BYC Café

[ValerieJ]

Yup, fraid so, probably wishful thinking.
You would be better off housing two groups separately, each with a few hens.

Then I need more hens for Mad. I don't want to split up my girls. And they are quickly becoming Pippi's girls. They follow him all over the place. Well, except Surly. She is top hen and not giving way to a hormonal little cockerel. No way.

 

[Shadrach]

Then I need more hens for Mad. I don't want to split up my girls. And they are quickly becoming Pippi's girls. They follow him all over the place. Well, except Surly. She is top hen and not giving way to a hormonal little cockerel. No way.

I would take the four most junior hens and house them with the junior cockerel.
I keep and have kept often just one rooster with two, or three hens. Three is the magic number. There are many good reasons why.

 

[FortCluck]

Good morning, Cafe folks! I'll have a cup of that jo, Shadrach! Thanks!

I'm managing cockerels these days. I have two, and I only have 10 hens and pullets. Not sure how this will work out in the end, but I really love them both and want to keep them.

Pippi Longshot was a single hatch from 13 BO hatching eggs that were mishandled by the post office. Not wanting him to come into the world all alone, I bought 3 LO straight run chicks to cheer him on. And they did. I could hear him cheeping through the crack in his egg, and then I could hear one of the LOs cheeping back to him. When he finally got out, and wandered over to the teddy bear and mirror, he knew immediately that was not where the cheeping was coming from. He looked up at me through the incubator glass, stood on his tippy toes, and cheeped until he fell over backward, time and again, saying "let me out...where's that cheeping coming from? I know it's not this bear!"

I thought I had 2 LO cockerels and 1 pullet. Pippi was a mystery in the beginning. It turned out I have a cockerel in each color. Perfect. Mad Hatter, Abby and Alice are the LOs.

At 21 weeks, Mad has taken the lead, and was really always in the lead. To keep the peace, and to give Pippi a better cockerel experience, I've begun moving him into the pen with my 8 hens each day. The girls are teaching him some manners, and he is learning his cockerel skills. All is well until bed time when he starts looking for a hole in the fence to get back to Mad's safe house, and I have to herd him around to the gate...in the freezing rain. Pippi finally tried to crow yesterday. Too funny. Mad has been crowing for a long time, and is quite a vocal guy actually.

Having 2 cockerels in that hormonal crazy stage is a handful! I am prepared to have a bachelor pad if I need to, but I'm hoping eventually all my chickens will live together in harmony. Perhaps that will happen when we have our new walk in coop. I don't know. What do you think? Will I have to raise more pullets to make this work? I'm hoping to never raise chicks again myself. I want my hens to do that. Wishful thinking?

You need to figure out what you're going to do with them after they are done this hormonal stage...

Remember when Sid was giving me a hard time, it didn't stop after He plateaued on the hormonal rage. Squatch, remember him when he was giving me a hard time but his plateau made him a very mature and friendly cockerel.

I will never decide on keeping a cockerel during their hormonal stage. It's not a good representation of what they'll be like after they've plateaued.

HeiHei and Squatch get along... One is the world's smallest breed of chicken and the other is the world's largest breed of chicken... Imagine that. They love each other... No joke. Squatch has him watch one part of the yard and he watches another part. HeiHei is in charge of the chicks and I assume when those pullets are old enough to breed those will be his ladies.

If You can get your boys to somehow have their own ladies, it will be less stress on you and them. Sid couldn't get any ladies and that made him lash out on us humans. He got my husband numerous times and he got me too. I honestly NEVER hate anything, but let me tell you I was close to hating him.

 

[ValerieJ]

I would take the four most junior hens and house them with the junior cockerel.
I keep and have kept often just one rooster with two, or three hens. Three is the magic number. There are many good reasons why.

I can't get the junior cockerel, Pippi, to go into any coop but Mad's coop. It seems like Mad is his protector. At least Pippi thinks so. Mad is mostly good to his two pullets. The only time he gets a little aggressive is when one of them gets between him and me. He wants them to stay back when I'm in the run. When Pippi was in with him during the day, Mad would get a little wacko and start jumping on everyone. Not trying to mate. Just jumping on them. That's when I started moving Pippi in with my hens during the day.

 

[CapricornFarm]

This made me tear up! Rescue dogs are so special and it's always amazing when they start to do things they never did before... Best part is YOU did that! You've changed this dogs life completely and now you're her whole world! She's never been this free!

I'm thinking about rescuing a lab tested beagle... Not now but when we move next year. I'm a sucker for beagles. I have one laying next to me right now snoring and covered up in her plush blanket

Where are you moving to?

 

[CapricornFarm]

Good morning Cafe. One more day until I go buy fish! Very excited about that. Today is empty the feed out of the truck day.

 

[ValerieJ]

Good morning Cafe. One more day until I go buy fish! Very excited about that. Today is empty the feed out of the truck day.

What kind of fish are you buying? For a fish tank or the freezer?

 

[CapricornFarm]

What kind of fish are you buying? For a fish tank or the freezer?

For my fish tank ...

Hubby already has the freezer full. I plan to get community fish so hopefully they all get along. Livebearers, tetras, catfish, loaches and the like. The tank may not be cycled yet so I am only getting a few.

 

[ValerieJ]

For my fish tank ...
View attachment 2001412
Hubby already has the freezer full. I plan to get community fish so hopefully they all get along. Livebearers, tetras, catfish, loaches and the like. The tank may not be cycled yet so I am only getting a few.

Beautiful tank! How fun! Can't wait to see all the fish!

 

[DobieLover]

For my fish tank ...
View attachment 2001412
Hubby already has the freezer full. I plan to get community fish so hopefully they all get along. Livebearers, tetras, catfish, loaches and the like. The tank may not be cycled yet so I am only getting a few.

The water cleared up great! I assume you're starting with a low percentage of the final population and picking a hardy breed to start the bio system?