit him, but the flock will be free of him.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

Thanks all. I think she'd want him back, but I don't trust her to keep him locked up. And now that he is used to having err lady friends shall we say, wouldn't locking him up all alone be kind of mean? Like rooster prison? I was thinking of kindly and swiftly culling him and telling neighbor a fox got him or something. Is that evil? Or is caging him evil?

 

[emys]

OK, but I'd like love to hear how you explain that severed head as an accident! LOL

I don't think it's evil. Why didn't the neighbor keep him out of your yard in the first place? Because she didn't really care about him, and was happy to be rid of the problem is my guess.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If the new rooster is fairly young, say less than a year, it is possible he will mellow with age as far as taking care of the flock. However, since he likes to roam and take the girls with him, I'd not let him out with the flock. I know what I would do with him, but I don't know your relationship with your neighbor or how you want to manage your children. That has to be your decision.

I really don't see a good, neat, clean solution for you. I do not condone teaching the kids to lie (a fox got him) and you take a good chance of alienating the neighbor if you do anything other than offer him back, with dire consequences to the rooster if she does not take him. She will probably find out what happened. And if you give him back, you lose control over the troublemaker. What I would recommend is probably the hardest for you to do. Discuss this openly and frankly with your neighbor and see if you can together come up witha solution that is agreeable to both. The obvious solution appears to me that this is one of the roosters that she never lets out with her girls, but she might not see it this way.

By the way, to keep him alive, I do not consider caging him to be evil. I would not do it, not because it is evil but because it would not meet my goals for having chickens.

Good luck!

 

[emys]

Wiser words than mine. I agree.

 

[Momo]

A swift death is not evil - it's what I would give a rooster like that. Bottom line is he's causing trouble in your flock, demoralizing your good roo and - worst of all - roughing up your girls. It's hard to rehome a rooster that doesn't treat the girls well. The problem is, your neighbour has been irresponsible and you've come along and taken responsibility for something that's her problem. I mean, if it was your neighbour's dog instead of a chicken, would it have been okay for it to come over every day and rough up your dogs? If I were in your position I'd tell the neighbour that the rooster is causing trouble and you're going to have to cull him. If she wants to bring him home and cage him, I'd let her do it but I'd make sure she understood that he can't come back. If he starts coming back again, then personally I would make him disappear.