Altairsky
Songster
I know this topic has been discussed many times, but my situation is different.
Most of the discussed scenarios were about a rooster terrorizing one hen and forcing her to mate.
In my case this hen is absolutely consenting and she loves the rooster, and she's always with him.
My rooster is 10 months old so he's still a cockerel. He mates with all the hens but he always had a preference for his sister.
Now all the older hens are molting and he doesn't mate with non laying hens. He didn't even mate with his sister before she was close to maturity.
He's a gentleman, and he doesn't even chase the hens if they don't want to mate.
But now that most hens are molting, he is really ruining his favorite's feathers. She's not hurt or anything, but all her back feathers are broken (broken, not pulled).
Another issue is that he's 3 kg, and the hen he overmates is just 1 kg. But again, she wants it.
Now, culling him is an option, but it would be a shame because he's a great rooster in every other aspect. He's really loving and caring of all his girls, and he always come running as soon as one makes a distress noise. He keeps peace in the flock and he's ready to fight even dogs. He doesn't even allow house sparrows in the coop.
Just to let you know how good he is, here is a story (you can skip this paragraph). When all the old hens stopped laying for molt time, I decided that I wanted to train the pullets to lay on the upper nest boxes (I need a speleological license to harvest on the bottom nest where the lazy old hens always laid.) So I removed the fake eggs and put them all on the upper nestbox. When this pullet (a faverolles EE) realized the fake eggs were gone, she went completely insane. She needed to lay but she didn't want to lay on the upper nests. The rooster immediately understood the issue and he started to look for an alternative nesting spot. I found him and her both squeezed behind the litter balls and farming tools, with the rooster trying to convince his favorite hen to lay there. They were really cute! Obviously the hen got kicked back in the coop and I gave up for the day and put the fake eggs down so she could lay. She now lays up, btw, because when it comes to animal training, I always finish what I start.
Last resort would be culling him and hatch another male from her favorite's hen eggs. It would be smaller then him most likely therefore causing less problems with the hens of smaller breeds.
I ordered a couple of saddles and they will arrive next month, if she accepts a saddle that would be a temporary fix until the other hens start laying again.
Would trimming the rooster's nails improve the situation? Any other idea?
The birds free range all day. Lately I'm letting out just the rooster and the old molting hens, so the laying pullets will have a break from the rooster at least for the morning. Then in the afternoon I let everyone out.
I really hope this behavior will stop when the other hens are back to laying because it would really be a shame to cull my legbar rooster. An EE rooster wouldn't be the same for my reproduction needs but my faverolles EE has priority because she's too sweet to rehome. Below is a picture of her before the overmating, and a video of how she is now. She's the salmon EE.
She looks miserable in this one because it's been raining the whole week, keep that in mind. But as you can see, her comb is beautiful. He tries his best to not hurt her but still he breaks feathers.
Most of the discussed scenarios were about a rooster terrorizing one hen and forcing her to mate.
In my case this hen is absolutely consenting and she loves the rooster, and she's always with him.
My rooster is 10 months old so he's still a cockerel. He mates with all the hens but he always had a preference for his sister.
Now all the older hens are molting and he doesn't mate with non laying hens. He didn't even mate with his sister before she was close to maturity.
He's a gentleman, and he doesn't even chase the hens if they don't want to mate.
But now that most hens are molting, he is really ruining his favorite's feathers. She's not hurt or anything, but all her back feathers are broken (broken, not pulled).
Another issue is that he's 3 kg, and the hen he overmates is just 1 kg. But again, she wants it.
Now, culling him is an option, but it would be a shame because he's a great rooster in every other aspect. He's really loving and caring of all his girls, and he always come running as soon as one makes a distress noise. He keeps peace in the flock and he's ready to fight even dogs. He doesn't even allow house sparrows in the coop.
Just to let you know how good he is, here is a story (you can skip this paragraph). When all the old hens stopped laying for molt time, I decided that I wanted to train the pullets to lay on the upper nest boxes (I need a speleological license to harvest on the bottom nest where the lazy old hens always laid.) So I removed the fake eggs and put them all on the upper nestbox. When this pullet (a faverolles EE) realized the fake eggs were gone, she went completely insane. She needed to lay but she didn't want to lay on the upper nests. The rooster immediately understood the issue and he started to look for an alternative nesting spot. I found him and her both squeezed behind the litter balls and farming tools, with the rooster trying to convince his favorite hen to lay there. They were really cute! Obviously the hen got kicked back in the coop and I gave up for the day and put the fake eggs down so she could lay. She now lays up, btw, because when it comes to animal training, I always finish what I start.
Last resort would be culling him and hatch another male from her favorite's hen eggs. It would be smaller then him most likely therefore causing less problems with the hens of smaller breeds.
I ordered a couple of saddles and they will arrive next month, if she accepts a saddle that would be a temporary fix until the other hens start laying again.
Would trimming the rooster's nails improve the situation? Any other idea?
The birds free range all day. Lately I'm letting out just the rooster and the old molting hens, so the laying pullets will have a break from the rooster at least for the morning. Then in the afternoon I let everyone out.
I really hope this behavior will stop when the other hens are back to laying because it would really be a shame to cull my legbar rooster. An EE rooster wouldn't be the same for my reproduction needs but my faverolles EE has priority because she's too sweet to rehome. Below is a picture of her before the overmating, and a video of how she is now. She's the salmon EE.
She looks miserable in this one because it's been raining the whole week, keep that in mind. But as you can see, her comb is beautiful. He tries his best to not hurt her but still he breaks feathers.
