My neighbors have a rooster who's trying to call on my ladies. What can I expect?

[ShrekDawg]

Illegal cockfighting makes me livid as well as people who think it’s ok to dump an unwanted animal on someone else’s land

Agreed!!! Makes me very upset too. Of course it’s not for sure that’s what happened here but given the fact that he just showed up one day, it seems very likely.

 

[centrarchid]

Pens like shown below are what I typically place over hens nesting / roosting in field. I place pen over hen so she is in the middle. It is down as shown at night and propped in morning for the day so hen can spend time off nest. If you must, leave pen down during day as well and provide feed and water in bowls. Remove feed bowl at night to reduce attractant for predators. Another option is to simply have partial role of fencing material standing on end to form a perimeter with an open top which is better than nothing. If hen skittish, then first place pen on end near her and allow her to acclimate, then gently lay it down and walk slowly away. I use same contraptions to protect hens with chicks. My game hens are partial to kennel boxes and overturned at night, especially when placed near roosting sites used when chicks hatch. If she take brood in, then close door or carefully move bucket to a more protected location.

 

[centrarchid]

@centrarchid - Thank you for your earlier advice on the rooster situation. I know that at least one hen has started to visit the rooster. I also think the other two of my wild game hens have gone broody due to changes in their behavior. Namely, they no longer sleep with my other game hen and we rarely see them anymore, maybe once every couple of days for a few minutes.

I found one of them today, nestled against a fence in some tall grass. You wouldn't notice her if you weren't looking for her. I will keep an eye on her. But if she has gone broody, I'm concerned for her success.

You mentioned that you would place a pen over a hen that nested in pasture. Are your hens tolerant of your presence? Mine tend to run away when I get near them. I would like to try to protect this hen, but I am afraid she would panic if I even got near her much less put a pen around her, and that it would break her.

Do you have advice on what we can do? Should we just let nature take its course? I am reluctant to put food near her as that might attract potential predators.

Most of my hens are calm to the extreme, but I have ample experience with flighty and face floggers. All my current hens are directly derived from the flighty and face floggers with little or now genetic changes. I learned how to tame them and then use tame mothers to do even a better job taming offspring.

I described approach used for flighty hens where you treat her like a wild animal allowing her to acclimate slowly to what you are doing.

If you have a work schedule that allows, then watch for her to leave nest then place pen / role of wire propped open so she can find her way in on her own. She will be motivated to get back in. Then remove prop about dark. Try not to look at her as that will frighten her further. A frightened hen may not look like it but when scared you can feel them tense up in preparation to escape or attack, even before showing signs you can see.

I like to protect the broodies. Even in a back yard setting they are fun yard ornaments. Odds are you will need to manage rooster numbers down once they approach maturity.

 

[Mom2Chicken]

Thank you @centrarchid. My husband and I are going to watch for her to leave her nest tomorrow and go see her nest more closely and also figure out if we can try to put some form of cage around her.

Here are some pictures of where she is nesting. It's in the back lot of our property. As you can see from the poor photos, she is quite well hidden. I looked here and there for several days before finding her. One clue to her nest was, unfortunately, a busted egg nearby. I still haven't found where the second one is nesting.

I appreciate your guidance and will update the thread, hopefully with good news.

 

[Mom2Chicken]

In case this is interesting to others, here are some more pictures I took this morning.

One more clearly shows her laying in her nest.

The other picture is taken from the other side of the fence, where you can't see her because she is fully covered by tall grass. She has chosen a good hiding spot.

 

[Mrs. K]

Really bother her as little as possible. I think she has it handled.

 

[Mom2Chicken]

Really bother her as little as possible. I think she has it handled.

I think so too after really looking at her nest from all angles. Our next concern is, if she hatches chicks, how to keep them safe. But, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

 

[centrarchid]

Chicks hatched will make life easier.

 

[Mrs. K]

If she hatches them, she will take care of them. She will bring them in and introduce them to the flock. Nothing is more fun than watching a broody hen with chicks, all of the fun, and she does all of the work.

 

[centrarchid]

I put out something very similar to this as a roosting site for broody hen settling in bad locations for the night. Most of my hens were call brood in quickly if I present the box with open door aimed at her. With a less human habituated hen, I would place box very near where she wants to stay for night and walk a little piece away. Once she and brood in I walk up and close. Group now easy to move with minimal stress. One of my favorites tricks at house is to place hen with brood on front porch. Dogs are frequenting that area making it most safe. next morning I release her. More often than not hen will return to place she roosted quietly the night before. The boxes come in real handy when broody hens are in conflict over roosting sites.



I have a hen roosting in bushes now. I will try to demonstrate approach on her.