Can "new" & "old" chickens be mixed?

[TammyD]

I have the opportunity to adopt a fancy rooster from animal control (checking the breed w/the facility vet but they say it's white with gorgeous colored feathers) - you never know what kind of animals a suburban animal control facility will get! IF I do take him, I need to know if/how I can introduce pullets (that I plan to purchase @ the Kankakee show in April/May) w/o him killing them? Before I commit to taking him I need to know that I can, for sure, put pullets with him. Can 2 roosters exist in the same space? (My son wants a Phoenix rooster.)

TIA
TammyD

 

[ZuniBee]

Depends on how old the pullets are. I have not had problems with my roosters hurting the older pullets....

Now, as for two roosters. I all depends on the roosters. I have two pens that have two roosters in each pen. They avoid each other without problems. I have three Millie Fleur roosters in one pen and they are fine. However, I tried to put two RIR roosters in the same pen with 20 hens and they would do nothing but fight. If I left them together they would fight until probably one was dead.....

 

[TammyD]

Thank you. We'll see what size, breed, etc this guy is before I make a decision. We got a bantam black tailed white Japanese rooster from animal control one time & he was a darling!

Weather is supposed to be in the 30s today & in the 40s for the rest of the week. Yahoo! Maybe some of this ice will melt & I can put horses out. They haven't left the barn in 3 weeks (good thing my barn is big enough they can wander around in it while I clean stalls at night). It's been difficult for me to even think of getting chickens because it's been so doggone cold! I have my chicken house plans & a materials list &, as soon as the weather gets warm enough to be out in it for any length of time & the ice melts (3" of it in a solid sheet between here & the barn door & all of my pasture gates are frozen in place), my 16 yr old son will be practicing the construction skills he learned in ag. class as he helps me build the coop. I plan to put the chicken house on the concrete behind the horse barn @ the edge of the grass so I can fence in & cover a section of pasture grass attached to the house for them to access at will.

Thanks, again!
TammyD

 

[raindrop]

I would recommend reading the "General Tips on Biosecurity" sticky in Emergencies/Diseases/Cures section of the forum. I have purchased/adopted birds before and all has gone well.

 

[TammyD]

I'm pretty sure I've been thru that section but a refresher wouldn't hurt a thing

. Thanks!!!

TammyD

 

[TammyD]

Yup, read it before & followed the suggestions. But, read it again & refreshing my memory is NEVER a bad thing

! It's been a couple of years since we had chickens (4H projects - 6 hens & a rooster, all banty).

We have 10 acres in the middle of no IL farmland so "space" isn't an issue. However, I want chickens for eggs & for fun. I don't want so many that I dread going out to the barn. So, I think that, at the VERY most, we'll have a dozen hens & a rooster (for show, not for breeding - we'll pick up the eggs daily, it's how we handled it before & it worked fine). We prefer the bantams vs the standards. I know that the eggs are smaller but they're SO cute and sweet!

I think the coop plan I have is supposed to handle up to 20 chickens. So, in winter when it's too cold to let them outside, they'll still have room to move about inside the coop w/o having to stand on each other. I'm a firm believer in heated water pans & lamps (white for daytime & red for nighttime) on timers inside the coop in the colder/darker months.

And, if you ask my kids they'll tell you, I'm VERY particular about clean cages

. (I clean stalls 2x/day when they're indoors & pick them if I go to the barn in the middle of the day when the horses are stuck inside.) I HATE flies !

TammyD