Ruby Rogue
Free Ranging
Here's a little back info;
I have three 10(?) Week old cockerels and 4 pullets the same age, mixed breed, for laying and breeding purposes. We have 1 coop (presently) divided by chicken wire. One side houses this flock, one side houses the Cornish x meat birdies. We recently took care of 34 Cornish x which were the same age as the layer flock. They were introduced together from about 5 weeks.
The day after the first flock of Cornish x 'left', we picked up 40 more Cornish x chicks. So we essentially swapped out huge birds for tiny ones which I'm sure was quite confusing for my small flock of layers.
So of my 3 cockerels, 2 crow all the time, in succession, one very rarely crows but I feel like he is the dominant of the 3. We will probably never know for sure because he is also my favorite and will most likely be the only rooster in our flock. He's cool.
If I pick up a chick he watches me like a hawk, and if I lift up the chick higher than he is (separated by chicken wire) or if I talk to him while holding a chick, he lets out this super strange, freaky, almost terrifying (or terrified?) screetching sound.
The fence is only about 2 feet high and if he wanted to he could easily jump over and kill all the babies, (I should go check on the babies) but I don't actually think he wants to. The chicks approach the fence and sleep near the fence sometimes but the birds clearly know that there is a barrier and one side belongs to them and if I raise that chick up higher than the barrier, well I wouldn't wanna know what would happen if I dropped him in there.
Why does he screetch like this? I like it, but I want to be able to introduce my other 2 week old chicks to them soon in a few weeks.
If it's normal, how come my other cockerels don't seem to mind when I hold a baby.
Also, would this be a dominant rooster behavior?
**I just remembered, I did bring that cockerel over to the baby side once and he just ran over and started eating their food, a couple of the babies tried to challenge him and he pecked at them but didn't really show much interest other than the food and when the dog walked in he just wanted to go back over to his girls.**
Thanks for reading...
I have three 10(?) Week old cockerels and 4 pullets the same age, mixed breed, for laying and breeding purposes. We have 1 coop (presently) divided by chicken wire. One side houses this flock, one side houses the Cornish x meat birdies. We recently took care of 34 Cornish x which were the same age as the layer flock. They were introduced together from about 5 weeks.
The day after the first flock of Cornish x 'left', we picked up 40 more Cornish x chicks. So we essentially swapped out huge birds for tiny ones which I'm sure was quite confusing for my small flock of layers.
So of my 3 cockerels, 2 crow all the time, in succession, one very rarely crows but I feel like he is the dominant of the 3. We will probably never know for sure because he is also my favorite and will most likely be the only rooster in our flock. He's cool.
If I pick up a chick he watches me like a hawk, and if I lift up the chick higher than he is (separated by chicken wire) or if I talk to him while holding a chick, he lets out this super strange, freaky, almost terrifying (or terrified?) screetching sound.
The fence is only about 2 feet high and if he wanted to he could easily jump over and kill all the babies, (I should go check on the babies) but I don't actually think he wants to. The chicks approach the fence and sleep near the fence sometimes but the birds clearly know that there is a barrier and one side belongs to them and if I raise that chick up higher than the barrier, well I wouldn't wanna know what would happen if I dropped him in there.
Why does he screetch like this? I like it, but I want to be able to introduce my other 2 week old chicks to them soon in a few weeks.
If it's normal, how come my other cockerels don't seem to mind when I hold a baby.
Also, would this be a dominant rooster behavior?
**I just remembered, I did bring that cockerel over to the baby side once and he just ran over and started eating their food, a couple of the babies tried to challenge him and he pecked at them but didn't really show much interest other than the food and when the dog walked in he just wanted to go back over to his girls.**
Thanks for reading...
