Meet the Lil Cockrels...

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Cockrel...Cockrell - either way, they can be lil hormonal beasts!
PLEASE share your lil cockrels here with us and any wisdom too!

Ya get your chicks...not knowing for certain what sex they'll be. Oh the excitement as you watch, wait and hope! You spend time with them, care for them. They get to start venturing outside with nature, and you see their lil personalities begin to unfold!

And here's where my fun began!
I have 3 silkies (Mango, Milli n Vanilli) and 1 polish (Polish - real original I know!)...all the same age and raised together since hatching.
Polish quickly began to be the dominant from a very early age and was the first to escape the brooder...time n time again!
When taking them to the backyard for play time and/or acclimating them for hour or so each day, Polish began to refuse to be caught and placed in carrier. So he followed me...from the backyard and back to the brooder in the garage. Polish would choose to fly in himself rather than me picking him up and placing him back in with silkies in the brooder.
Once moving them to their new coop/run in backyard, they investigated and mowed down everything in their paths. Polish always escaping and flying over their daily roam-time little 3' fencing to go to "greener grass"! It was a daily occurrence for Polish and Mango to eye-ball it up and chest bump it out! Cute to watch..and never aggressive at all. Mango never backed down from Polish...Mango hasn't shown signs of being a cockrel but then he's also a silkie...could be few more months still.
It came as little surprise to me when Polish began crowing at 10 weeks old. He has always had a dominant nature. I guess because he is the only polish in my lil flock, I have had more of a connection with him than the silkies. He is the only one I can usually pick up and hold for a few minutes now. And he seems to enjoy it, seldom squirming. Polish and Vanilli are always the first and typically only ones that will run to eat treats out of my hand! They've been pretty close...
But as his hormones kick it up, he has begun to bully Vanilli. His daily chest bumps with Mango are no more. Polish is either crowing or chasing down lil Vanilli. She literally runs away from him, hides from him. I feel so badly for her! Vanilli has been sickly lately...unsure if the bullying has contributed to this or if something else has been going on. Then this morning Polish began bullying Milli, chasing her down. When he gets near them he pecks em. Both Milli n Vanilli run and try to hide from him.
Ok nice lil story and if you stayed with me through all my gibberish - thanks!
I hope this thread will go on...so that experienced ones can chime in here with their great wisdom and advice! But I hope this will be a thread for future newbies like myself so they can learn and ask questions regarding their lil cockrels too! The hormones are kicking in, seemingly more each day for Polish...then again he is only11 weeks old.
Any words of wisdom, insight and assistance you can contribute here for myself as well as future cockrel owners is most appreciated!

 

[MysteryChicken]

Cockrel...Cockrell - either way, they can be lil hormonal beasts!

Ya get your chicks...not knowing for certain what sex they'll be. Oh the excitement as you watch, wait and hope! You spend time with them, care for them. They get to start venturing outside with nature, and you see their lil personalities begin to unfold!

And here's where my fun began!
I have 3 silkies (Mango, Milli n Vanilli) and 1 polish (Polish - real original I know!)...all the same age and raised together since hatching.
Polish quickly began to be the dominant from a very early age and was the first to escape the brooder...time n time again!
When taking them to the backyard for play time and/or acclimating them for hour or so each day, Polish began to refuse to be caught and placed in carrier. So he followed me...from the backyard and back to the brooder in the garage. Polish would choose to fly in himself rather than me picking him up and placing him back in with silkies in the brooder.
Once moving them to their new coop/run in backyard, they investigated and mowed down everything in their paths. Polish always escaping and flying over their daily roam-time little 3' fencing to go to "greener grass"! It was a daily occurrence for Polish and Mango to eye-ball it up and chest bump it out! Cute to watch..and never aggressive at all. Mango never backed down from Polish...Mango hasn't shown signs of being a cockrel but then he's also a silkie...could be few more months still.
It came as little surprise to me when Polish began crowing at 10 weeks old. He has always had a dominant nature. I guess because he is the only polish in my lil flock, I have had more of a connection with him than the silkies. He is the only one I can usually pick up and hold for a few minutes now. And he seems to enjoy it, seldom squirming. Polish and Vanilli are always the first and typically only ones that will run to eat treats out of my hand! They've been pretty close...
But as his hormones kick it up, he has begun to bully Vanilli. His daily chest bumps with Mango are no more. Polish is either crowing or chasing down lil Vanilli. She literally runs away from him, hides from him. I feel so badly for her! Vanilli has been sickly lately...unsure if the bullying has contributed to this or if something else has been going on. Then this morning Polish began bullying Milli, chasing her down. When he gets near them he pecks em. Both Milli n Vanilli run and try to hide from him.
Ok nice lil story and if you stayed with me through all my gibberish - thanks!
I hope this thread will go on...so that experienced ones can chime in here with their great wisdom and advice! But I hope this will be a thread for future newbies like myself so they can learn and ask questions regarding their lil cockrels too! The hormones are kicking in, seemingly more each day for Polish...then again he is only11 weeks old.
Any words of wisdom, insight and assistance you can contribute here for myself as well as future cockrel owners is most appreciated! View attachment 2769502

The feathers look more short, & rounded too me. Could just be an overly dominate pullet. I've have pullets crow at 3½ weeks, & 12 weeks old before.

I've had cockerels crow as early as 3 weeks. Alot of the time they crow around the the 5-6 month mark.

I've had very little problems with cockerels, any of them that are human aggressive meet the freezer.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

The feathers look more short, & rounded too me.

I think it's just the view of pic...here's side view today

 

[MysteryChicken]

I think it's just the view of pic...here's side view today

Okay, yep a cockerel.

Looked like a pullet with the first picture.

 

[Mrs. K]

You need another choice in your poll.

I think you get the worst cockerels raised with just flock mates, and the best cockerels raised in a multi-generational flock. Where as the older chickens teach them some manners.

ALL COCKERELS are a crap shoot, and you get the best ones with a sharp knife...removing the others.

Mrs K

 

[LizzzyJo]

searching for an 'eat them' option...

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

You need another choice in your poll.

I think you get the worst cockerels raised with just flock mates, and the best cockerels raised in a multi-generational flock. Where as the older chickens teach them some manners.

ALL COCKERELS are a crap shoot, and you get the best ones with a sharp knife...removing the others.

Mrs K

Added other to the poll! Thanks for input!
I got these lil boogers to be pets for me n grandbabies. So eating em isn't an option.
Raising with multi-generational flock has to begin somewhere though. Or are you saying to bring an older roo into the picture? I'm just concerned bout doing that with all other problems you can get with diseases, illnesses, bullying.

 

[Mtnboomer]

I eat them

 

[Ridgerunner]

We all have our own set-ups and goals. We have our individual experiences, personal preferences, and opinions. These can be all over the board. I don't look at any of these as the best way for everyone, just different ways that can work. There may be something about your set-up and goals that makes one specific way best for you, but our goals are so different that might not be best for me.

Raising with multi-generational flock has to begin somewhere though. Or are you saying to bring an older roo into the picture? I'm just concerned bout doing that with all other problems you can get with diseases, illnesses, bullying.

You have to start somewhere. I see three options if you are starting from scratch. No matter which method you use there is a chance of bullying. Chickens can be bullies, that's part of their nature. That does not mean you always get bullying with any of these methods, just that bullying is always possible.

You can bring in an older rooster, or even a flock with a rooster and hens instead of starting with baby chicks. If you bring in an older rooster I suggest waiting at least until your pullets are laying. That usually works a lot better with the integration.

But yes, you have biosecurity issues with this. To me the safest way to add chickens is day old chicks from an established hatchery or hatching eggs yourself from a safe source. Chicks from a feed store aren't that risky but they have more risk than from a hatchery. Of course this is my opinion. others will often disagree with about anything I say.

A second option is to get a young cockerel and integrate him into a flock of mature hens after he's grown a bit. Many people think the hens will "school" the cockerel and make him a better rooster when he grows up but I look it more as bullying. Sometimes they beat him up, sometimes he beats them up once he hits puberty, sometimes there is no beating up and things are really peaceful.

I did it the way you are doing it. To start my first flock I got day old chicks and raised them together. I didn't see any real problems with that but I grew up with chickens and kind of knew what to expect. Watching them go through puberty can be hard.

Cockerels tend to mature faster than the girls. When the hormones of puberty hit they usually want to mate with the girls. That's not about sex or wanting to fertilize eggs, the pullets are not laying eggs yet. At that age the mating act is about dominance, the one on bottom is accepting the dominance of the one on top, either willingly or by force. At that age it is almost always by force. As someone on here once said, watching pullets and cockerels go through puberty is often not for the faint of heart. Usually if you can get through this phase they calm down a lot, but waiting for them to mature can be really hard to watch. I strongly suggest having a Plan B ready. That means to have a cage, pen, or something ready that you can isolate a cockerel or pullet in at a moments notice. That need can be instantaneous. When there is violence there is risk.

I'm not trying to frighten you, many of us go through this type of thing all the time. Sometimes there is no violence at all with any of these methods. Each time it's different with mine. I go by what I see. About every 3 or 4 years I isolate some cockerels because it does get too violent for me to be comfortable but usually I don't.

I will add that if a cockerel or rooster turns human aggressive he is gone. No matter how much you have grown to love him, there are too many good roosters out there to put up with one that can injure a human, especially a child. I don't look at it as having individual chickens, I have a flock that can have interchangeable parts.

 

[Mrs. K]

I got these lil boogers to be pets for me n grandbabies.

I am worried about your Grandbabies - attacking roosters often will attack children first. Children under the age of 6 will take it in their face. If you, yourself are elderly, an attacking rooster can knock you off balance, and you can fall and be at eye level with a rooster.

I personally do not keep flock mate roosters unless they have been raised up with an established flock. Over the years, I have often added a rooster, what I like is one that is close to a year old, that has been raised in a multi-generational flock and that is so nice it has not met the sharp knife.

As AArt often says, roosters are where the romance of chickens meets reality. If your birds are chicks now, we know just how darling, brave and friendly they can be, just a darlings. But they make very poor pets, many, many posts are on here how the darling became the nightmare and the attack came out of nowhere.

More than likely, the cockerels have been given signs showing potential aggression, but inexperienced people do not recognize them and often make excuses for that behavior. Most inexperienced people vastly underestimate the violence of a rooster.

Mrs K