This is my 1st set of chickens, now that they have began "coming of age" the Rooster pick on the hens, litterally pucking out feathers. [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] Why is that? From my citygirl, trying convert to countrygirl view, don't you want the girls to like you if you want future relations? [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
They do that. Roosters are really not nice creatures. I wound up with (at one point) a flock of five roosters and six hens. I'm down to one rooster and five hens. One of the hens got egg bound [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img], but the roosters were eliminated. I'd like to get rid of the last one but my daughter won't let me [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img].
(Yeah, I know, I could...but I'm a sucker for that kid [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]...)
<font color="blue"> don't you want the girls to like you if you want future relations? </font color>
Roosters take the "caveman" attitude, except instead of using a club they use their size and beaks. I'm pretty sure the hens don't have much fun - not only is the "courtship" really one sided (and pretty unpleasant) but the "event" is really short [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]... I'm sure that if a man tried rooster tactics with women that he'd be lonely or jailed (or both [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]).
The kids do make you do crazy things, could start huge thread on that one....
One is going to be dinner next week [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] , the bigger is actually "nicer" and we were hoping for chicks come fall. Some for eggs and some to eat. How often do you have enter new genetics into the group? Does that matter w/ chickens....
Great sites.... Marked them for future use.
One last question, my husband has a friend that has hens that are already laying. He is going to give us 2 of them. Any ideas how to introduce them to the flock?
I would put them in the coop at night. This way everyone wakes up and doesn't notice an immediate difference. You will have some fighting when the pecking order is established. Make sure your chickens aren't too small, otherwise, they may not be able to defend themselves...
You can have roosters castrated, which will reduce both sex drive and the crowing. But if you have another rooster he'll just probably take over. Some roosters show less agression toward the hens, but that's a trial and error thing. You can also keep them separated. If you don't have a rooster the hens will generally lay less eggs. Doesn't have anything to do with fertility, just a social thing.
We have a hen right now who has no neck feathers, but it's because the other hens pick on her, not the rooster. It's all part of being a chicken.
The rooster that was pecking my girls is in the freezer now, the girls clapped when I brought the meat in the plastic bag in from the processing plant. We also processed the 2 hens that had curled toes, one those hens were real friendly and would sit on your lap. The girls really liked her, but I didn't want her to have chicks w/ the same problem. I did feel a little bad about that. In our Chicken health handbook it said deficient in vitamens. I gave them vitamens everyday in thier h2o, I'm now sure how that happened....? [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
On a lighter note.... We brought our 2 new laying hens home on Friday night and they have been in a dog kennel in the chicken barn w/ the rest of them since then. This morning they laid 3 eggs. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] (The girls and I celebrated w/ scrambled eggs. ) I was going to leave them in the kennel until friday, that will be 1wk. Do you think that is too long since they are laying? Or is this about right? We do have a younger set (about 10 wks) of chickens that share the barn and so far everyone has gotten along... Don't want to cause many problems.
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