If your adult roosters in with your hens are good at their job, I'd keep them and get rid of the younger ones. If they are not, I would do what you are going to do, put the older ones in the stew pot. Any bratty bantam cockerels go into the cooking pot too! I know what you mean about dumb hens. I have one too but my red pyle silkie rooster steps in and takes over or I would be in your shoes.
From: L.Q. in L.A. <goatsnchickens@yahoo.com>
To: "CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com" <CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 5:06 PM
Subject: Re: [CHICKENS-101] Ratty Hens
Cathryn rainbowsilkiesTM in Michigan
From: L.Q. in L.A. <goatsnchickens@yahoo.com>
To: "CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com" <CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 5:06 PM
Subject: Re: [CHICKENS-101] Ratty Hens
Each roo has ten hens. I'll try the plier trick and the hen saddles. I may also return to one rooster and give the girls a chance to recover. I don't need any more chicks. Not for a long while at this point. There are roo chicks among the lot and I can decide down the road a bit which I'd want to keep, if any.
In the front pen there are two bantam roos and 4 hens, well six hens and three chicks. Those bantam roos are total jackasses and I may deep-six them and move the Sultan roo to that pen. He doesn't quite fit in anywhere at the moment and I have him with the addled hen, I'll likely have to put her down. She was acting weird to begin with - possibly heat stroke / heat exhaustion, and then my dog got her but I can't find any puncture wounds/anything broken. She just doesn't. seem. right. And she moves her head in a weird slow-motion kind of jerky way like she can't see quite right (she did this before the dog). She's eating, her poop is normal, she's not laying, and she just doesn't seem to be home. Too bad, she's a pretty BSL hen and was among the most friendly. It's been a couple weeks, I can keep her and see if she recovers.
Yesterday one of the new Cornish Cross mama hens had a chick that got out and as my practice, mama and the other chick join the loose one so that mama can protect them both and herself. I removed the roosters, the other hens didn't seem to care. It was late afternoon and all mama wanted to do was roost way above the brooder while her chicks were running around under the pen. I'd put her down, she'd check on the babies come around and return to the roost. We went around this circle a dozen times. Eventually, the mama hen seemed to remember that she still had chick duties, and instead stood in front of the brooder and called to them. They came to her and everyone returned to their proper place.
All-in-all, I think I was the most stressed. :)
In the front pen there are two bantam roos and 4 hens, well six hens and three chicks. Those bantam roos are total jackasses and I may deep-six them and move the Sultan roo to that pen. He doesn't quite fit in anywhere at the moment and I have him with the addled hen, I'll likely have to put her down. She was acting weird to begin with - possibly heat stroke / heat exhaustion, and then my dog got her but I can't find any puncture wounds/anything broken. She just doesn't. seem. right. And she moves her head in a weird slow-motion kind of jerky way like she can't see quite right (she did this before the dog). She's eating, her poop is normal, she's not laying, and she just doesn't seem to be home. Too bad, she's a pretty BSL hen and was among the most friendly. It's been a couple weeks, I can keep her and see if she recovers.
Yesterday one of the new Cornish Cross mama hens had a chick that got out and as my practice, mama and the other chick join the loose one so that mama can protect them both and herself. I removed the roosters, the other hens didn't seem to care. It was late afternoon and all mama wanted to do was roost way above the brooder while her chicks were running around under the pen. I'd put her down, she'd check on the babies come around and return to the roost. We went around this circle a dozen times. Eventually, the mama hen seemed to remember that she still had chick duties, and instead stood in front of the brooder and called to them. They came to her and everyone returned to their proper place.
All-in-all, I think I was the most stressed. :)
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