You've heard of cocks fights, yes? Roosters will fight, it's their natural behavior. You do have a good ratio of males to females, and presumably plenty of room in which to keep those numbers, but 6 roosters together is still a lot to ask. Some breeds are more game than others, and there will be differences in temperament among individuals, but they're still doing what comes naturally. This time of year the increased daylight causes hormone levels to increase in both sexes in preparation for breeding, and any young birds from last year that have not been fully mature and so got along well, are now adults and starting to challenge the others. It's not unheard of for several cocks to be kept together under optimal conditions and get along well, but it's usually the breeds and individuals which are naturally relatively calm and lacking in game temperament. There will still be a pecking order, but once it's worked out and they accept each other's place, it can work well. I would start by determining which breeds you have which are normally not so agressive, and weed out the others one at a time. Give it a few weeks for them to work out the new order, and if they still don't get along, continue until it seems to work out. Keep in mind that if you have all breeds which tend to be gamey, or if the one in which you have to keep has a high drive, your final solution may be to only keep one, although most production breeds should at least allow a few males to tolerate each other with the size flock which you have. Good luck.

This is my first visit to this forum, usually I'm over in the vegetable and fruit forums. But I have had backyard chickens for years, so I loved this rooster tail. ;-) My first 2 backyard chickens were hens purchased from the "free-range" egg farm a couple of towns away. They had been laying for a year and were "worn out" for commercial purposes, but once they molted and settled in, they provided more than enough eggs for me. We had white leghorns on the farm when I was growing up, so I got one production white leghorn (x-large white eggs) and one red something (jumbo brown eggs). Then I started reading up about chickens, and discovered there was a whole world of different birds. When Red keeled over dead the next spring and a lonely Henny Penny started following my 2 cats everywhere, terrorizing them, I went down to the feed store and picked up 2 Easter Egger pullets and, on my vet's advice, 2 bantams (one cochine and one Polish). Both bantams grew up to be roosters! I kept them for a while without any complaints from the neighbors, but I was working nights then, and the constant crowing when I was trying to sleep in the day finally convinced me to give them away. (I thought I had a dozen roosters at one point, but it turned out my neighbor's grandchildren were standing on the other side of the fence, crowing away for HOURS, just for fun. AAAK!) A couple of years later I decided I needed a brown-egger, so I picked up a couple of Black Stars (sex-links). However, I didn't watch the clerk pick out the chicks, and when I got home darned if he hadn't put a barred chick (male) in with a black chick (female). This time a neighbor DID complain--pounding on my door and screaming at me at 4:30 in the morning. Dinner was then and remains the only chicken I have butchered (even growing up my dad did the butchering, although us kids did pluck). This spring my flock was all killed when the meter-reader left my back gate open and 2 vicious dogs got in. My children (then 3 1/2) told me they were very sad that our chickens were gone, then in the next breath told me we needed to get some new chicks. This time I was VERY careful to only get pullets. We started out with 1 americanua, 1 buff Orpington, 1 barred rock, and 1 black star. Unfortunately a racoon got one, and a domesticated cat (not one of mine) got another, so we have "Blacky" and "Buffy" in the back yard, carefully confined to their dog/chicken run. I know there is a rooster in the neighborhood again now, but his owners must keep him in the house until about 6:30 in the morning, because I don't hear him earlier than that. Glad you found homes for all of your spares. I'd still like to try some bantams, but I don't want to deal with roosters again! Catherine

There are some excellent extension publications and sites online dealing with processing home meat chickens. Seriously think about NOT biting off more than you can chew at any session and particularly at your first session. I have never done more than five at once even with help. I prefer plucking to skinning as well, but the kill/scald/gut/pluck/pinfeather process is time consuming. If you kill out more than four or five, you may end up slaughtering animals and wasting them. Learning to gut them out the very first time is tedious and you need to be careful so as not to contaminate your food with their fecal contents. You certainly don't want to kill more than you have freezer space for. It's NOT a fun process in any sense of the word. It isn't enjoyable watching them in their death throes. Humanely slaughtering involves a technique I can't do well, and I have my son do it. You would be surprized how an axe can bounce off feathers. I had to have my husband finish off a kill once, and for pity's sake he is a butcher and he grew up in the family slaughterhouse and I caught him apologising to the poor rooster for our clumsiness. I incubate my own chicks, so get a 50 percent male outcome. ONe has to make a committment to how they'll handle the rooster situations. No, don't process the bantams. Many people love them for pets. Just find them a good home. I don't slaughter much anymore, but sell the full sized roosters as well. I like to know I have meat chickens up there, but it really is a major committment to take it seriously.

I'm not sure, but I think it depends on how thickly you mulch, and with what kind of mulch. If you use a few inches of wood chips or shredded bark, and put fresh chicken manure on top, I think you'd be ok. Wood mulches sponge up nitrogen as they decay, then release it back slowly into the soil once fully composted. And if you have a few inches of wood mulch between the chicken manure and the rose roots, it'd take be so diluted as it rains down that I'd think any danger of burning would be little to none. And with just one or two birds, I'm imagining the amount of fresh manure used would amount to a sprinkling every few days (as it's spread around the beds). But this is just me thinking -- I've never tried it. I'm sure others would know better. I think I remember seeing one of "Fred's Fine Fowl" youtube videos in which he said he put fresh manure (mixed with dirty henhouse bedding) directly on top of previous-season's wood mulch, then topped it with fresh mulch, and repeated every year. This was for his vegetables, but he said he didn't have any nitrogen burn. :-) ~Christopher Here is a link that might be useful: Chicken droppings and mulch This post was edited by AquaEyes on Sun, May 26, 13 at 2:13