Okay so we got four chicks one died and one is a rooster and we are not allowed to have a rooster where we live. I have read you are not supposed to have two chickens together alone so we picked up three more chicks and they are doing great. Right now we have six chickens the three big ones in their own home and the three little ones. They have been in the same room so have seen and heard eachother. The big ones are five weeks and the littles are one-two. I know you are not supposed to be able to tell that five week old chickens are roosters but he is cockadoodledoo ing and it’s getting loud. He is obviously a rooster We can’t have him get any louder or we will get in trouble and we wanted two know if we could separate them soon. We have a home lined up for the leghorn rooster im just worried about the hens being lonely and it seems like the littles are two young to let them be together. Any guidance would be appreciated.
One roo two hens help
- Thread starter ers
- Start date
The main reason for having 3 not 2 hens is that way if one dies you havebtime to get more before the other dies and leaves the last bird by herself. You're safe to get rid of the rooster since you have other birds growing up
Have you tried putting one of the older chicks in with the youngers?
Post pics of your housing set up, might garner some suggestions.
I'd try to get them all together asap, the younger the better.
Oh, and..... Welcome to BYC! @ers
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I have read you are not supposed to have two chickens together alone
As mentioned above, this is a general guideline, not an absolute law of nature. The reason for the suggestion of at least three is if something happens to one the other two still have a buddy. Something did happen to one, you need to get rid of him. Since you had three to start with you are now in good shape to take care of the problem, which you have already started to do.
I also agree with Aart, now is a good time to try to put them together. It might work, it might not. If you can show and tell us what you have to work with we might be able to offer suggestions to make that easier. Disasters can and do happen, but often this is a lot easier to do than you would ever believe from reading the stories on here. You never know until you try.
As mentioned above, this is a general guideline, not an absolute law of nature. The reason for the suggestion of at least three is if something happens to one the other two still have a buddy. Something did happen to one, you need to get rid of him. Since you had three to start with you are now in good shape to take care of the problem, which you have already started to do.
I also agree with Aart, now is a good time to try to put them together. It might work, it might not. If you can show and tell us what you have to work with we might be able to offer suggestions to make that easier. Disasters can and do happen, but often this is a lot easier to do than you would ever believe from reading the stories on here. You never know until you try.
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- #5
So ur saying i should put them together now? i thought they needed to be the same size so that the bigs won’t pick on the littles. the five week olds are huge in comparison and we were planing on waiting a long time till they were all adults because that’s what we thought we had to do but if we can put them together now it would save some trouble these are our first time chickens and they are both in two different set ups in the same shed the big birds are let out into the shed a lot. Its summer here and we haven’t needed to keep the big ones warm and the littles have a heat lamp. We are also battling the heat trying to keep the chickens cool in the day and warm in the night. I realize now i haven’t said the breeds and it might help to know if they will fight, The rooster and one hen are leghorns and then other big hen a red sex link that we accidentally got and was sold as a brown leghorn. our baby’s are two ameruacanas and one barred rock who is such a sweetheart to us but not as much to the others. i’ll post some pictures soon my phone is dieing
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- #6
Oh and also the baby rooster is needing to go to our freinds home and we have learned that the flock that the roo needs to go into is all older pullets and i was wonder if u think that the little five weeker will be okay in a completely new environment. They don’t keep the chickens for pets and i know they are free ranged and the roo hasn’t ever been in that environment. Is it too young for them to be introduced with him being the only rooster?
So ur saying i should put them together now? i thought they needed to be the same size so that the bigs won’t pick on the littles.
I'd forgotten that the youngs are 2 weeks old. It's so hot down here that they would not need any heat, even at night. You might be somewhere they still need heat. You may want to wait a couple of weeks because of heat.
It's not so much what you "should" do as what you "could " do. Many of us have chicks integrated into a flock of adults and older juveniles. I do it by the time they are 5 weeks old, some even younger. I'm set up where I can do that, some people are not. What works for some people doesn't always work for others. You have to go by what you see, not what I tell you that you might see.
To me size isn't that important, it's more about maturity. Mature bantams will outrank less mature full sized fowl in the pecking order, even if the younger ones are twice their size. In your case there is a size and maturity difference.
In a big brooder with heat in one area some people would just put then together now and observe. See what happens. I'd be real nervous about trying that but sometimes it works out.
What I'd do is set the two groups up where they can see each other. Keep them separated by wire. After a week or two of that, let them mix when you can watch. Give them as much room as you can and have widely scattered feeding and watering stations. My situation is different to yours as I have adults and often older juveniles in the flock, often two or three different aged groups of juveniles. And I have a lot of room, a big coop with hiding places and over 50 square feet per chicken outside when it is crowded. And I have weather they can be outside all day every day so that outside area is available.
If you want you can keep them separated until they mature, some people do that. Or sometimes you try it and it doesn't work so you wait a few weeks to try it again. There is no one way that you have to do it, there are several ways you could try to do it. But, yeah, it would be more convenient for you if they were one flock.
the baby rooster is needing to go to our freinds home
He is not a rooster yet, those hens will see him as a chick until he hits puberty. Then they might see him as a male. And he will be a lone chick, no buddies his age.
I don't know how much experience your friends have with chickens. Since those hens free range it might work out, they might not attack him, but they are unlikely to let him join their flock. But they might get lucky. You just ever know with living animals, but I would not expect it to work out real well if they just released him to roam with their flock. The ideal situation would be for him to be a fully mature rooster but that isn't going to happen.
I suggest they pen him behind wire where the hens can see him for a couple of weeks. That gets him to accept that area as home too so he is less likely to wander off when he is released. Then see what happens when he is released. But keep that pen handy so they can put him back in if they need to. They may need to do that immediately of it doesn't work out or they may need that pen when he hits puberty, weeks or even a couple of months down the road.
I'd forgotten that the youngs are 2 weeks old. It's so hot down here that they would not need any heat, even at night. You might be somewhere they still need heat. You may want to wait a couple of weeks because of heat.
It's not so much what you "should" do as what you "could " do. Many of us have chicks integrated into a flock of adults and older juveniles. I do it by the time they are 5 weeks old, some even younger. I'm set up where I can do that, some people are not. What works for some people doesn't always work for others. You have to go by what you see, not what I tell you that you might see.
To me size isn't that important, it's more about maturity. Mature bantams will outrank less mature full sized fowl in the pecking order, even if the younger ones are twice their size. In your case there is a size and maturity difference.
In a big brooder with heat in one area some people would just put then together now and observe. See what happens. I'd be real nervous about trying that but sometimes it works out.
What I'd do is set the two groups up where they can see each other. Keep them separated by wire. After a week or two of that, let them mix when you can watch. Give them as much room as you can and have widely scattered feeding and watering stations. My situation is different to yours as I have adults and often older juveniles in the flock, often two or three different aged groups of juveniles. And I have a lot of room, a big coop with hiding places and over 50 square feet per chicken outside when it is crowded. And I have weather they can be outside all day every day so that outside area is available.
If you want you can keep them separated until they mature, some people do that. Or sometimes you try it and it doesn't work so you wait a few weeks to try it again. There is no one way that you have to do it, there are several ways you could try to do it. But, yeah, it would be more convenient for you if they were one flock.
the baby rooster is needing to go to our freinds home
He is not a rooster yet, those hens will see him as a chick until he hits puberty. Then they might see him as a male. And he will be a lone chick, no buddies his age.
I don't know how much experience your friends have with chickens. Since those hens free range it might work out, they might not attack him, but they are unlikely to let him join their flock. But they might get lucky. You just ever know with living animals, but I would not expect it to work out real well if they just released him to roam with their flock. The ideal situation would be for him to be a fully mature rooster but that isn't going to happen.
I suggest they pen him behind wire where the hens can see him for a couple of weeks. That gets him to accept that area as home too so he is less likely to wander off when he is released. Then see what happens when he is released. But keep that pen handy so they can put him back in if they need to. They may need to do that immediately of it doesn't work out or they may need that pen when he hits puberty, weeks or even a couple of months down the road.
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- #8
Thank you so much for our your help and advice. We are still thinking about the best action and me and my mom have been discussing what to do. I think it’s clear we can’t separate the roo for at least a few weeks and our friends don’t really keep the chickens as pets and probably won’t care as much as us. We are gonna try and communicate with them some more on what they are willing to do and i’ll post whenever we take action and decide. Thank you for being reasonable and understanding
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