Research You Ignored And Wished You Hadn't

[NorthernHomestead]

You're smart. You did your research. You honestly thought you knew better. You found out you didn't the hard way:

Don't keep too many roosters/don't keep your larger roos.

Guilty. I thought keeping a big roo if he was kind would be beneficial genetically since I was raising dual purpose birds. What I got was a roo who was great with people and protected his ladies, but they were all bald by winter. They can't control their urge to procreate and they can't control how big they are. Large roos will help produce larger offspring BUT my hens had to go through the winter without feathers on their backs/saddles all winter.

Now I have a roo I'm attached to and bald girls running around my yard.

Advice: Keep large hens, not large roos.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

How many hens? You just need more hens. That's the best answer.

 

[MapleLaurelFarms]

How many hens? You just need more hens. That's the best answer.

You are such an amazing enabler.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You are such an amazing enabler.

Thank you.

 

[NorthernHomestead]

How many hens? You just need more hens. That's the best answer.

Eight then. I'll have 2 or three times more mature girls this year but I'm keeping some (smaller) roos that hatched from blue eggs. I want multi-colored eggs.

I also kept two roos. The bigger one kept the other one away from the ladies but he started sneaking up on humans too often so he became coq au vin and broth.

I sparred with him last fall and it seemed to calm him down. He snuck up on me a couple times this spring and had to go.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Eight then. I'll have 2 or three times more mature girls this year but I'm keeping some (smaller) roos that hatched from blue eggs. I want multi-colored eggs.

I also kept two roos. The bigger one kept the other one away from the ladies but he started sneaking up on humans too often so he became coq au vin and broth.

I sparred with him last fall and it seemed to calm him down. He snuck up on me a couple times this spring and had to go.

Aggression is the number one reason to cull. The second here is being too rough on the hens. Adding more hens may help with the feather wearing. Most rooster are rougher their first season.

 

[redinator]

How many hens? You just need more hens. That's the best answer.

Always more . . .lol Chicken math

 

[redinator]

How many hens? You just need more hens. That's the best answer.

Also more hens means more body heat in the coop in winter, so even if they're bald they'll be ok.

 

[thecatumbrella]

Ooo, I like this topic!

1. Assuming my Rhode Island Red hybirds would never pick feathers because they had more than 25 sqft/bird in their run.
2. Assuming setbacks wouldn't be an issue for a coop build because we live on a large parcel in a rural area. Nope. The town made absurd setbacks to discourage people from building.

 

[NorthernHomestead]

Second piece of advice (for cold climate): Cull the roos with very large combs/wattles.

That roo I mentioned before? I named him "Crazy Comb". In the end, he survived winter just fine, but he no longer has a crazy comb or dangling, huge wattles. Lost it to frost bite and healed without issues. I could easily see it being a medical problem if we had more chickens producing waste in the coop all winter (infections/fighting/whatever).

I was lucky. Large combs/wattles don't mix with cold climates.