I was sold a hen with my 5 cocks. They are in an indoor flight. Will there be problems during breeding season? I didn't want to breed but the hen is very friendly with a couple of the cocks. Begging for food from them and chassing them around. They are only 5 months old so far too young to breed. I would rather remove the female than risk any problems with fighting etc before it's too late.

It's a known fact that breeders will and have bred with hens as young as 5 months old,the reason is that the big buff feathered hens will sometimes only breed at that age.Its not always the case though,& who is to say that 5 months is to young,we have all heard the expression "dog years" in dogs.As far as having five cocks with one hen,i think if it was the other way around > say five hens and one cock you would eventually have a budgy war on your hands.If the birds are indicating they want to breed ,let them breed ,that's my opinion.

As soon as I read the title of your topic, I knew right away that whatever your question was, the answer was going to be "There's always trouble!"

 

Usually the trouble has to do with owning more birds than your spouse would prefer.

 

In your situation, I think that it doesn't matter what the gender is of the odd one out. The large group of the other gender is going to fight over it. The nice thing about cocks is that if there aren't enough females to go around, they will be happy to buddy up with another male. But there will still be some posturing over which males get the females, and with only one female, I think it is likely to cause some trouble.

If you don't add any breeding box's you will probably be okay. There's trouble with hens over nest box's, but if there are none, not a problem. USUALLY.

Thank you for your replies. I am more worried about the cocks fighting. I only have one hen and 5 cocks. Will the cocks fight over her?

 

As soon as I read the title of your topic, I knew right away that whatever your question was, the answer was going to be "There's always trouble!"

 

Usually the trouble has to do with owning more birds than your spouse would prefer.

 

In your situation, I think that it doesn't matter what the gender is of the odd one out. The large group of the other gender is going to fight over it. The nice thing about cocks is that if there aren't enough females to go around, they will be happy to buddy up with another male. But there will still be some posturing over which males get the females, and with only one female, I think it is likely to cause some trouble.

 

I already have more birds than my husband would like.

 

Of the 5 boys I have, one has french moult and keeps away from all the "action" and another is quite an old bird and just seems to sit twiddling bits of string toy all day and dodges any of the youngters when they come near him. The hen does seem to have paired up with one cock in particular and is soliciting food from him. There is one other that seems a bit interested.