Consolidated Kansas

[sloanbychoice]

Those little coops are made to hold 3-4 chickens max. Looking at your flock that is part of the reason he's had trouble. You have some aggressive breeds in there. I guess you have to chose your battles but this forum is full of bad advice. You need to look at the writer's situation and how many years experience and how many chickens they deal with. There's way too many wives tales out there and inexperienced people who just repeat what some one else has told them.
I'll give you one more piece of advice. Buy some Blu Kote. Put the rooster back in the pen with the girls at night unless you decide to let them free range in the yard which would be better. Then if he gets some wounds spray them with the Blu Kote. It will help them heal and the other chickens don't like the taste of it.
I'm afraid what you are going to end up with is one mean rooster if you don't make some changes. Being an underdog with the other roosters is the first strike. Then not letting him establish his pecking order is another factor. What happens eventually when he finds out he can be top dog he will become aggresssive and may even start flogging you and your family. What good is a rooster if he can't join the flock anyway? Just asking.

Update...
So I opened their outside doors this morning like normal, each accessing their own runs... well, apparently a six foot fence between wasn’t enough. Boss flew right over into the run with the ladies, and they worked it all out. I guess this much time next to each other was all he was gonna take.
He took his chances and must have been ready to go for it.
So far they seem ok. No battle wounds.
(Other, than his comb, which is minor.)
I’m happy!!

 

[chicken danz]

So glad things are working out. I'd still stock up on some basic chicken health supplies like Blu Kote. It isn't pricey and works well for wounds. Another thing it does is hide blood so the chickens aren't as tempted to pick at it.
I have no affiliation with the company that makes this product!

 

[sloanbychoice]

I definitely will. Any other items handy?
I always keep Vetricin on hand for my dogs. Is that good for anything pertaining to chickens? I need a shopping list. Lol.

So tonight, may daughter was closing up the coop, and we were anxious to find out how they would go to roost together.
Boss seemed a little confused at first, being off his routine, but he decided his bed for the night was perched on top of the little coop.
I’m assuming after they reset tonight, they’ll all wake up together in the morning and should be fine.

 

[chicken danz]

Hope they all woke up in a good mood. Yes veterycin is good for eye treatments. Chickens tend to get things stuck in their eyes that cause irritation. Also good on any skin condition. I used to use it a lot but have changed things a little. I use regular human triple antibiotic ointment to treat any kind of eye problem. (the kind that doesn't have pain reliever. ) If you can give shots, the best thing you can have around is a bottle of tylan 50. If a chicken gets sick then a 1cc shot in the breast muscle for 3-5 days will usually fix any ongoing respiratory infections. (You can't cure a virus with antibiotics but you certainly can treat the infections that result from it.)
Always keep some form of electrolytes or probiotics around.
If you plan to raise some chicks you need to buy some Corid or the drug amprolium. It will save a lot of babies. Chicks are very prone to getting coccidiosis and it needs to be treated quickly.
I also keep vet wrap for any injuries.
I have an entire arsenol of chicken meds but there are various diseases they can get so it's hard to tell you what else to buy unless they are presenting a particular symptom. Until you have these problems it's probably best to wait until you might need them because medications expire. Instead of buying liquid or injectable medications I buy powdered ones and keep them in the freezer to make them last longer then their expiration date.
It's also wise to worm your birds or treat them for lice or mites. I use ivermectin injectable and just put it in their water. 4cc per gallon. The advantage to it is that it works instantly and kills the eggs in their system as well. Where most wormers have to be used again in 10 days or so to kill the hatching eggs.
There are many ways to kill mites and lice but everyone has a different take on that. I have some organic methods I use as well as some chemical methods. Any time you have something come up and need to know what to use feel free to ask.

 

[sloanbychoice]

There were a couple of squabbles this morning when he wanted to get right to it and they apparently thought it too early.
But no blood, nothing serious.
Yay!!!!

 

[Trish44]

@sloanbychoice it sounds like he is ready for his own flock. I would leave him there & let them work it out now.

 

[sloanbychoice]

He’s been with them now for three days with no major issues!! Yay Boss!!

 

[chicken danz]

Yay!

 

[Plinky]

Hello all. Just reporting in that my five year old Leghorn has just started laying again! Same thing happened last year - one month after the solstice - days getting longer and ... eggs! Last year I also had my blind (or something) Brahma who I lost this summer. Good ol' Pinky is the last of our original four backyard chicks. Curiously the first three winters all four laid all winter. I was thinking perhaps she was done laying this time around and was calculating how many big beautiful jumbo eggs she'd laid for us. She's always laid almost an egg a day, so with 300 eggs per year x 5 years that's 1500 eggs! or 120 dozen. Organic, cage free, etc cost about $4.50 around here. That's $540 worth of e

 

[Plinky]

oops, hit send too soon. That's $540 worth of eggs from one skinny little chicken who has never been sick or hurt or needed anything in particular. She's my super-heroine!