Would this stupid rooster have anything to do w/ NON-Laying

[deerman]

Quote:
Way to stop this , alway leave a nest egg,. then they will return to the same nest.

Do you keep a good layer feed in front of them 24/7....ONLY LAYER FEED.....if you do ,even the rooster can't keep them away all the time.


Give them 16 hours of light, and only a layer , You will have them laying in a week or two.

 

[runswithroos]

I have one rooster with 1 hen in the same house then right next to it theres 3. he is almost 25 weeks but he isn't aggressive at all and doesn't peck at his little friend. I will go check on all of them at night and the hen sleeps on the floor and the roo sleeps next to her with his head around her and when she comes outside and gets scared, she will pace and yet again he lays his head around her. and when i give them food and water, he stands back until the hen is done eating. Will he mostly likely not get aggressive because he is acting the same way he has ever since he was a day old! always kind and a gentlemen.

 

[flocksalot]

In theory the fake egg should work, but of my 139 layers we have 7 that refuse to use a nest that another chicken has used. One comes to me and hops onto my shoulder. It's apparently my job to find her an unused nest box. I keep one seperate and put it our for her. Removed when she lets me know she's done. This solved my problem of her laying all over the farm. Martha is quit funny. This has been going on for three years. Looking forward to this years molt! The first year she layed we were having an egg hunt every day. That got really old. Most of our girls love the fake eggs. They climb in and tuck it up under them with a bit of clucking, but every so often we get a weirdo. Rather than fight it I've learnt to just go with the flow and make things easier for me. Some of the others have locking next boxes. They like going in there, but the other hens hate getting locked in, so they avoid them. One just lays on the floor every day. I just make sure she has plenty of fresh bedding there to keep the egg clean. Wish the egg trick worked for all. In Speedy's case she's still young (6 1/2 months) and hopefully the onset of winter will change her mind about hiding eggs. Either that or she's looking to go broody like two of her flock mates have done. I hope not the broody house only has two nests and they are already occupied, but then I'm never one to turn down a broody. Hope my husband never learns how to unbroody them!

On the other hand if I had a roo that was selfish and agressive like Mommysongbird's I would have a new roo and old roo stew. Plenty of people are looking to get rid of their extra roos right now. I would look for a bit older roo if possible. They are usually a might more gentle and kind with the girls.

 

[Mommysongbird]

Mister roo and I went a round this AM, I WON!! He had his hackles raised and I just let him have it about 3 times right in the face and chest. I won't put up with this, I can't. I am a severe astmatic and stuff like this just triggers it and that is not good. I talked to my oldest son yesterday and he is suppose to be down today to take care of the problem.

I will be taking water out in a bit, so I will decide on taking the baseball bat or the machete, either way, that rooster is going to wish I had let him die 26 weeks ago in his egg.

Thank you all for the advice on the pullets. I think when he is gone there might be some normalcie back in the coop only time will tell.

Oh and as far as the food thing goes, I filled up their feed container last night after they were locked up in the coop and this AM after his little show, he STILL went to the food first and would NOT let the girls have any until he got his feel. Yeah he is a poor p*** of a roo. Freezer/Stew Pot for him. Not worth the feed cost anymore.

 

[Mommysongbird]

Quote:
I keep fake eggs (1 each) in the 3 boxes we have all the time, sometimes I have to search for them though, not sure how they get them out of the boxes.

But they all seem to be okay with laying in the boxes and there is really no where else to go in the coop. I am hoping to clean it out today and see if they are any hidden eggs somewhere within the coop.

 

[flocksalot]

Quote:
Good for you! I just let the soup coop crew run today. One of them is a bit young to decide, but I would like him to recieve a bit more discipline from the older girls. What did he do? He ran right back to the baby pen and jumped right back in. He hasn't been in there in three weeks, but he knew right where he was headed. He had those girls jumping out of their pen in no time. We pulled him out at night and put him in with the big girls. Can't wait to see how he is tomorrow morning! He's pretty, but also way too hormonal for my taste right now, but a good dose of big girl angst usually takes that right on out of them. The boys I keep are gentle from day one or gentled by the older ones quickly or I don't even bother with them.

Hope you figure out what is going on. I had another thought today. If he's not letting the girls get food he may not be letting them get water also. Chickens do not lay eggs if they do not have enough water. I had one day last winter that I was away and nobody remembered to check the water. We got no eggs at all that day! It was very unusual, so I checked everything. Sure enough they had run out of water. A few days later their water froze when the electricity went out. We again got no eggs that day. I have stocked up on chemical hand warmers and lp heaters for neccesary heat for this year. I also purchased extra waterers to put out when I will be away. My husband can't remember to do more than pick up the eggs and let the chickens out, but then he usually forgets two of the coops. Thank god for good customers that I can count on to check on things.

 

[Minniechickmama]

I think you can find a nice young boy for your girls without putting up with that butthead. Good decision to put him down.

 

[Mommysongbird]

Mister smarty pants was better this AM, he was NOT even first out of the coop, one of my girls was and then another girl and another. I think he was maybe the 4th to come out! He did NOT charge at the fence side either, but I still don't think he will stay.

I want to run a light to the coop both for laying (longer light hours) and for heat through the winter, it is already getting cold, but you can't even show a small flashlight in to the coop without his butt crowing at top volume and I don't think our neighbors will be too appreciative of him crowing all night.

My hubby has a black jack (billy jack) night stick, whatever you want to call it and well I had that this AM just in case his butt tried anything, but I didn't get to use it, oh well at least maybe now he will know who the real BOSS is around here.

 

[Ridgerunner]

In Virginia, you don't need heat at night unless your coop is really bad. You need to protect them from drafts and provide good ventilation. Extending the light for laying is up to you, but they really don't do well with light 24/7. They need some down time in the dark.

 

[so lucky]

Flocksalot, would you tell us what you do with the hand warmers and LP heater? How well do they work? Do you have no electricity to the coops? I don't, and am wondering how to keep the water from freezing this winter. I appreciate you reminding us that the chickens need water in order to lay well.