FlockParty
Chirping
Hello! I've been reading posts in this forum for the last year since we got our hens. It's proven to be quite helpful and set my mind at ease many times. So I'm signing up to see what advise I can get for my flock's specific issue. We have these hens for eggs only, there's no plan to use them for meat... yet. They're all about 10 months old as of today.
We initially got 6, 4 turned out to be roosters. We gave one rooster away and traded two others for hens. So we kept one rooster to look over our tiny flock. He is now of breeding age of course and messing up one of my hens backs. As of right now, she appears to be in good spirits. With the flock and right by the rooster's side. She was avoiding him before we decided maybe it was time to let them out of the enclosure, but since we let them out to roam the yard last week, her behavior has improved and she's back "with the flock" all day. However the feathers on her back aren't growing back and there may be small cuts soon. I'm thinking I need to do something.
I was thinking of trying to wait until he's a little old before I made any major moves like getting rid of him all together. We didn't need a rooster, but I figured it might be good to have a protector around. How much long will it take for him to be "not young" anymore and settle down?! lol My plan as of this morning was to get some bacterial remedy for the hen in case there's a cut that I need to treat and possibly cover her back so the feathers can grow back with a Hen Saver... anyone use there before? http://www.hensaver.com/hen-saver-hen-apron-saddle.html The photo below shows a hen wearing one.
Maybe I'm over reacting. Never had chickens before. I was thinking if he just gets over this young faze he'll be an awesome rooster for my hens. What do you all think?
We initially got 6, 4 turned out to be roosters. We gave one rooster away and traded two others for hens. So we kept one rooster to look over our tiny flock. He is now of breeding age of course and messing up one of my hens backs. As of right now, she appears to be in good spirits. With the flock and right by the rooster's side. She was avoiding him before we decided maybe it was time to let them out of the enclosure, but since we let them out to roam the yard last week, her behavior has improved and she's back "with the flock" all day. However the feathers on her back aren't growing back and there may be small cuts soon. I'm thinking I need to do something.
I was thinking of trying to wait until he's a little old before I made any major moves like getting rid of him all together. We didn't need a rooster, but I figured it might be good to have a protector around. How much long will it take for him to be "not young" anymore and settle down?! lol My plan as of this morning was to get some bacterial remedy for the hen in case there's a cut that I need to treat and possibly cover her back so the feathers can grow back with a Hen Saver... anyone use there before? http://www.hensaver.com/hen-saver-hen-apron-saddle.html The photo below shows a hen wearing one.
Maybe I'm over reacting. Never had chickens before. I was thinking if he just gets over this young faze he'll be an awesome rooster for my hens. What do you all think?
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