Colorado

[uzisuzuki]

I'm asking around the boards - do any of you have experience with bachelor coops? I have ended up with 3 cockerels in my hatch of 5 this year & there is no way I can afford to buy enough hens to keep everyone together in 1 pen. I'm just curious if the males have to be completely cut off from any visual/audio cues from the females in order for a bachelor coop to work. Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

My 3 little dudes - Spider, Ronan (the Destroyer) & Lucien.

 

[coop410silkies]

I'm asking around the boards - do any of you have experience with bachelor coops? I have ended up with 3 cockerels in my hatch of 5 this year & there is no way I can afford to buy enough hens to keep everyone together in 1 pen. I'm just curious if the males have to be completely cut off from any visual/audio cues from the females in order for a bachelor coop to work. Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

My 3 little dudes - Spider, Ronan (the Destroyer) & Lucien.

Uzi, I have now, and have had in the past, bachelor coops. The first one I had was a hoop coop, rather well isolated from any hens. It was about 7 feet wide and 12 feet long and it housed as many as 11 full grown roosters through one winter. The covering of the coop admitted a lot of light, so they weren't in darkness, but they didn't get to free range or go out in a pen. There were both visual and physical barriers, and they all survived the winter. These guys were totally confined and there seemed to be not much fighting among them. I am sure that the high numbers helped. As the number got lower, the high ranking roos got murderous: a low ranking Roo died, and I had to rescue another, leaving only two, brothers and partners in bad deeds. I eventually released the two, and they are now back in rooster jail #2.

This second coop is much like the first, only a little larger. It has a fence running the length of it right down the middle, and it is housing only 4 Roos. Two Roos stick together in one half of the coop, and two in the other half. They can hop the 4' fence, and they are not sorted the way I put them in; they've sorted themselves. The hens I've separated them from roam about this Roo Coop and pester to get in, the Roos can't see them really, but they know they are there. As long as there is no physical contact with the hens, they don't seem to get in a fight over them. The roosters kept with hens would sometimes emerge bloody, but not so with the hens removed. This could change, but I am thinking you can keep Roos confined in a coop close to hens if you keep them physically and visually isolated.

Whether you can keep your three together is a tough question to answer. I kept three brooder sibs together in a small pen and shelter, and one got picked on and left. I tried to get him back to his pen, but he was terrified of his brothers and wouldn't go near them. He pestered for days to get admission to the layer coop and finally was allowed in by the two mellow Roos in charge there - but with conditions of course. The thing with my roosters is that they will hop the fence or fly out if they are determined, so in order to keep them altogether and separate from the hens, I have to keep them totally confined in a coop large enough to house them all comfortably. I COULD free range them when the hens are not out, but that is a very sure way of getting a good fight. New territory and all. Depends on your breed of bird, too. Hope every one else will chip in with their two cents worth. Have more good luck.

 

[COChix]

I'm asking around the boards - do any of you have experience with bachelor coops? I have ended up with 3 cockerels in my hatch of 5 this year & there is no way I can afford to buy enough hens to keep everyone together in 1 pen. I'm just curious if the males have to be completely cut off from any visual/audio cues from the females in order for a bachelor coop to work. Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

My 3 little dudes - Spider, Ronan (the Destroyer) & Lucien.

We had a bachelor coop last year for the 8 cockerels from our hatch. We gave them the small coop with the enclosed run and left Rocco (alpha roo) with the hens and chicks. We were having problems with the boys being a little too aggressive with the young chicks around maturity time. Also we wanted to new chicks to learn the ways of the farm by their dad showing them the ropes. When we had the other roo's out it was chaos. Nobody followed Rocco around and often Rocco was too busy breaking up fights and rough mating to be much on guard. We housed them all together with the coop and run, left the pop door open as they preferred to roost in the run at night, until they were 6-7 months old and then we processed them all. The group had visuals on the hens/pullets as they were in the covered run, we decided to process once we started having some serious fights amongst them. Up until they start to come into maturity we didn't really have any issues as far as fight go. That was our experience, handsome looking group of boys you got there.

 

[COChix]

Ok been a minute since I posted some updated chick picks, they are now 10 weeks old. At week 7 they begun roosting at night with the adults all on their own and haven't looked back.

Oh and we got a bit of interesting news from our old landlord, he informed us that their is a bobcat living on the property. Guess it has been eating our neighbors chickens....their coop and enclosed run took a beating in the storms and they haven't fixed it. Their flock just runs loose around their property. Haven't seen any tracks, very exciting and a bit rattling all at the same time.

 

[uzisuzuki]

Thanks for the suggestions, you guys. I appreciate it very much.

 

[COChix]

Roo alert - the grey one is a young cockerel, heard it crow when I was collecting eggs, had to peek around the corner and was able to catch him in mid crow again. I had my suspicions about that one after feather sexing on day 3. That is an Oliver Egger from PC.

 

[Robilyn81]

Roo alert - the grey one is a young cockerel, heard it crow when I was collecting eggs, had to peek around the corner and was able to catch him in mid crow again. I had my suspicions about that one after feather sexing on day 3. That is an Oliver Egger from PC.

Oops! He does have a very pretty pink comb. Did you get him straight run or sexed?

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Isn't it amazing the difference that only a few weeks can make...

The beginning of spring with its warm days and cool nights; trees leafing out....and THEN!!!

No that's not snow on the ground...

....that's cotton....

...from our cottonwood tree. It's been an especially bad year this year. Must be El Niño. It's mostly over now, at least the constant rain of debris has slowed down a lot. Few more days and it should be over...not soon enough though.

Lawn mower with a bagger and I'll have most of this picked up...but what a mess.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

The Development of a Buff Orpington Cockerel

The breed in these images is the Buff Orpington, but the physical and behavioral traits presented could be applied to most any breed. The pictures should give you a focused impression of what to look for if you suspect there is a young cockerel developing in your flock.

Keep in mind, however, I am unfamiliar with the various Asian Breeds and their development traits.

The upper image is the cockerel, the lower image is the pullet. The cockerel's comb is ever so slightly more developed than the pullet. Until you develop an eye for what you are looking for in a very young cockerel, you almost need to be holding one in each hand to tell. Once you develop an eye for it though, the difference becomes readily apparent. There is also just a hint of redness beginning to appear in the cockerel's comb and pinkish red in the beginning of his wattles

Mostly, you will notice a fearlessness in the behavior of the cockerel. He will be the first to great you. He'll run right up to you, putting himself between you and the rest of the flock, as he did when the upper image was taken...then sorta give you a, "Why did I just do that?" kind of look. In the above images, they are at what I call the Raggamuffin Stage, about 4 to 5 weeks of age.

The lead bird in this image is the cockerel. His comb is redder and more developed than the pullets. 7 to 8 weeks in age.

In this image the cockerel again has the redder more developed comb at 8 to 9 weeks of age.

Once his hackles started coming in, it was pretty easy to tell which was the Cockerel. Also look at his tail feathers as compared to the pullets in this photo. They are right around 12 to 13 weeks in this image.

And the dead give away is when the Cockerel starts making weird raspy chortling noises as he is learning how to Crow. He is right around 13 to 14 weeks in this image.


...his name was Pecker, by the way.

 

[uzisuzuki]

Oops! He does have a very pretty pink comb. Did you get him straight run or sexed?

I believe she hatched them, not a placed order of chicks.