2 hens

[cissy]

Hello again,
I have found that my pair of kaks have become 2 hens,both are laying eggs. My question is this, would 1 male be ok and housed in their avery with extra boxes, or would the preference be 2 males and paired in seperate averys. The breeder was rather shocked and said he would swap the female for a male but I am fond of them both so any advice you can give me would be great.
Thanks Cissy

[pabloc]

My humble opinion is that trios don't work that well, I have tried 2 times and didn't work out for me, I think it would be the exception and maybe not even worth the time. If they even get to breed it's my guess that it would be too much workload for 1 male to feed 2 hens and their chicks.

Better 1 male and 1 female in each aviary, with 2 nestboxes each aviary.

And to the forum! :)

[cissy]

Thankyou for your responce, I will give it a go.
Cissy

[Steptoe]

I tryed this some years back, 2 females 1 male.
Went ok till the eggs started to hatch and that female then got real agressive with the other female, spending too much time 'defending the nest box from all who goes near.
So I tried blocking line of sight between nesting boxes...which we do between flights to reduce arguments right down.
When hens start spending too much time defending they are not around for the male to feed them and then feed the chicks, espec newly hatched.

We never got to the stage of going further, but I have no worries about a male not being able to keep up with 2 nesting boxes, and 4 when the hens go to nest the 2nd time, usually he is only finishing off weaning of the 1st batch and the 2nd batch hatches....and generally the new batch take priotity.

[cissy]

Thankyou again for your responce I was able to purchase 2 unrelated males so every thing sorted itself out. Trouble is the hens believed they were a pair and at this stage still calling for the other I am hoping in time this will sort out as well.
Many thanks
Cissy

[Steptoe]

So u have them in separate flights with a male with each??

Keep a very close eye on them and the males, since they have not bonded with the males then it is likely that u will still have terroritial issues later.

Since the females are calling, are u sure that one of those females hasnt bonded with one of the females and u have it in the wrong flight????

[cissy]

Hello again.

8 months ago I purchased a pair of Kaks meant to be 1 male 1 female. I housed these birds together, the one that was meant to be a male startrd laying eggs and the hen was feeding the other while it sat on eggs.
Each time i checked the box the eggs were growing rapidly from 8 to 11 in 2 days. Only after seeing a true male with the beak and size difference was to know for sure I had 2 hens,
I have since brought 2 males put a pair in seperate flights the inhouse fighting stopped things got calmer but the females are still calling for each other.

Will this resolve itself over time. each day sees an improvement, many thanks
Cissy