Will separating Roosters make re-integration harder later?

[TaylorGlade]

Mine hide under human structures, under trees or in the trees at night. Never my coop though. It's warm and dry and they'd rather be 20 feet in a tree during a hurricane. I trust them though and I've never lost one from the weather

The Red Junglefowl originated in a region hit with regular hurricanes (southeast Asia) and now mine are doing fantastic with Floridian hurricanes

We can't free range them like that unfortunately. We live on 5 acres in the woods, but the area has really been populated around us. What is to be rural farmland has sadly become neighborhoods. I frequently see neighbors complaining on Next Door about loose chickens.

 

[Mrs. K]

You look very young and perhaps have children?

Another problem with cockerels and children. Especially cockerels that have been made into a pet. They have no fear or respect for humans. People tend to think that the no fear is a good thing, and that they are friendly. But that is not how chicken society works. Chicken society is based on respect and space. A bird that approaches you is not friendly, he is bold.

A lot of people without experience vastly underestimate the violence of a cockerel attack. They often do not pick up cues that a bird is becoming aggressive. Or they make excuses for the bird "I scared him, I wore red, I touched a hen...."

The thing is, they tend to attack children first - children under the age of 6 can take the attack in the face or head. They can actually knock a kid down. It is very frightening, and a lot of kids never get over it. It can be terrible scratches or pecks in the face.

Then they attack women and later will even take on men.

Mrs K

 

[TaylorGlade]

You look very young and perhaps have children?

Another problem with cockerels and children. Especially cockerels that have been made into a pet. They have no fear or respect for humans. People tend to think that the no fear is a good thing, and that they are friendly. But that is not how chicken society works. Chicken society is based on respect and space. A bird that approaches you is not friendly, he is bold.

A lot of people without experience vastly underestimate the violence of a cockerel attack. They often do not pick up cues that a bird is becoming aggressive. Or they make excuses for the bird "I scared him, I wore red, I touched a hen...."

The thing is, they tend to attack children first - children under the age of 6 can take the attack in the face or head. They can actually knock a kid down. It is very frightening, and a lot of kids never get over it. It can be terrible scratches or pecks in the face.

Then they attack women and later will even take on men.

Mrs K

Thanks! I can tell we are gonna be besties!!! Lol I am actually 52 and my hubby is 51. Our children are all grown but we do have very young nieces that love to visit the chickens. I would hate for her to be attacked like that.

How do you recognize a cockerel that is becoming aggressive? And how do you prevent that? So far, we haven't seen a hint - but I know what you mean about it sticking with you. It happened to me as a kid but that rooster was mean from the start.

They don't usually approach us when we are in the run unless we offer food. They do greet us at the run door. But when we come in, they all run off the other direction.

Does that boldness extend to pullets? I have one named sweetie that follows me around and likes to be carried. But Prince keeps his distance. My husband likes to carry him around. I have warned him about it. Prince doesn't have spurs yet, but David didn't have chickens as a kid like I did. I know those spurs can be vicious.

This photo was taken on June 2. They have grown a lot since then.

 

[Mrs. K]

She is a darling girl, do not let her near the roosters unless you are standing right beside her.

There are some cues: but they are not exact, and they vary from day to day. These are things I am watching for in the two I just added, planning on keeping one.

• excessive crowing when I come into the run
• sneaking around behind me, they are opportunist, and will often attack from the back or side
• fluffing up his feathers to make himself look big
• jumping up on something to make himself taller
• the stink eye - a glare
• coming into my space, when I face him, backing off like he wasn't
• the hens need to like him

Good traits:

• they need to naturally, not in a panic move away from me staying out of my space
• They should be the very first bird to see me when I come to the coop
• they should tidbit, and call their hens to treats
• they should breed gently, with feathers barely ruffled
• they should call out alarms for hawks
• they should keep their hens calm, settle fights between hens
• they should keep their hens together
• grandchildren should not upset them
• they should show their hens nest

He was as ugly as sin, but he was a master flock rooster, and I still miss him. I a beginning to think he ruined me for all other roosters.

I just really hope you remove all the roosters this first year. If you don't, be very aware.

Mrs K

 

[Mason Farm and Ranch]

Hello everyone, we're facing a crisis here at the Taylor Glade, and I'd like to share the situation with you. You can read more about it on this post, but In short, in March, we purchased 10 vent-sexed Australorp hens, but unfortunately, it turns out that 8 of them are actually roosters. So, we ended up with 8 roosters and only 2 hens. The plan is to keep one rooster, named Prince, who gets along well with our Ameracauna rooster, Other Roo.

However, there's a concern: we currently have only 3 hens (2 Australorps and 1 Ameracauna), and they're reaching maturity. Clearly, this is not enough hens for even one rooster, let alone two. We do have more biddies, but they are too young for breeding and are still in the brooder.

I've heard some people deal with this situation by separating the roosters into a bachelor pad. The challenge is that Prince is the dominant rooster and separating him might lead to pecking order issues when reintegrating him later. Moreover, we have a Cream Legbar rooster among the babies in the coop, and it's not possible to put him in with two fully grown roosters.

In addition to Prince and Other Roo, our flock consists of 11 Cream Legbars in the brooder, and we're expecting 17 more vent-sexed Australorp biddies on Wednesday. Hopefully, this time, we'll have better luck with the genders.

If anyone has advice or suggestions on how to handle this situation, it would be greatly appreciated. The current state has disrupted our coop dynamics, and I'm not particularly pleased with the seller at the moment.

I have 7 roosters, but I have 30ish hens. I also have a decent sized property with fenced gardens. The roosters Segregated themselves to different areas and the hens traverse the property to hang out with the rooster of their preference.

We did have episodes of violence. I mounted the aggressive roosters and put blinders on them. No problems since other than the occasional 'You're in my space altercation. But with the blinders, it's hard to do much damage.

But you have too many roosters as they outnumber the hens by a lot and could end up killing them.

You have to get rid of roosters or get a LOT more hens. Your other option is individual pens or a bachelor pad.

 

[TaylorGlade]

I have 7 roosters, but I have 30ish hens. I also have a decent sized property with fenced gardens. The roosters Segregated themselves to different areas and the hens traverse the property to hang out with the rooster of their preference.

We did have episodes of violence. I mounted the aggressive roosters and put blinders on them. No problems since other than the occasional 'You're in my space altercation. But with the blinders, it's hard to do much damage.

But you have too many roosters as they outnumber the hens by a lot and could end up killing them.

You have to get rid of roosters or get a LOT more hens. Your other option is individual pens or a bachelor pad.

We do have plans to re home the roosters. And we also have more chicks planned. We have 11 pullets in a brooder right now. And we have 17 sexed female Australorp hens that will be here tomorrow. I was advised to cancel the order for the chicks, but they had already been mailed. So, we definitely do plan to rectify the situation. We have 5 acres but way too many predators to feed range. And while we live on a large rural lot, we have have neighbors that would not appreciate chicken visitors. We are actively trying to find homes. If that doesn't work, we know a guy that will use them for food at a food pantry. Trying to avoid that route though

 

[TaylorGlade]

She is a darling girl, do not let her near the roosters unless you are standing right beside her.

There are some cues: but they are not exact, and they vary from day to day. These are things I am watching for in the two I just added, planning on keeping one.

• excessive crowing when I come into the run
• sneaking around behind me, they are opportunist, and will often attack from the back or side
• fluffing up his feathers to make himself look big
• jumping up on something to make himself taller
• the stink eye - a glare
• coming into my space, when I face him, backing off like he wasn't
• the hens need to like him

Good traits:

• they need to naturally, not in a panic move away from me staying out of my space
• They should be the very first bird to see me when I come to the coop
• they should tidbit, and call their hens to treats
• they should breed gently, with feathers barely ruffled
• they should call out alarms for hawks
• they should keep their hens calm, settle fights between hens
• they should keep their hens together
• grandchildren should not upset them
• they should show their hens nest

He was as ugly as sin, but he was a master flock rooster, and I still miss him. I a beginning to think he ruined me for all other roosters.

I just really hope you remove all the roosters this first year. If you don't, be very aware.

Mrs K

Yes. We plan to remove them by the end of this week or next. The baby doesn't come over often and we never let anyone (especially children) in with the chickens unless we are right there with them.

All the good traits sound just like Prince (except the mating because we aren't there yet). He does break up quibbles and stays out of our space. How much crowing is excessive? He might crow once or twice when we are out there, but that's unusual. He does manage the flock - even the other males. Is this normal? They just follow in line. I'm guessing that will change? He is curious about what we do and watches us while we work in the run, but does keep a distance. None of the other boys have character from either list. And follow Prince's lead, But it's probably their age. Other roo is always right there with Sweetie. He never gets aggressive and avoids us for the most part. They are Amerecauna and very close. It's breaking my heart to re-home him, but it's for the best. She will be my only Amerecauna at that point. Is that a problem?

 

[McChooky]

Are you planing on keeping the legbar cockerel in the brooder with legbar pullets or getting rid of him too? I added 2 of those to my flock so the hens would hatch easter eggers that lay brown, blue and green eggs

 

[TaylorGlade]

Are you planing on keeping the legbar cockerel in the brooder with legbar pullets or getting rid of him too? I added 2 of those to my flock so the hens would hatch easter eggers that lay brown, blue and green eggs

We are keeping him. We actually ordered the legbars back in February. We ordered the females and 1 male. He was the only boy we planned for. And the egg basket was the reason. We had to drive 4 hours one way to Mississippi to get those chickens. How many pullets do you have in total? Do you keep them in a run all together? How do the roosters get along?