Please help... I cant keep losing sleep.. but I dont want to cook my rooster...

[briecheeze87]

I have a small backyard flock for a little longer than a year now. At first my rooster & his three hens roosted in their coop, then last summer sometime they decided their coop was not where they wanted to roost anymore... I really cant recall why, but I figured whatever... However they are roosting on a rack right beside my bedroom.... & my insane rooster starts crowing between 2:15 & 3am every morning... I am exhausted. I remember this wasn't a huge problem before the time change, when 3am was really 4 am... but not it seems to get earlier and earlier... The other night I was home alone (it's getting dark about 530pm) & my chickens started towards bed at like 4:45... and the rooster started crowing at 10pm!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME>!

Do you think forcing them to go back into their coop will help any? I mean at least it's not 6 feet from my bed. TBH the reason I hadn't forced them back into the coop was we had one hen (who passed) but went broody and hatched out 7 baby chickens & while they are now 9-10 weeks old, there are 4 cockerels & they are roosting in the coop, and I am afraid my rooster will kill them. They are getting to be decent sized now (just a tad smaller than my hens) but I still dont want to come out to a bunch of pecked to death chickens if they cant escape the rooster bc they are closed up int he coop. (they had been getting along in the yard okay, but they can get away if needed)

What should I do.... I'm exhausted.

 

[keesmom]

Put them in the coop. Most likely he will leave the juvenile males alone as they are too young to be a threat. If you are really worried about it put the young males in a bachelor pad since you are going to have to do something about them at some point anyway.

 

[azygous]

Hah! That reminds me of long, long ago when I had my first flock and all fifteen of them roosted in the hedge by my bedroom window. Listening to those juveniles practicing crowing at 3 am was draining.

The least snatch of light, such as headlight from a passing car, or a neighbor turning on a bathroom light, will set off a rooster. You need to make sure he's in an enclosed, darkened coop if you want quiet all night.

Yes, as keesmom mentioned, you need to re-accustom the flock to the coop. To accomplish that, they need to be kept cooped up for a week, not let out during that period. It's the only way.

Chickens grow up quickly, so you need to figure out what to do with all those roosters. Segregating them from the girls would be a good thing, but they will begin fighting most likely since there are so many. I would begin right now looking for homes for them.

 

[lazy gardener]

How big is your coop? Can you section off a portion for the youngsters to keep them away from the older flock and roo? I think shutting them all together in a coop is a recipe for disaster. What is your plan for the young cockrels? Do you intend to keep the older roo, or let one of the youngsters take over as flock master?

 

[donrae]

What's your plan for those cockerels?

I'd move the main flock back to the coop, or at least move what they're roosting on so they have to find another place to roost at night. Chickens are incredible creatures of habit, so expect them to fuss quite a bit at night until they find another place to roost and get comfortable with it.

My rooster doesn't start worrying about the cockerels until they're 4ish months old. Until then he doessn't seem to see them as male, only as juveniles. It's funny to watch him get all after the older cockerels, and the littles (around 2 months) don't understand what's going on and run to him for protection, cause they just know something's after the other birds--they don't understand it's him!

 

[krista74]

How big is your coop? Can you section off a portion for the youngsters to keep them away from the older flock and roo?

This would be my suggestion also. Re-train the main flock back to the coop - lock them in there for a good week with no free-ranging to get them used to it again. After that they should recognise the coop as 'home' and go back there at dusk after being out for the day.

If you can, either put in a partition for the younger birds within the main coop, or move them to a separate pen altogether. A chicken tractor would work well, or you could use a rabbit hutch or a large dog crate.

At some point you will have to consider what you are going to do with all those cockerels. I have some 6 week old cockerels and am already trying to find a home for them. It's not easy to find good homes so if I were you I would start looking now. Unless you plan on eating them that is, in which case you will need to keep them penned separately as they get older anyway.

- Krista

 

[briecheeze87]

As a temporary fix last night we have a XL wooden dog house that (we plan on adding to the coop for the young chicks) that we waited until the rooster roosted last night and then put him in, shut up the door, and no crowing all night!!!!
AMAZING.. my DH is home today and has promised to finished attaching the box to our main coop, so that we can move the young chickens into it, and keep the big chicken in their old house. & hopefully everyone can get a good night sleep.

As for the four young roosters, the livestock sale is this weekend, and while I'm sad to see them go, my rooster (white leghorn) is very very dominant and I'd rather sell them then they get killed by him.

I do have one question, my DH says if we move the rooster & the hens (his three original that we bought with him& one additional hen we raised up and transitioned into their flock (she is a Jersey giant so she is much larger than him, even though she is only about 9-10 months old (just started laying randomly 1-2 every week- for about 10 weeks now) that he will kill the Jersey Giant b/c she was never in the coop to start with.... They roost together already, I don't see what the problem would be... Does anyone else think she might be in danger is we lock them in the coop for a week to rehome them?

 

[donrae]

Roosters don't kill hens. They just don't. If I ever had a rooster kill a hen, I'd happily eat the rooster. If the birds are already roosting together, he's accepted her. A rooster looks at a hen as a mate, not competition.

 

[briecheeze87]

I was trying to tell my DH that... he already roost with her, he isn't gonna hurt her, but my DH really likes our Jersey Giant, but we raised her up from a little egg in our living room & she is chock full of personality!