blutenstaub
Chirping
I'm not sure if this thread would be better in the chicken behavior section. I'm wondering how I should be interacting with some cockerels that I might end up selling to someone interested in gaming with them. If one or both of them ends up playing nicely with the girls I might keep him/them, who knows?
These are mystery birds, previously seen in: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mystery-swap-meet-birds.1544104/page-2#post-26200182 and guessed to be game mixes. They are two cockerels about 3-4 months old.
So far I've been pretty hands off with these guys. They've continued to sleep in the tall hedge in front of my house, away from the lady birds, but mingle with them during the day. They are still lower on the pecking order than the girls and won't eat from the feeder while the girls are eating, but don't freak out and run away from them as much. I'm trying to learn more about rooster psychology. In some other threads, I've seen it suggested that it's better to be aloof with young roosters-to-be, so when the hormones kick in they are less likely to think humans are equals to be dominated. On the other hand, as it stands I can't really do stuff like check or treat them for parasites (my silkie has some kind of lice, though I haven't seen any on the wyandotte). They used to roost lower in the hedge, but ever since I pulled the fatter one out of the bush one night and traumatized him by trying to put him in the coop by the big mamma wyandotte, and one of my more playful cats tried to get up next to him in the bushes another night, they are up close to the top of the hedge to sleep. Maybe about 15 feet?
My goals in general are that everybody gets along and I don't mind them not being lap chickens, but I also don't want them to be untrainable if I need to get rid of one/both. It would be nice if I could handle them for health checks. I don't really need any roosters, but I enjoy having them around, hearing my little dude crow in the morning (big guy still isn't crowing yet), and finding extravagant feathers around the yard. I don't really know anything about the game cock world and if these mutts are already ruined for it by not already having some kind of training, or if there's an age I should start treating them some kind of particular way, or what. I've never had roosters before, period, so they are pretty alien to me in general. (But such pretty aliens!)
Any young rooster advice? Links to some good resources?
These are mystery birds, previously seen in: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mystery-swap-meet-birds.1544104/page-2#post-26200182 and guessed to be game mixes. They are two cockerels about 3-4 months old.
So far I've been pretty hands off with these guys. They've continued to sleep in the tall hedge in front of my house, away from the lady birds, but mingle with them during the day. They are still lower on the pecking order than the girls and won't eat from the feeder while the girls are eating, but don't freak out and run away from them as much. I'm trying to learn more about rooster psychology. In some other threads, I've seen it suggested that it's better to be aloof with young roosters-to-be, so when the hormones kick in they are less likely to think humans are equals to be dominated. On the other hand, as it stands I can't really do stuff like check or treat them for parasites (my silkie has some kind of lice, though I haven't seen any on the wyandotte). They used to roost lower in the hedge, but ever since I pulled the fatter one out of the bush one night and traumatized him by trying to put him in the coop by the big mamma wyandotte, and one of my more playful cats tried to get up next to him in the bushes another night, they are up close to the top of the hedge to sleep. Maybe about 15 feet?
My goals in general are that everybody gets along and I don't mind them not being lap chickens, but I also don't want them to be untrainable if I need to get rid of one/both. It would be nice if I could handle them for health checks. I don't really need any roosters, but I enjoy having them around, hearing my little dude crow in the morning (big guy still isn't crowing yet), and finding extravagant feathers around the yard. I don't really know anything about the game cock world and if these mutts are already ruined for it by not already having some kind of training, or if there's an age I should start treating them some kind of particular way, or what. I've never had roosters before, period, so they are pretty alien to me in general. (But such pretty aliens!)
Any young rooster advice? Links to some good resources?
