- Nov 18, 2010
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So, I have 6 chickens, who were all supposed to be hens. Two of them turned out to be roosters. One is a white silkie, who seems to be the lowest as far as social rank, and I've never seen him mount the hens. My other rooster is a beautiful, gentle easter egger, who has never shown any aggression to me or my family, which includes young children. All my chickens are about 9 months old. In the last couple weeks, I have noticed that the hens are missing a lot of back and head feathers. His two favorite have huge bald patches on their backs. I don't want to slaughter him unless I have no other options, but I live in Wisconsin, and I know they wouldn't surive our winter with such huge bald patches. So, aside from either slaughtering my rooster, or making "saddles" do I have any other options to stop my hens from losing feathers? Thanks for any suggestions.