Best way and when to add to flock

[cochinfan]

One of my "hens" started crowing this week so I guess I need to see whether he behaves OK to see if he stays but that means I have one less hen. (Only leaves me with 3 plus 2 roosters)

I haven't had the greatest luck this year between predators and now the hen turned rooster so I am still waiting for my first egg.

I'd like to have more hens - should I wait for spring? or get some chicks now?

Is it better to buy from hatcheries or breeders or buy older hens?

These are probably opinion questions because I have read various different points of view. My problem is, that I don't know the pros and cons or how to best answer these questions for myself. Anyone have any help or could you point me somewhere for answers?

Newbie wants to know!!

Bev (Cochin Fan)

 

[Judy]

There really isn't a best answer, I don't think. There is some risk of bringing in disease no matter how you do it, even if you buy hatching eggs.

You might use the BST forum here to see if there is anyone near you who has cochins, then go from there, perhaps look at their operation or at least meet them. If you are comfortable that there is no evidence of resp. disease in their flock, they might at least let you get some eggs to hatch.

I don't see any reason to wait til spring unless you live in an extremely cold climate; then you would want to think whether your housing will be sufficient til they are full size. They'll be hatching out here whenever my broody goes broody, which I figure will be in about another month or two, since she just started laying again after her last batch, and she raised babies late last fall.

Just my thoughts.

 

[ColoradoMike]

I feel your pain. We bought 5 chicks this spring (our first foray into chicken keeping) and 2 of them have turned out to be roosters. We rehomed the SLW after he began to crow last week and the EE is getting close to being showed the door, so to speak.

We decided to wait until the spring to get any more chicks. I'm probably going to expand our secure run and we're going to go with a few EE chicks... I'll probably get twice as many as we want/need in case we get more roos. EE/Americaunas should be easy to unload if we have too many pullets...

That being said, I'm sure other more experienced folks will have good advice for you - I just thought I'd share our decision to wait until next year to get more

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
Depending on the breed aggressiveness, you shouldn't have more then one rooster per 10 hens (my ratio). As for introducing new chickens, I've had good luck with chicks raised indoors for about 4 weeks then putting them in a cage inside the coop with their own separate food and water. After a week or two of the newbies and oldsters seeing each other up close thru the cage wire, I open a small door on the side of the cage that allows the youngsters out, but not an adult in (otherwise, the adults get in to eat the starter crumbles). This allows the youngsters a place to get back to if the pecking order gets too much for them.
My "introduction cage" is made out of a old ferret cage obtained free alongside the road as a give-a-way. It was a tall narrow rectangle, which I turned on its broad side down with doors on the top to replace the food and water and little doors on the side which I use for release, the dimensions are approximately 3' wide by 5' long by 18" deep, I've added a couple of small roosts in it for the youngsters to get on when they're ready to sleep on a roost like a big-boy rather then huddled on the floor. I've also added wire handles to make it easy to carry and feet to keep it up off the litter so the chicks poop will drop thru the mesh.

 

[cochinfan]

Thanks for all your replies. I think that I will get some chicks to raise over the winter so I might actually have eggs next summer!!

I think I am comfortable in integrating new birds into my tiny flock. I have two young cochins that I keep separate during the day and then put them to bed next to the older birds. By the time I need to fully integrate I will use the pen inside the pen method but they will have some familarity.

I know that I won't be able to keep both roosters with my hens since I don't plan on having more than around 10. Is it a bad life for a rooster to have to live by themselves? I could let the orpington rooster live in my horse barn but if they are not happy single, I will probably rehome him.

thx, Bev

 

[bHen]

I am kind of doing the same thing... I am hatching eggs through the fall so that the chickens will have some age on them by the time spring gets here. I bought my first chicks late, mid May, this year and will probly be waiting a month or two more for eggs. So in the mean time I am hatching!