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Tattoued

Tattoued

In the Brooder
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Hi all! I'm a new rooster owner and just learning. My rooster came to us as a "stray". Wandered up the driveway in the dead of winter, missing all its tail feathers and frost bitten comb - I thought it was a hen at first until it started to crow after a couple of months. Named it "Hazel" at first, but after the crowing started, it's "Hal". We've kept it on the enclosed back porch all winter in an insulated box with hay at the bottom, plenty of feed and water, and covered up the box when it was super cold. It took a few days at first to get it to come in. We couldn't get within 10 feet of him. We started opening the door to the porch and propping it open, and he eventually decided that it was much warmer inside than out! I can now pet him (although he's not terribly keen on it) and get close enough to pick him up and put him in his summer condo we now have in the back yard (I picked up a really nice rabbit hutch a couple of weekends ago - well off the ground, very secure, and a shingled roof). I'm trying to train him to go in to the hutch at dusk-ish and I'll just go close and secure the door, but he's gotten so used to coming into the back porch... I wouldn't care about him staying there, but we'll be tearing it apart soon to rebuild it, and to be honest the crowing is just too loud at 4:30 in the morning! The porch is about 8 ft from our bedroom window. Sooooo - any hints on training would be appreciated! Should I cover the hutch at night with a blanket or something like you would for a captive bird? Is there anything else I should provide him with? I've got food and water in the hutch with him, and a nice bed of hay. We'd like to get more chickens (hens) but one project at a time. We're talking about a decent sized coop for next year. For now, I think the hutch will work fine! He roams the large back yard we have eating all the bugs and whatnot during the day.

Glad to be here!
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
frow.gif


How nice that you could take him in! He picked the perfect driveway to walk up that cold winter day.

As long as his hutch is predator proof, he will be fine. Make sure that the wire on the hutch is small so that no paws, snakes, rats, mice, etc...can reach or crawl thru. Hardware cloth is nice to cover any wired areas. Feed him some flock raiser type feed, no layer or just a seed or grain diet, although you can feed scratch as a treat. And yes, he would probably appreciate 8 or so hens for company. Chickens are highly social and do need each other for good mental health.

Take good care of your boy and welcome to our flock!
 
Yep. Nice tight squares on the wire. Tough, too! The hutch is about 2.5-3 ft off the ground. It has a solid wood floor on half of it, and the other half is more of the small square wire. It has a pitched roof and a nice heavy wooden door with a hasp that I put a master lock on and just close it shut (not lock it) to keep raccoons from opening the door. My fiancee has a couple of ramps that he had used when he had chickens a few years ago, so we have that at the door. I've been carrying him to the hutch and "putting him away" at dusk lately, with a few treats in the hay. I feed him seed and some scratch, and he always gets treats of some sort. With the weather getting nicer, we spend more time outside and he likes to hang with us. Hal is a Rhode Island Red - his tail feathers have all grown back and his comb looks great! He may have to wait until next year for hens, though. BF says not this year...

I see you're in New Mexico! I lived there for over 20 years. Just moved back here 4 years ago. I'm DYING to come back though! Rest assured everyone will come with me! (Soon to be Hubby, 3 cats and a rooster!)
 
Tattoued said:
Yep. Nice tight squares on the wire. Tough, too! The hutch is about 2.5-3 ft off the ground. It has a solid wood floor on half of it, and the other half is more of the small square wire. It has a pitched roof and a nice heavy wooden door with a hasp that I put a master lock on and just close it shut (not lock it) to keep raccoons from opening the door. My fiancee has a couple of ramps that he had used when he had chickens a few years ago, so we have that at the door. I've been carrying him to the hutch and "putting him away" at dusk lately, with a few treats in the hay. I feed him seed and some scratch, and he always gets treats of some sort. With the weather getting nicer, we spend more time outside and he likes to hang with us. Hal is a Rhode Island Red - his tail feathers have all grown back and his comb looks great! He may have to wait until next year for hens, though. BF says not this year...

I see you're in New Mexico! I lived there for over 20 years. Just moved back here 4 years ago. I'm DYING to come back though! Rest assured everyone will come with me! (Soon to be Hubby, 3 cats and a rooster!)
Click to expand...
Oh, you must return to New Mexico! Don't you hear it calling you??
smile.png


Where abouts did you live in NM?
 
TwoCrows said:
Oh, you must return to New Mexico! Don't you hear it calling you??
smile.png


Where abouts did you live in NM?
Click to expand...

Albuquerque. It's been calling me since I got here! I lived here in CT for over 20 years as well, so both are really "home" to me, but I just have that yearning to go back to the Land of Enchantment, and I WILL at some point. Need to let the real estate market get a little better and the economy, too. We both have decent jobs here, so we'll keep socking it away for now.
 

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