Plymouth Rock Rooster Chick

[CPT]

Hi there!

Our Plymouth Rock hen produced a few chicks, but only one survived. So now, it's a few months later, and this little guy is starting to get a sickle on his tail feathers!

I am curious as to how his temperment will be be, as dad is a Red Range Rooster.

This chick also will not go into the coop; it sleeps in the hidden bushes outside. Mom goes back into the coop now with the other flock. Wondering on how to get him in the coop!

 

[Kiki]

Hi there!
Could they be bullying him, not letting him in the coop?
Could you not pick him up and place him in there?

 

[red horse ranch]

At the age he appears to be the other hens in the flock will not let him in unless you put him in. He's scared of them. He's not mature yet so they can get by with bullying him. Once he matures they should accept him as part of the flock. I would NOT let him sleep in the bushes!

It's hard to know what his personality will be like until the hormones start flowing in him.
I haven't kept a mature BR before but ones I've known other people to have are pretty easy to get along with but they do get big.

 

[Chickens like to peck me]

maybe pick him up and put him in the coop if they are bulling him maybe put him inside at night until he grows up a little.

 

[CPT]

That's so true.....we have TONS of shrubbery and bushes all over our farm, so our hen decided to lay her eggs in a hidden bush, so that's where they were hatched. She raised her chicks outside. Only 1 of them survived, so he's it. So I'm assuming that's where the chick likes to camp out out night, but mom pretty much left him on his own, and she goes back into the coop with the rest of the flock. I leave the coop door open until after sunset to see if he goes in, but doesn't. I'll have to get a net and try to catch him and place him in the coop somehow. Our chickens free range all day and go into the coop on their own at sunset, and we just close the door at night, and I let them out in the morning.

 

[Chickens like to peck me]

ok thats what we do to! they usually go back in around 7:30 so just keep an eye on him he must be so cute

 

[CPT]

Thanks! I can't catch this little chick on my own....he's fast! He definitely hangs out with the flock all day and is sociable, but won't go in the coop. We'll see what happens over the next few weeks to see if he gets a little bigger and can hop up to roost with the rest of the hens.

 

[Chickens like to peck me]

ok good luck

 

[aart]

He's 12 weeks old?
Could be more of a single bird issue than a cockerel issue.
Has he ever roosted in the coop?
Is your coop big enough for all your birds......lots of roosting space..and maybe separate roosts???

 

[chickens really]

If he has never been in the Coop..The bushes are It's home. You need to train it to the Coop..Meaning catch it and lock them in for a few day. Then the young bird will think of the Coop as home.