Newbie from Kentucky

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glwchickens

glwchickens

In the Brooder
5 Years
May 16, 2014
27
0
22
Piner, KY
Hello All,

Needless to say I am new to this forum and I have a few questions about chickens
along with my intro.
My wife and I purchased 9 baby chicks on June 12th. 2013, 8 hens and one crazy rooster.
Our chickens are all Golden Lace Wyandotte, beautiful birds, well 4 of our hens have all
their feathers, we have 4 hens that are missing their back feathers, this may be due to
an aggressive rooster, not sure what to do about that? Suggestions?

We built a mobile chicken coop big enough for 15 large chickens and we were going to
free range our flock, how ever we soon found out that our flock was wondering to the
neighbors yard 2 houses away, about 90 yards away, so we put up a fence. The other
problem we have is we live in the country with plenty of foxes, raccoon, skunks, Farrell
cats and coyotes with plenty of brush close by for these predators to hide in.

Recently we purchased 4 Road Island Red chicks that are about 6 weeks old in a brooder,
we plan to introduce the new birds to our flocks as soon as we can, just need to figure out
when and how to introduce the birds without to much fighting??

Our rooster is a bit aggressive, I have been working on the coop, changing a few things and
the rooster has attacked me a couple times, yesterday I put him in a pet cage while I
was working, he was in a time out for about 15 minutes. I don't why he attacks me and my
wife, but he does??


Any suggestions for this newbie?

Thank you for your time and help,
Darle
idunno.gif
 
Hi, Darle, welcome to BYC. Some roosters are just human aggressive. In part it may be the male instinct to protect his flock, but in some it is just plain nastiness. There are many techniques/theories on modifying such behavior. For me the crock pot works best followed by replacement with a mild mannered rooster.
 
images


Welcome to BYC!

I wouldn't keep an aggressive rooster. No one needs to be on guard all the time, worried about being attacked. So you might consider sending him to the stew pot.

As for mixing in your new babies, they need to be about the same size as your adult flock. So at about 3 1/2 to 4 months old, you can begin the introductions. Keep the babies in a cage or fenced off area but within the flock at all times. Everybody sees, nobody touches. Leave them in this cage for about 3 weeks. During this time the older flock can work out some of the pecking order. So on mixing day, things should go fairly smooth with little aggression. Watch them close that first day and all that week. And always intervene if it turns bloody.

Enjoy all your poultry adventures and welcome to our flock!
 
Thank you for the pot suggestion Broody Magician, I have mentioned that ideal to the wife and her reply is, "he is just protecting his flock".
I guess that could be the case, how ever I have a mark on both of my legs from his attacks. Right now I am trying to get a hen to get
in the brooding mood, I placed 3 wooden eggs in one of the nest boxes with hopes that one of the hens will cooperate????

Darle
idunno.gif
 
Thank you Desert Dweller for the info about making introductions to the flock, sounds like sound advice which I will use. The reds are feathering out nicely and from the looks of their feet,
they should be big chickens and I could be wrong but I think one of them could be a rooster, the reds were purchased as all hens, how ever one of the reds has a deep red comb in comparrison
to the other three, if I am correct then I could have a replacement for the nasty rooster..???
After I put the rooster in a time out yesterday, he has been keeping his distance, he might be cured of his nasty attacks, but will remain on guard when in the pen area.

Darle
idunno.gif
 
glwchickens said:
Thank you Desert Dweller for the info about making introductions to the flock, sounds like sound advice which I will use. The reds are feathering out nicely and from the looks of their feet,
they should be big chickens and I could be wrong but I think one of them could be a rooster, the reds were purchased as all hens, how ever one of the reds has a deep red comb in comparrison
to the other three, if I am correct then I could have a replacement for the nasty rooster..???
After I put the rooster in a time out yesterday, he has been keeping his distance, he might be cured of his nasty attacks, but will remain on guard when in the pen area.

Darle
idunno.gif
Click to expand...
If you are only in this for the eating eggs and pets, you do not need a rooster. The hens will lay the same no matter if a roo is present or not. Roosters are only good for fertile eggs. And if a rooster is tearing up the hens and is aggressive to you and the hens, his offspring can be exactly the same way. So I wouldn't keep this boy. He is not good for you, the hens or his offspring. There are lots of nice roosters out there. Not all of them are aggressive.
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Here is a nice link from the Learning Center on trying to encourage or discouraging broodies, https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/encouraging-or-discouraging-broodiness-in-your-hens there are several other nice articles on broodies there also... good luck with getting a broody hen going!
If you want to try and figure out if one of the RIR is a roo now you could post pictures in the What Breed/Gender forum for input https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/15/what-breed-or-gender-is-this
X3, there are too many nice roosters around to keep a nasty one, human aggressive roos are also dangerous around young children, so be very careful he doesn't come in contact with any...
TwoCrows gave you some good advice on integrating your flock, there is also a nice article in the Learning Center ... www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-adding-to-your-flock
And it is always fun to check out your state thread for chicken keeping neighbors https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/110/kentucky-people
 
I totally agree with Sourland. I've found those original goldfish crackers are perfect with chicken soup. Hint, hint. Too many good roosters looking for homes, no reason to ever keep a bad one.
 

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