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Misfit 666

Misfit 666

Hatching
5 Years
Apr 12, 2014
7
0
9
One Tree Hill, South Australia.
Hi, I'm new on here. We used to have Isa browns, but we moved and had to pass them on. Now we're settled and have just gotten 5 very cute 2 week old Austrolprps and one 8 week old Aust rolorp roo. I have a few questions about them as we have only ever rescued fully grown ex-battery isa's. When should I introduce them? When the chicks are 8 weeks old? The too has come from a brood hen and it gets quite cold here in the Adelaide hills so I will put the heat lamp out in the coop for him until I hear that I need to do otherwise by someone who knows. Is it OK to leave him on his own for 6 weeks or do I need to get him another chook to associate with till the smaller hooks grow up a bit?

Thanks.
 
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Welcome to BYC!

Congrats on your new flock! And the australorps make wonderful birds as pets, for eggs and even meat if you want a dual purpose bird.

At 6 weeks old, they won't need any more heat. So just keep lowering your heat by 5 degrees until then. When you do take them out to the coop, if the nights are still cold, you can use the heat lamp at night only just to take the chill off for the rest of that week and then take it away the following week.

Cockerels are not that difficult to mix in with pullets, but you will still want to do this slowly. If these were my birds, what I would do is when I first take the pullet chicks out to the coop, I would keep the cockerel in a cage or behind a fenced area but right within the flock of pullets. Everybody sees, nobody touches. Leave him caged for about 2 weeks so that everybody gets used to each other. Normally with adult hen flocks, you might want to keep the separation going for 3 weeks. But these birds are young, and this is a cockerel you are working with. So after about 2 or 2 1/2 weeks, I would go ahead and mix everybody. They should all have worked out any pecking order issues, males don't generally hurt females and the cockerel will be much larger than the pullets. Just watch everybody for that day and the rest of the week. Things should go well. Always intervene if it turns bloody.

Good luck with your new flock! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Welcome to our flock!
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Congratulations on your new flock! TwoCrows gave you some good pointers on combining your birds, usually adding a roo to a flock of girls goes pretty well. One thing you might keep an eye on is males usually mature faster then females and with your roo being older also he may start trying to breed the pullets before they are ready, some cockerels will get pretty rough, so you may need to separate them at some point to keep him from harassing the young girls. You are also on the short end of the number of hens per rooster, the usually recommended average is usually 8-10 girls per roo so the girls don't get overmated.
You might also like to check out the BYC Learning Center, lots of good articles on all aspects of chicken keeping. https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center there is a nice article on Integrating flocks https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock
And it is always fun to check out your state thread for chicken keeping neighbors https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/598568/australia-six-states-and-that-funny-little-island
 
Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan
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I would try putting him in with the girls now, and watch closely for the first few days for any problems - sometimes older chicks are actually quite intimidated by a hoard of smaller chicks, and they will mix without issues.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome...

Now I have an entirely new problem...Last night i got my dream flock, a batch of 6 lavender Aracunas Anconas? (spelling may be a bit off!) The ones with the blue to greenish eggs...well 4 are a week old and they are fine and dandy eating me out of house and home...BUT!...

Well one of the remaining two was only a day old when I took it home...It's sibling which may be a day or two older is fine, just like a normal chick...but the other one, the day old one, is not walking at all yet, I have the obligatory brooder set up with the heat lamp and chick starter and water in a VERY shallow dish to stop drowning...

So here is how it's behaving, It is basically just kind of flopping/crawling it's way to the water or the lamp, i have them close together so it does not have to flop far, I have been dunking it's head in the water every so often and when i do that it seems to drink a little each time...and it pecks me when i touch it, is that a good sign??

So here's what I would like to know to stop me from developing a twitch...haha!

1# Are it's legs supposed to be slightly splayed? At least one seems to be poking out to the side at any one time.

2# How much will it need to drink as I have not seen it drink on it's own at all yet (maybe i just missed it drinking)

3# When i pick it up it's legs go very wide out to the side but when I pick up it's sibling the same way it's legs kind of just go straight down like all of my other chicks...I think this is a not so good sign...

HELP!!! Thanks in advance for any advice anyone may be able to give me...
 
Also My MIL felt sorry for our roo Monty and bought him a 'girlfriend' she is the same age as him and they bonded instantly and now go everywhere together, Her name is Clara.

Thanks for all the advice on how to introduce them to the younger chicks...
 

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