Hi everyone! I have one Orpington Roo just out of his first moult.. we did get 3 roosters, two of them Silkie cockerels, about 6 months ago, but they both turned out to be hens (surprise!) and by that time we’d gotten attached. Unfortunately, we came home to find one hen expired and the other had had a leg injury and after her sister was gone got depressed and worse off. So I had to do the very hard but responsible thing. I just can’t see making my guy go through the winter alone... so I’m going to see a couple of Jersey Giant cockerels tomorrow who need a new home; hopefully we can put the three together and they’ll work it out to be a peaceful flock. I found BYC while researching how to keep my ‘ckens healthy during the winter. You all have some pretty awesome articles and conversations on here! ~glad I found ya! comments are welcome!
Hello there and welcome to BYC! Sorry for your losses. Introduce all new birds very slowly over a few weeks by keeping new birds in a cage or other side of a fence. This will help reduce aggression. Watch males closely for fighting for some time, if there are no hens present, they may be less territorial. Good luck and welcome to our community!
Welcome to BackYardChickens! So glad to have you here in our wonderful community of friendly, helpful, knowledgeable people!
Thank you! I only have the one rooster, and am thinking about adding only one or maybe two younger roosters; there are no hens any longer and I don’t plan to get any (finding the Silkies were hens was really a surprise; by the time I noticed, we had a dozen eggs to gather!) I’m worried about not being able to quarantine, even though the rehomers are local they’re not from the same original farm.