Integrating a cockerel into a flock of mature hens

[Sylvester017]

I thought it was just me that used rolled fencing for containing chickens. I have used 2-foot rubberized rabbit fencing for the last 5 years. We have two 50-foot rolls so that we can use one short roll when needed or connect the two rolls for one long area. We are constantly using the rolls around the yard during backyard remodeling, to keep the raised garden beds protected from foraging hens, or to use as a divider when introducing a new pullet to the established flock. Our garage is a 2-car but we can only park one car in it because of all the wire rolls, chicken stuff, and gardening stuff we store in the garage! When the new block wall was being built the hens respected the 2-foot fencing to stay in the yard and never tried to jump the fence to wander off the property. The contractors all knew to watch the hens while working on the yard but said the hens were very good about staying confined behind their fencing so we had confidence to leave home for errands and know the hens would stay contained. We find the 2-foot tall fencing works for us. If a pullet or hen happens to "jump" the barrier we gently usher her out or pick her up and put her back on "her" side. Sometimes a hen panics when she realizes she's on the "wrong" side and is happy to have us open the fence for her to get back to the correct side. If a hen gets on the wrong side all the rest of the flock (the little tattle-tales!) start squawking and we know to go out and check on the "offender." Silly hen got on the wrong side by herself so why can't she get back again on her own? Silly birds! Usually it's just the newest hen in the flock that tests the barrier but after a couple times being caught on the wrong side is enough to train her to respect the fencing.

SOME DIFFERENT WAYS WE USED THE 2-FOOT ROLLS:

 

[Selsley]

There are only blue and white shells, so that's what you will see if you peel the membrane off the inside of shell...
.....brown and green eggs are created by a brown pigment coating on a white and blue shell respectively.
The shell genes are different from the coating genes.

EE can lay blue, but less likely to pass taht blue gene(s) down the line.
Ameraucana and Araucana should always lay blue, but it is very hard to find true pure breed birds.
Many, many..... MANY..... EE's are mis-represented and sold as Ameraucana and Araucana.

There are other threads to discuss these 'breeds' and olive eggers...sorry for the thread hijack islandgirl8.

exactly, because most EEs are a mixed breed of basically anything, its a gene lottery of what they pass to their young, it would most likely be a few generations of selective breeding to get a bird that would breed true, ie in feather colour and egg colour. we just bred an araucana/buff orpington hen cross we have a litttle white chick with muffs so far and no tail. it also looks like it might end up white, if we used this mating with many hens changed the cocks for another the same colour and breed more, select the ones that layed blue eggs and white feathers and bred those, we would eventually have a bird that gave white young that layed blue eggs and rumpless, get some other breeders breeding the same and youve got yourself a recognised orpaucana lol

1 day old

2 weeks old and not cooperating


when intergraing hens into a flock has anyone tried it in reverse? add a few of the flock with the new hens for a few days then add a few more? then allow them to mix?

 

[islandgirl82]

when intergraing hens into a flock has anyone tried it in reverse? add a few of the flock with the new hens for a few days then add a few more? then allow them to mix?

Good question.

When I added the four new hens, that's sort of what I had done. I intended on keeping them quarantined for a period of time as well but when transferring them from crate to isolation coop their very first night, I had an escapee who roamed all over my yard until after dark, making the biggest point of quarantine null and void. The following morning, I let the new girls out and let out the calmest of my established flock members to free range with the new girls. It did not go well but I think there were many factors contributing to the events, including the rooster (prior to this one) I had in his own isolation area. In hindsight, I wouldn't try that type of integration again. It took a long time and removing that rooster entirely before my girls were all able to peacefully settle into one flock. I also feel that it makes integration too complicated for the established flock by putting them into territory that has become that of new members if they're all going to be moved into the coop of the established birds anyway.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@islandgirl82

I've had my own "woes" integrating this year. But my real question is: How would you do it if you were doing it all over again? (I'm not sure I understood how you'd approach it now.)

 

[islandgirl82]

When integrating all full grown hens, I would continue to let my establish flock free range and keep the new birds in a separate area like I had for Russell with the garden fencing set up so they have plenty of room and everyone can see but not touch. After quarantine I would range everyone together under supervision in the evenings shortly before everyone goes to roost and if all goes well increase the time during the next mingle (if it went really well, I'd go for a full day). If not, keep them separated and try again later in a day or two.

This year's new hen additions, the Dominiques being the more mild tempered ladies (and breed in general) blended very smoothly into my established flock and started roosting in the big coop on their own and were accepted very quickly. The other two took much longer and Russell had to be removed from the scenario altogether before everyone was really able to settle in well.

Chicks I would integrate the same way as stated in my first post. The younger, the better but I feel one of the most important things is to really know your flock and it's individuals and note the differences between the natural order sorting that they do and true aggression and intervene when necessary by separation.

As for introducing a new male into the flock, I could not have asked for a smoother integration than we've had with Ichabod. Breed has much to do with his calm demeanor but from the moment he met my girls he's been nothing but respectful of them and was accepted as part of the flock that very first day whereas Russell took ages and the more comfortable he became, the pushier he became with the girls and with us. He never got to the point where he was sharing the big coop with everyone as I felt it was unfair to trap my girls in with him. Even though they'd all submitted, they weren't all comfortable around him. Ichabod's old enough to hold his own size-wise but young enough to not intimidate the hens and to be taught by them to be a gentleman and not so set in his ways that he's disrespectful to humans either. If my girls did not take to him so quickly, I would have kept him separate to give everyone time to settle in and started a much slower integration.

I guess when it comes time to find a replacement for him, I either need to start with chicks or find another cockerel around the same age and going about it the same way again making adjustments as needed but hopefully that won't be for a very long time.

I hope this has been of some help in answering your question.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Yes!

I've been reading all of your experiences and learning from them as I'm trying to decide what to do w/ the remaining cockerels I have this year. Thank you! Very helpful. I especially am encouraged that I could possibly add a cockerel into a mature flock and it may be WAY MORE do-able than what I'm dealing with this year.

[Don't want to hijack the thread so I put the story in a spoiler for anyone that cares to read. Otherwise, carry on!]


I had 2 groups of chicks this year. (Note to self...never again unless they are all the same age and brood together.)

Each group had 6 birds, ration 3:3 female/male. I "was" planning on keeping a cockerel from each group. Oldest group SFH; Younger group, Buckeyes. Both quality breeder stock.

Approximately 5-6 weeks apart in age.

EDITING TO ADD: THERE ARE 5 ADULT HENS

I was able to re-home one of the guys in the shf group to an all-adult flock of hens for a flock roo. So far his new home is reporting that he's doing very well for them. Another good story of a cockerel coming in to adult hens!


The boy I had intended to keep became very aggressive and bad mannered. He couldn't be trusted around the younger chicks. He even attacked one of them full on, legs forward like an eagle. Not good. So I gave the second boy a chance and it was not good but in a different way. Neither of these guys had the demeanor of the previous sfh roo I had. But they had competition of the brothers and my other sfh was an "only cockerel" with no adult roo in the flock. I think I probably could train one of them but don't want to do that with the little Buckeyes coming up behind. I've kept each of them penned separately since as, even though they were raised together, the bigger guy is ruthless with the smaller at this point. They leave tomorrow morning. If I want an sfh I can get one in the spring.


So after tomorrow, I'll still have 3 Buckeye cockerels that are 14 weeks old.

I've been trying to decide whether to remove 2 of them to a pen a bit away and just grow them for meat or if anyone wants a flock roo, thus giving ONE of the boys the opportunity to interact with the flock as the only roo. I'm leaning toward doing that, and I have a pen I can use if he needs a little away time that is right in the flock.

If anyone has advice on this I'd love to hear experiences and thoughts.

Having trouble trying to decide which I should keep in the flock, however. They're so young that they are still "chicks" in their behavior so there's no telling how they will be when the hormones kick in. They are very sweet personalities at this point.

 

[islandgirl82]

@Leahs Mom

Oooh, I too have experienced the multi-age chick integration and it's awful. At that time I had just two hens and picked up three 16 week old pullets (two EEs and my Golden Spangled Hamburg). Then an egg that we had brought to my son's kindergarten class from my SLW hatched out in an incubator, much to my surprise (we had a rooster briefly who was terrified of people and chased my girls into the road to keep them away from me and was a liability to their safety so he was relocated). That chick was my last and terrible cockerel and a pullet was given to us that hatched with him from another woman who had donated eggs to the class. I still have that girl. The two hens had a hard time accepting the older pullets but were great with the babies. The pullets were ruthless towards the babies and that was a pretty drawn out integration.

Last year I added the two RSLs when they were just a few weeks old and they had a seamless integration though, I'm not a fan of them at all and will never get RSLs again, no matter how well they lay, they're my biggest trouble makers of all. If it were not for my first SLW keeping them in their place and the new one putting them back in their place with the help of the BSL and keeping the peace, they would not still be here.

Back to those three 16 week old pullets, I lost one of the EEs last summer when she was egg bound but the other two were the first to accept Ichabod and also the four new hens. I've decided that I will no longer try to integrate POL girls into my flock at all as that has been the hardest but will stick to chicks and would most definitely put another young cockerel in with girls who are all at least 1 year old.

I wish I could offer help with deciding which cockerel to choose. That's not something I've experienced yet. My girls helped me to see how much better Ichabod fits in with them than Russell ever did which has made me feel 110% about returning him.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
Me, too, Heather. I have a few 8 and 9 year old hens who still lay. One is 9 1/2 years old and crippled from arthritis, even. But she lays periodically, just leaves it on the floor; sometimes, she will haul herself into a floor-level nest because she knows she's supposed to. That Amanda is a tough old gal for sure.

You're a very good writer, my dear. I love the new boy. You know me, temperament is about #1 on traits I breed for in my birds of any line/breed. You're doing great with the integration. They all look really good!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Everything still going well with the integration?

 

[islandgirl82]

For the most part, things have been going on the same steady track. Ichabod has started doing the torpedo dash around the yard but not directly at anyone. When he does get near one of the girls, he tiptoes past her while she continues on with her business only to pick up his speed again towards open lawn. No hackles raised or anything, he just seems to be enjoying his freedom and burning off some excess energy. This is the most "obnoxious teenager" behavior he's displayed thus far and it's still quite endearing. Still no crowing although I did hear something strange this morning but I think it was one of the hens who hadn't sung her egg song in a while, belting out her [out of] tune.

He did do something a little odd this afternoon. I went out and the whole flock gathered around as usual and he approached after all the girls got to say their "hello's". He's reached a point when sometimes he'll approach and other times he'll hang back. When he does hang back, I don't chase him and when he does approach and I reach for him, I always give him the opportunity to move away. If he doesn't, I'll give him a chest rub and pick him up, pet him, carry him around, etc. Today he stood to be picked up. I sat on the bench and kept him on my lap, hand on his back to keep him nestled there and stroked him under his neck and chest. Hola, the BSL joined us on the bench and chattered the whole time I held Ichabod. Who knows what she was on about but it seemed a content type of conversation. When I decided to put Ichabod down, she climbed into my lap and nestled down in his place, chattering while I petted her. Ichabod watched from the ground and then hopped up on the bench for a closer look and then kept trying to climb onto my lap with her. I pushed him away and she continued to stay on my lap on her own accord.

However, when she hopped down from my lap, he climbed back on. I pushed him off. He climbed back on. I stood up, held him for a minute more before setting him on the ground and moved to walk "through" him. He didn't want to move at first but didn't do anything at all. Just stood there. I would gently push him aside and he would go and I would try to walk "through" him again but again he would just stand there. After a few times of me having to physically move him to the side to walk where he was standing, he finally caught on to the fact that he needs to move out of my way. I think he's testing boundaries (or he really just didn't get it) and I'm hoping I took the most appropriate action in showing him what those boundaries are. We shall see.

Still no fertile eggs as far as I can tell but eggs had been few and far between with the intense-for-Maine heat wave we had here for a few weeks and the girls are picking up speed again with Ichabod's arrival and with normal temperatures finally moving back in. The girls who have been laying consistently through Russell's departure, the heat wave and Ichabod's arrival are my two RSLs and they've been the least welcoming to him so even if he were trying to mate, I don't think he'd be going for those two first.