How Do I Acclimate Him?

[ClareScifi]

I have a 9 week old rooster I have raised indoors in a heated room. His mother and a brother nearly pecked him to death when he was born, and I rescued him. The StepMama still hates him. I now find out he must be reintroduced to the flock or he will try to mate with me, as he thinks I am his Hen! His siblings have been raised outdoors so they are fatter and more feathered and able to cope with the cold. The temperature is to get down to 20 degrees F here the next few nights. I'm afraid the cold might shock my Roo who has been indoors in the heat.

How do you think I should best proceed?

Would it be possible to let him play with his siblings outside during the day and then bring him back inside for the cold winter evenings?

 

[wbruder17]

Yes. You should start letting him out during the day. I would also start moving him into cooler locations to get him acclimated. Perhaps a garage or basement first. But you're right, you can't just thrown him outside without a transition or he will bbe cold or freeze to death. You need to do it in increments. First the basement or garage with plenty of hay/ shavings. Then slowly on to colder places.
However, 9 weeks is totallly fully feathered and he should be warm enough pretty soon...maybe 2 weeks of acclimating. But if you have other chickens, he needs to socialize with them so he can snuggle for warmth.

 

[stormylady]

I would let him stay outside during the day, then bring him in at night for a little while, but I would not keep him in the heated room. I think and this is just me, I would think that would do alot of harm back and forth. Leave him out a little longer each night he will become a little more acclimated each day.

There are a couple more things you could try, one is to fill a little dog crate with hay or straw and lock him in the hay will keep him insulated and put him in the coop. He will be protected from the other chickens and the #1 danger would be the drafts. Chickens put out alot of heat themselves, so in that small of a space I would think his own body heat would keep him warm enough. Just make sure your out early enough to let him out and get some food and water or put his food and a water bottle in with him.
Another thing you could try is wait for all the other chickens to settle in and it is very dark, put him on the roost with the rest of them they will never know he is there til morning. But personally since he is young yet I would do the dog crate method. He would be safe and warm.

Oh and keep socializing him with the other chickens cause he really need them!

 

[ClareScifi]

Thanks for the info. I don't have a basement nor a garage and nowhere cool to keep him. The solarium is it. The chickens in the coop don't roost. They sleep on a nesting box that is just off the ground, all piled together. There is a shelf they could roost on, but they aren't interested in doing so. I'm afraid to put him in with them after dark. They are quite observant of my every move, even after dark. I think they might peck him to death, still, especially the big huge StepMama and the two other Roos.

A Dog Crate might work. Where would I buy one? It would be worth a try, I feel.

He has the full run of the solarium and it has high shelves he uses as a roost. I don't think it's terribly hot in there because he roosts at the end where the heater is, and if it were too hot, I think he'd move down to the end that has less heat. I do turn off the heat during the day, as long as it isn't freezing the plants. Today it said it was 46 F in there. That is the coolest I have seen it.

When he was tiny and I first put him in the solarium and he was only a day old, the temp registered only 82 in the middle of the night (when it dawned on me I should get up and check on him to see what the temperature was in there when it is cooler outside than during the daytime). It should have been 90-95 F at that stage of his life, with no snuggle-mates, but he survived this bad boo-boo, and I don't know how long he was in temps that cold, but luckily there were no drafts. This was late September. Another time we went away and I asked the neighbor to check in on him, and he didn't, and when we got home (I had put him in what I thought would be a less hot location than in the solarium that day), the thermometer said it was 112 degrees F! Poor little chick. It's a wonder he didn't cook to death. He was still tiny. But he got through that heat stress, too.

You don't suppose I could just move the little outdoors Bantie or one of the hens his same age into the solarium with him until the spring warm-up, do you?

I suppose another option would be to let my plants in the solarium all die over the next 2 weeks (he has eaten up so many of them, anyway), and just let him live in there. It would get pretty chilly, minus the drafts, helping him to acclimate to colder weather in a gradual sort of way? But he really seems to enjoy jumping in the pots and chewing on them, so it might be depressing to him if they all died.

A very sticky problem, indeed.

 

[wbruder17]

I thiink you are seeing him more as a pet than an actual chicken. Chances of him being pecked to death are slim. He is a prettty big boy at 9 weeks and should be able to deal. He IS. A chicken, after all. You can get a dog crate at any pet store, tho they are a tad expensive. If you REAALY want to keep him in the solarium and foresake your plants, then. I would definitely give him a buddy. But I think you would be doing him a disservice by going this route.

Chickens are extremely adaptable and if you just let him acclimate, he would probably do fine. Regardless of how aware and atttentive your hens are at nigght, adding him in there would really be best. They know YOU are there, buut you'd be suprised how little they notice another chicken in the mix at night.

 

[stormylady]

Quote:
you can get a dog crate anywhere, walmart or even barrow one for a bit if you know someone with an extra or one they're not using right now and they are kinda cheap too. just a little plastic one will do, I don't think moving another chick or chicks in with him is your best option to be truthful, first off it wouldn't be fair to the other chicks, !. Because you would be dis-associating the chicks with there already established chicken family, and 2 because they would became just as un-acclimated as you little guy. And instead of trying to just get him excepted into the flock the others would have to go through the abuse from the others trying to get back in with the main flock.

He is your chick, you do what you want, I know he has a part of your heart and you will do whats best for him, but I would use the dog crate and let him be with his chicken family they will get to see him and get use to him and not be able to hurt him. And during the day when you let him out you could be with him to supervise the time they are together. Hope this helps , Sandy

 

[stormylady]

I thiink you are seeing him more as a pet than an actual chicken

I do agree with this statement, I'm sorry but he can be a pet and A Chicken, however, He is a chicken and even more than that HE is a Rooster Chicken, and a roosters whole role in life is to have hens and be their protector, its a natural instinct he can't help it and you can't stop it, and it is very depressing to look at your Rooster and know that he is low man on the totem pole because he was not allowed to be out with the others and prove he is the the rooster he was meant to be. I know that sounds harsh and I'm sorry, Think about it from his point of view, standing on the outside looking in at your chicken family and not fitting in. Its not fair to Him.

 

[Wnunezcruz]

I would like everyone else is saying take the heat away for a little while and then put him outside. The crate idea is a great one. You can put him in one for at least three days in sheter and they should get used to him being in there around them. Ive never had any nickels peck on chicks I have put in the coop at night but that's my experience. I hope you find what works best for you and your roo.

 

[KY Mae Hen]

I am concerned my senior rooster will kill the two 9 wk old dominics! My original flock consists of 1 Arcane rooster; 3 Arcane hens; 1 Big Layer and four leghorns. I hatched two eggs and now have two 9 week old Dominics - rooster and hen. I put he and his hen in a dog kennel outside to begin their getting used to the outdoors, grass etc. However the Sr. Rooster danced by their cage then tried to bite them through the cage. The two roosters "breasted" at each other through the cage and that was when I figured out the Dominic was a rooster---The next morning he found his crow

As mentioned before, I am worried about the Sr. rooster. He is a fighter and I have to broom him at least twice a week. I can keep the original flock seperate but I would prefer to get them all together eventually.

Thank you to all the postings, reading through the suggestions for transistioning the 9 week olds from indoors to outdoors via a dry, non drafty coop with a heat lamp. Our nights are down to 23F and reach about 41F during the day but by mid Dec the lows will hit 0F. Chickens being okay with that low of temps is amazing to me.

 

[stormylady]

Quote:
Do you mean your sr Rooster is aggressive to you or the hens?