Chickens straying to find boys?

[andreanar]

My chickens were hatched 4/30 this year. They were doing the same thing but with my cockerel leading the pack. They were not visiting a nearby farm. They just wanted to wander further and further away.
They now spend most of their days in the newly fenced in 1/4 acre pen I made for them. I let them out about 1 - 2 hours before dusk and that has kept them from going too far.

I worry that if she keeps letting them free range, her chickens may stop coming home and start roosting over there.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Ugh! Ive always been lucky with my first year pullets (knock on wood).

Inevitably the pullets will have a mini molt or somehow late bloomers.

I think I'm gonna head to lock down for a couple days though and see if I have someone hiding nests!

 

[DobieLover]

I worry that if she keeps letting them free range, her chickens may stop coming home and start roosting over there.

For sure! Sounds like they are already laying their eggs there.

 

[andreanar]

Inevitably the pullets will have a mini molt or somehow late bloomers.

I think I'm gonna head to lock down for a couple days though and see if I have someone hiding nests!

Good idea! We are already in lockdown from a hawk attack, the flying satan is still hanging around. My chickens are not happy.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

*******A little chicken tail********
Back in the 70s a friend of mine was having trouble with something snatching his game hens and pullets. I did a quick scout and noticed some bobcat tracks at the edge of a dirt road. It seems that a bobcat was hiding in the edge of a sage grass field and then dashing out to nab a hen when one ventured to close. My buddy burned off the sage grass field and to be sure he finished the job he caught up a dozen surplus pullets and coated their bodies with honey and strychnine. These pullets were taken to the area behind my buddies house and turned lose on 10,000 acres of land owned by US Pipe. For what ever reason the bobcat attacks stopped.

About the end of February when the hens had started to lay with enthusiasm my buddy saw a strange hen come sashaying up his drive way. Before the day was out she had became a leading member of his flock. She hung around and when she went to roost my friend caught her off of her roost and he found that she was wing banded. When he looked the wing band number up low and behold it was one of the pullets that he had tossed out into wildcat country the preceding fall.

The purpose of this story is to show you that hens and pullets will seek out a rooster to father their chicks and that hens don't necessarily need or want the company of other hens or roosters except when they want or need the company of other hens or roosters. If your hens are rooster-less they will gravitate to the cock-a-doodle-do of whichever rooster is nearest to them. It is a version of "When I am not near the one I love I love the one I'm near!"

 

[centrarchid]

In my experience, when chickens are in a group where the sex ratio is out of balance, the sex in excess is most likely to range further looking for better mating opportunities. Adding a rooster may fix your issue for females that have not committed to the new location down the road. Care must be taken as the new rooster settling can the final straw pushing your floaters to switch roosting site as well.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Interesting memory...

I bought a trio and kept them separate from the rest of my ladies. All my roosters are in a stag pen, next door to the hens. One of the hens in the trio started moving towards all the other hens to become part of the larger flock EVEN though there was NO rooster residing with them.

After dispatching the male in the trio, the hen that gravitated to the larger flock instantly moved in with them. The other was shyer and got moved.

Not a single one of my hens or pullets tries to get into my rooster pen for mating opportunities. Though there will be occasional flirting and courting through the fence, it isn't a ton for how many birds I have.

Maybe it's simply a case of safety in numbers. Anyways, so many different chicken personalities... who can tell what any individual is thinking. But peer pressure is real... monkey see, monkey do. Ones who are content to stay will learn the bad behavior from the perpetrator... things like hiding nests and hopping fences or in this case wondering toward the other flock sounds.

 

[centrarchid]

Interesting memory...

I bought a trio and kept them separate from the rest of my ladies. All my roosters are in a stag pen, next door to the hens. One of the hens in the trio started moving towards all the other hens to become part of the larger flock EVEN though there was NO rooster residing with them.

After dispatching the male in the trio, the hen that gravitated to the larger flock instantly moved in with them. The other was shyer and got moved.

Not a single one of my hens or pullets tries to get into my rooster pen for mating opportunities. Though there will be occasional flirting and courting through the fence, it isn't a ton for how many birds I have.

Maybe it's simply a case of safety in numbers. Anyways, so many different chicken personalities... who can tell what any individual is thinking. But peer pressure is real... monkey see, monkey do. Ones who are content to stay will learn the bad behavior from the perpetrator... things like hiding nests and hopping fences or in this case wondering toward the other flock sounds.

She-man men haters club running at your place. Forage quality can be important. Some females interact with males only for conjugal visits and the interactions are brief enough to be hard to spot.

Once my birds are of breeding age, females almost never move about without a male unless already invested in a breeding effort. I have had males run off females showing little or no interest in mating with them. That is particularly evident in my games. The male is already vested in a group of hens and offspring when that occurs.

I have seen what george referred to and think it is closer to reality than hens preferring to operate in hen-only groupings. When we pack larger groups in little parcels of land where a feeder keeps them coming back we start seeing some weird stuff that is not considered to be the norm.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I have had males run off females showing little or no interest in mating with them.

Yes I have seen roosters actively be mean to a hen that wouldn't mate.

I agree that what goes on in back yards and smaller pastures like mine is not quite the norm or completely natural.

And of course any cock I give access to the hens quickly sets up a harem and some ladies gravitate faster and submit and get his attentions and treats and such. And he will not allow a hen to take treats that he already knows won't give it up.

Cockerels not really being included since they often run to next mating opportunity... and it's true that I keep too many hens for one rooster to accommodate in a truly natural way without him going simply insane and running himself ragged, as described in post I have seen by @Shadrach ... I mean, probably happily of course!

I myself, am married and thankful for the men in my life.

So I not a man hater, but I can see how I could be setting them up for it.

I just got rid of all my Silkies! And after hatching to my hearts content, I can tell real changes *might* be coming to my flock. Keep on learning, growing, and adventuring. Can't wait to see what comes next!

 

[NoFlyBackFarm]

We have a flock of 7 chickens that we got as day old chicks at the end of April. We have been letting them free range all day, along with our flock of 15 guineas, and they are locked up at night. Everyone gets along well (guineas have a separate coop for sleeping), and all summer the chickens stayed close to the house, sometimes hiding in the woods, but never very far. Recently, the girls have started trekking about a half mile down the road to spend the day with our neighbor's rooster and chickens. We have gone from 6 eggs a day to one or two. We are not sure if they have just stopped laying because it is fall, or if they are laying somewhere else now. My question is, does anyone know if getting a rooster of our own will encourage them to stay home? They undoubtably will fall prey to something if they continue their high risk behavior!

Lack of roosters, I'm selling three purebreds. PM me if interested, they are in no way aggressive and they've been living with 33 hens and the other roosters. Plus three mix roosters I'm not selling.