Hi Everyone, I'm a newbie to raising chickens (first post here), so please excuse me for sounding so ignorant. I've been preparing to get about 30 meat chickens and I have them coming this week. I've read quite a few posts here and scoured the Storey's book on raising chickens. I felt prepared. Well, a few days ago I finished a movable hoop coop to put my chicks in once they are ready to move from the brooder. and when my neighbor saw it he asked if I would like one of his extra roosters. He must have known what he was doing because he asked me in front of all my kids! I'm not a dad who is afraid to tell his children "No", but they were so excited about the prospect of having a chicken, well.....I caved. So now I have a rooster that I don't need sitting in my hoop coop. My question is, when I do move my meat birds to the hoop coop, do I need to get rid of the rooster? Will he bother them or can they get along together? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
You are already aware that you've compounded the problems you're facing raising a brood of chicks by having a rooster. Yes, you will need to keep him separate from the vulnerable small ones until they've grown enough and gotten enough experience and confidence to deal with the much larger chicken in their midst. Be aware, intentional or not, an older chicken can do some very serious damage to a baby chick. It's not enough to just put up chicken wire barriers around the chicks. You need to make sure they can't stick their tiny heads through the mesh and get picked off that way. I had a chick get scalped by my rooster because I failed to consider that tiny, curious baby chick heads might be vulnerable.
Another idea, is, you could make a small coop, just his size and either a small run, or free range him until the chicks are much bigger...if you are getting meat birds, why would you need a rooster? Usually people that get meat birds, process them at eight weeks or so, as they are bred for very fast growing, although mine were 4 months before we were able to process them, life things got in the way of processing...we had no roo for the meaties...just the layers that free ranged. Personally, I would send him to freezer camp.
Thanks for all the replies, everyone! You don't have to tell me anymore. I'm a good Cajun from SW Louisiana. To the gumbo pot with him!
