Compare and contrast: Blue Eggs (Ameraucana, Araucana, Legbar)

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aldarita said:
I got a straight run of 20 Ameraucana chicks from a breeder 2 years ago. I ended up having 11 roos. I decided to keep 2 cockerels for my pullets and hens but unfortunately it did not work, the 2 cockerels fought all the time even though my roo-hen radio was good (18 pullets and hens) so I had to separate them and they now live in their own bachelor pen. I still have 5 Ameraucana hens and they lay beautiful green eggs which tint varies slightly from hen to hen.

These are my two roosters, they have been living in their bachelor pen for a little over a year.

This is their bachelor pen. We are getting chicks this Spring so there will be cockerels in the flock since we are getting them from a breeder, those cockerels will eventually move in with our 2 roosters
Click to expand...

Nice birds and bachelor pad!

Question: Have you had much luck integrating cocks that didn't grow up together? I've never integrated cocks but I'm selecting a few of the best from the breeds I'm working with, and up till now I was keeping each group of 2-3 in their own small pens. If I could integrate them that'd be better because I could just build a small coop and run and keep them all in there to save pen space. Plus they'd be happier I'd guess since they'd have more room to stretch their wings. Like I said, I've never attempted it because even my most docile cocks flare up whenever they see another cock between the chicken wire, and they'll usually go at it for a bit until they figure out there's a barrier between them and then they'll calm down a bit. In my 5'X5' breeding pens I always put a 2-3' high section of plywood on the bottom because I don't want them concentrating on anything but their mate. I'm afraid another cock next door might ruin the mood.

Anyway if you could let me know I'd appreciate it. I'm guessing it probably depends on the individual birds, like most things with chickens.
 
ejcrist, I ended up re homing one of my beautiful roosters (the alpha) because it became very aggressive towards me. The guy that took him knew about it and wanted it anyway. The other rooster was moved into the hen yard, he had been separated from the hens for over a year. The day my alpha left, I took my second rooster and placed him in the yard with the hens (I have a big yard) he immediately started chasing the hens, some of them would squat and some of them would run, that night he slept in the coop with the flock and has been with them ever since (he is my only rooster). So as a matter of integration, I would say it went pretty smooth.
My flock consists of hens of different ages so I don't know if this would have worked with pullets, specially if the male is a cockerel.
I read a lot of the posts in BYC specially the ones about integration. Many breeders keep their roos in a bachelor pen and only move them with the hens when they are ready to start breeding. If I were a breeder I would do exactly that. It makes the hens a lot happier and as you said, the roos would have a bigger area to stretch their wings.
You might want to start a new thread with this topic so you can get the breeders opinions as to how they workout the roos integration within the breeding groups.
I wish you the best of luck !!!
 
aldarita said:
ejcrist, I ended up re homing one of my beautiful roosters (the alpha) because it became very aggressive towards me. The guy that took him knew about it and wanted it anyway. The other rooster was moved into the hen yard, he had been separated from the hens for over a year. The day my alpha left, I took my second rooster and placed him in the yard with the hens (I have a big yard) he immediately started chasing the hens, some of them would squat and some of them would run, that night he slept in the coop with the flock and has been with them ever since (he is my only rooster). So as a matter of integration, I would say it went pretty smooth.
My flock consists of hens of different ages so I don't know if this would have worked with pullets, specially if the male is a cockerel.
I read a lot of the posts in BYC specially the ones about integration. Many breeders keep their roos in a bachelor pen and only move them with the hens when they are ready to start breeding. If I were a breeder I would do exactly that. It makes the hens a lot happier and as you said, the roos would have a bigger area to stretch their wings.
You might want to start a new thread with this topic so you can get the breeders opinions as to how they workout the roos integration within the breeding groups.
I wish you the best of luck !!!
Click to expand...
Oh ok, I gotcha now. Thanks for the details. Yeah I think I'll keep doing what I've been doing. I've been pretty fortunate integrating hens of various ages, and this year I'll be doing a lot more of it since my current layers, the oldest ones anyway, are nearing retirement. I've already integrated a bunch of birds with them to take over when they're gone, and I'm planning to put some of the chicks I hatch from my SOP birds in the layer coop too. I'll keep the very best chicks I hatch in separate coops and runs since they'll only be used for breeding, but those that don't make the top cut that I'd like to keep to see how they develop will go in with the layers, and anything below them will get sold or invited to supper. I'll keep only the best cockerels and keep them separate since that's worked well up to this point - if it ain't broke don't fix it. It may be possible to integrate cocks in with other cocks but gosh, can you imagine the headache that would be? If anyone has done it I'd be interested to hear but it seems like it'd be way more trouble than it's worth. You'd probably come home from work to dead roosters often, that's my guess.
 

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