Just found out my Mystic Marsns chick is a rooster, what now?

[Iloveleghorns1234]

Hi! It's been a while since I've had baby chicks raised in a brooder. The last time was 4 years ago and at that time I ended up with a white leghorn rooster. We still have him and he is not really pleasant to deal with, however he does take good care of his flock. I'm looking for advice on how to raise my new rooster to be kinder to people, as well as how to introduce him into the flock while there already is a rooster. Thanks!

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Let the older hens boss around your cockerel as soon as possible. The best ones I have had I let the hens teach them from a young age up. The worst roosters I had did not have older hens to keep them in line. I personally would get rid of the older one if he is human aggressive and just let the hens raise the new cockerel up.

 

[Love Donkeys]

Give the older, miserable rooster back to Mother Nature. The older rooster will intimate the younger one, maybe even kill him.
The older hens will teach the young rooster good chicken manners.

 

[Iloveleghorns1234]

Let the older hens boss around your cockerel as soon as possible. The best ones I have had I let the hens teach them from a young age up. The worst roosters I had did not have older hens to keep them in line. I personally would get rid of the older one if he is human aggressive and just let the hens raise the new cockerel up.

I would LOVE to get rid of my old rooster but my dad is pretty adamant we made a commitment to an animal so we can't just get rid of him. My chicks are probably 3 weeks old and 2 of them are most likely younger. When would it be safe to let them out with my hens? They are in an outdoor pen during the day while the chickens free range so they have already had exposure to eachother.

 

[Mrs. K]

If you need to follow your Dads advice, and if you live with him, you need to honor that, but if so, do not hatch more chicks. If you need chicks, get auto sexed chicks.

The more roosters you have, the greater the chance of it going wrong. They don't call it cock fighting for nothing. If you have a small flock, letting roosters go to someone else is being more responsible to the birds you keep.

This might not be a good hobby for you, because in reality, you really cannot keep all of your roosters.

Mrs K

 

[DonyaQuick]

I would LOVE to get rid of my old rooster but my dad is pretty adamant we made a commitment to an animal so we can't just get rid of him.

Multiple roosters in a single flock that aren't a special case like brood-brothers or father-son means almost complete certainty of problems, whether fighting between the roos or stress/injury for the hens - discuss it with your dad from an animal wellbeing standpoint. I know the mentality of you-got-it-now-you-keep-it with animals and there is a reason for that from your dad's perspective, but hopefully he would feel it's more important to avoid stressed hens and injured or even dead birds. If the older roo didn't raise the younger one, it's unlikely they'll tolerate each other once the younger one reaches maturity - and even if one did raise the other or if they were brothers, there's no guarantee of longterm peace between them. Avoiding that means preparing to have two flocks with two setups, which is quite a lot of extra expense and space.

 

[FrostRanger]

I agree with convincing your dad to let the old rooster go. Part of being a responsible chicken keeper is keeping your hen to rooster ratio good and culling truly awful roosters like your old rooster. Might also be worth mentioning that the aggressive roo could attack a visitor and hurt them and many insurance policies don't cover injuries caused by poultry so from both an animal husbandry and liability perspective the old rooster needs to go

 

[FrostRanger]

Also worth mentioning that behavior modification rarely works with roosters once they become aggressive and even if you can get him to leave you alone other people are still fair game. Often the issue is genetic and it's not anything you've done, hatcheries don't always do a very good job of breeding for temperment. Human aggression is absolutely something that can be genetic. If he won't be swayed though, don't hatch out chicks fathered by this rooster, you're more likely to have issues from his sons. You will probably have to keep them separated for their own safety and the hens' sanity

 

[Iloveleghorns1234]

I agree with convincing your dad to let the old rooster go. Part of being a responsible chicken keeper is keeping your hen to rooster ratio good and culling truly awful roosters like your old rooster. Might also be worth mentioning that the aggressive roo could attack a visitor and hurt them and many insurance policies don't cover injuries caused by poultry so from both an animal husbandry and liability perspective the old rooster needs to go

Multiple roosters in a single flock that aren't a special case like brood-brothers or father-son means almost complete certainty of problems, whether fighting between the roos or stress/injury for the hens - discuss it with your dad from an animal wellbeing standpoint. I know the mentality of you-got-it-now-you-keep-it with animals and there is a reason for that from your dad's perspective, but hopefully he would feel it's more important to avoid stressed hens and injured or even dead birds. If th didn't raise the younger one, it's unlikely they'll tolerate each other once the younger one reaches maturity - and even if one did raise the other or if they were brothers, there's no guarantee of longterm peace between them. Avoiding that means preparing to have two flocks with two setups, which is quite a lot of extra expense and space.

Multiple roosters in a single flock that aren't a special case like brood-brothers or father-son means almost complete certainty of problems, whether fighting between the roos or stress/injury for the hens - discuss it with your dad from an animal wellbeing standpoint. I know the mentality of you-got-it-now-you-keep-it with animals and there is a reason for that from your dad's perspective, but hopefully he would feel it's more important to avoid stressed hens and injured or even dead birds. If the older roo didn't raise the younger one, it's unlikely they'll tolerate each other once the younger one reaches maturity - and even if one did raise the other or if they were brothers, there's no guarantee of longterm peace between them. Avoiding that means preparing to have two flocks with two setups, which is quite a lot of extra expense and space.

I acctually already have a second setup because I used to have a blind chicken who needed a separate Flock. Tysm for the advice, I think we will just rotate which flock free ranges.

 

[ChicNmom]

I try to handle or at least touch and pet new birds and roosters every day. I offer treats in my hand. Now when I find a good bug my newest cockerel comes running.

It's like socializing any other animal.