Cockerel and chicks

[EggSighted4Life]

I agree with posts that say letting the young rooster sleep with the broody isn't a good idea and will lead to something happening sooner or later to the eggs.

I have a lot of extra roosters that are kept in a bachelor pen away from the hens. Over this past summer while dealing with broodies and chicks I had a chick get separated from it's mamma and wind up in a pen with a bachelor Welsummer rooster. I was amazed that I didn't discover a dead chick when I discovered the escapee. Nope, chick was with the rooster and the rooster was tidbitting for the baby and watching over him. Idea! I put mamma and the babies with the gentle Welsummer rooster. Suddenly, Mamma and babies had a defender. He would lead them around their little pen standing guard over them, find food for them and at night would sleep next to the hen on the floor of their coop. The rooster had a job and was very good at it.

Even after mamma went back to the flock, Daddy Doc as he is called stuck with the fledglings and daddied them in mamma's absence. He did that with two broodies and one bunch of incubator fledglings for me.

Perhaps that would be a job for your low ranking male once the chicks have hatched. Until then, move him to another pen where he won't be picked on. Another lower ranking male to keep him company.

Either way, he needs to be somewhere where he isn't abused by the other roosters. They can't all be Alpha.

What a sight and experience to behold!

 

[rebrascora]

I had a cockerel a lot of years ago that was dumped at my yard. I already had more males than I should but they free ranged and tolerated each other but he was the lowest ranking being a new comer. Unfortunately my broody got taken by a fox and he took on the role of caring for her chicks, so it does sometimes happen that they can be useful in that respect but you need one with the right temperament.... Uncle Boris was a Light Sussex cross.

I agree with others that your boy being in the nest with the broody is not healthy for him, her or the eggs/chicks and.... you need a plan to deal with your excess males if you are going to continue hatching eggs. Too many males (adolescent ones particularly) in the flock leads to disharmony as well as injury and ill health.

 

[microchick]

Doc wasn't the only rooster observed doing this behavior. Several others did also. When I let the hen out in the run with her chicks there was always a rooster near her and her brood.

It seems to be their instinct to guard the hen and babies. I can honestly say I have never had a rooster harm a chick. I have had hens waffle stomp babies, I've had hens attack the babies and even kill babies, but not the roosters.

If you stop to consider the males role in a flock, it is to protect and mate the hens. Roosters don't know whether a chick a hen hatches is his or some other roosters but that rooster is programmed to protect the hens and 'future' hens.

Something to think about when it comes to keeping an extra rooster or two around. I'm lucky in that my roosters are very gentle. It took me a while to get them that way but I currently do not have an aggressive rooster in the bunch and I have, brace yourself, over 25 roosters right now.

The surplus roosters are in their own pen. At the moment I have 7 bantams in with the hens but as our winters here can get very cold, they are my 'packing peanuts'. Come February all but 4 or 5 will be moved in with the bachelors. I have a large run and usually 4 or 5 hens are outside and there are two roosters out 'guarding' them while the others are inside guarding the coop girls.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Doc wasn't the only rooster observed doing this behavior.

Rooster being the key word here.

I have had cockerels try to elevate their standing by picking on chicks. Though my usual issue is with the teen ladies.

I had one who got mama so frazzled trying to defend her babies against a persistent pullet that she was actually pecking them herself! And that was after I found one dead from an apparent attack when I got home the previous day. Needless to say that girl no longer resides in my flock and went to a home where they won't be having chicks on a regular basis.

Wow, that's a whole lot of mouths to feed without much return. It's nice that you can do that.

 

[lazy gardener]

Good posts about the role of a good roo in caring for babies. My roo also loves his babies, but... there must be an exit plan in place.

 

[microchick]

Thanks @EggSighted4Life. It wasn't my original plan to have this many. My original plan was to re-home or give them away for butchering or as flock masters. I have Marek's on our property though and now have a closed flock. Only vaccinated chicks come in and none go out. So all of my birds are exposed.

The way I see it. They had no choice in the matter as all of them have been hatched under my broodies or in my incubator. It's my choice not to butcher surplus so they hang around as pets and bug eaters. At the moment, I'm looking to see who is going to wind up being resistant. The strain of Marek's that I have on my property has been especially hard on my young cockerels and mature hens so sadly I can probably expect to loose 50% of my males unless the birds have inbred resistance to the disease. My bantam mixes come from Amish stock in my neighborhood so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Luckily, the little guys do not eat much, LOL.

 

[chickens really]

Maybe put the roosters that you’re trying to rehome into a seperate pen until they’re rehomed.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Thanks @EggSighted4Life. It wasn't my original plan to have this many. My original plan was to re-home or give them away for butchering or as flock masters. I have Marek's on our property though and now have a closed flock. Only vaccinated chicks come in and none go out. So all of my birds are exposed.

The way I see it. They had no choice in the matter as all of them have been hatched under my broodies or in my incubator. It's my choice not to butcher surplus so they hang around as pets and bug eaters. At the moment, I'm looking to see who is going to wind up being resistant. The strain of Marek's that I have on my property has been especially hard on my young cockerels and mature hens so sadly I can probably expect to loose 50% of my males unless the birds have inbred resistance to the disease. My bantam mixes come from Amish stock in my neighborhood so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Luckily, the little guys do not eat much, LOL.

That really stinks... but let me clue you in for a quick moment (not intended to sound ugly)...

According to my state poultry expert at UC DAVIS, Marek's is in EVERY poultry environment!

I respect your choice to have a closed flock, but will share a little more info from my research..

So Marek's is NOT part of NPIP testing!! So even people with Marek's can and do still sell their birds without disclosure of the Marek's, legally. talk about a false sense of security. But again, the state vet said EVERY poultry environment, so I guess as far as they are concerned it's irrelevant to our national food supply chain otherwise why wouldn't they include it for NPIP?

I saw it once and saved the bird for 2 weeks before I decided to cull, because as most do there is initial denial and trying to fix the "vitamin deficit". The second bird presented with limping 2-3 weeks later. I culled by the next day as I made the decision it had to be Marek's. No other bird has presented in many months and thankfully all my girls who molted have made it through without issue so far. I also believe I will be breeding for resistance! There was a gene identified that creates the resistance.

Did you know that Marek's does NOT pass through to the egg? So IMO anything incubator hatched should be safe to go out. Broody hatched, no. But also, they DO have Marek's vaccine that you can buy over the counter and administer yourself within the correct time frame, if you were so inclined. It adds a little cost and the bottle might be too big and last a long time. But you might also find someone to split it with.

And while it's technically illegal to eat/sell for eating, a diseased birds... if they aren't showing any current signs of illness then they are perfectly edible. We don't know how many that are being processed in the super market that will go unnoticed as they are simply chicken processors butchering 8 week old chickens and not medical experts looking for tiny lesions on the brain or even recognize a tumor if they saw one. I know that isn't your choice, but I wouldn't let it stop me from allowing healthy boys to feed someone else's family, if I were able to accept that option. I would never butcher one showing signs, but we definitely have eaten chicken since having that episode. And also let some chickens go with disclosure and without any issues.

Bantams are definitely lighter eaters... we eat our bantams also, having been taught... waste not, want not.

My suggestion would be to cull immediately upon presentation of any sign pointing to Marek's, but I'm sure you probably have some sort of plan in place already since you have been dealing with it. Mine may be a less viral strain than the one your dealing with. So early segregation followed by early culling once identified did limit my loss to only 2 birds out of 60 ish with 1/2 being chicks, may or may not have contributed to my survival rate, but is enough for me to continue with my confident decision making (culling) regarding the health of my entire flock. Took a LONG time for me to get here though.

It's a difficult situation to be in. Hope your loss becomes minimal.

 

[microchick]

Good information @eggsightedforlife. I have lost 4 birds to initial Marek's infection. One at 8 weeks to classic paralysis and the rest at 9 months to sudden decline and death. One of those was to neurological problems. One was at POL.. The rest have survived until adulthood before suffering from sudden decline and death. I've seen signs of lung and heart involvement/tumors. I've seen odd joint involvement. I have three birds with Ocular Marek's right now that are in their own coop with birds that are loosing weight in spite of high protein feed.

I haven't had a rooster live past twenty four months so far and my oldest hens that are going to be 3 in March are starting to show signs of decline. I have 8 hens, Buff O and Welsummer that are showing signs of resistance but even their egg production was starting to decline this summer before their molt began. Also a hallmark of the disease.

My problem is that every one around us has chickens, including a large Amish population. The Amish are funny about dead animals. A conservation officer told me that they worry about the wild turkey population because when the Amish have a turkey die, other than disposing it of it safely or submitting it for testing, they throw it in a ditch and whatever it has spreads to the wild population.. So it is with any animal so whatever virulent strain of Marek's (a vet at Mizzou's veterinary college told me without necropsy that what was happening to my birds sure fit the description of Marek's plus my retired eye doctor husband was able to diagnose ocular herpes in my bird's eyes) probably came from external sources and is everywhere around us.

I still in good conscious let this high mortality rate virus off my property (Even though it is air born and was probably air born when it hit my flock ), so I keep my birds here, love them and enjoy them while they are alive and hope eventually I will be left with resistant birds to carry on my flock with.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

so I keep my birds here, love them and enjoy them

That's awesome.

I wish more people would be responsible and considerate... you would think especially the Amish (who I know nothing about) would want to naturally contain any ailment by burying it deep or burning it. I mean, if I have a brooder chick that passes or catch a rat in the trap... I do set out my dead animals for the other wildlife to feed on instead of trashing it. I'm a firm believer in the circle of life. But that is knowing that it was simply failure to thrive (maybe from shipping or hatch mishaps). Not if I suspect disease and I don't use poison on the rats. Any unknown cause of death (haven't yet had any) or suspected disease gets bagged up and sent to the dump, legally. I just don't have enough property to bury everything, aside from the energy to dig a hole deep enough and fill back in to avoid digging wildlife. I know some people deal with ground to frozen to bury even if they wanted to.

sudden decline and death

I wonder if that is the Marek's or something else altogether?

Sounds like getting vaccinated birds will be a good choice when you have room and are ready for more... since it doesn't sound like it defeated your SPIRIT or passion and enjoyment of keeping fowl! (that's to Marek's of course)

Thanks for sharing.