Roo dilemna- need fresh minds to help me

[Noobchick]

I've been mulling this over so much the last couple days that my mind has turned to mush. Thought about asking my real life friends their opinions, but none of them are chicken owners so I'm not sure they'd be able to help. Here's the issue:

We got 6 chickens in May, one of which turned out to be a roo. Took him back to the breeder and got three new ones, about 9 weeks old. Then not one but TWO of them turned out to be roos. The new ones beought disease into my existin flock despite me doing the quarantine thing. 2 1/2 months later, they're STILL not entirely well (I suspect the antibiotics they were on caused other problems that are now being addressed). We sacrificed one roo in order to do a necropsy to figure out what their illnesses are (no contagious respiratory diseases so good on that at least.)

Which leaves the one roo. Until a few days ago all was well: no crowing, was gentle with the girls while mating etc. thought he was a keeper, despite us living in a city that doesn't allow roosters within the city limits. (No crowing = no detection right??)

Then he tore a large strip of skin of my NN pullets neck while attempting to mate. AND has started crowing starting at about 5:30am every morning the last few days, and crows about every hour after that till noon.

I'd like to keep him because the plan is to move to a house outside city limits with much more land in the next year sometime. Nothing definite and the current house isn't even on the market yet, mind you. I'd like to free range the chickens then and a roo at that point would be very useful. I'd also like to raise my own chicks for the most part (I'm very put off with the local breeder I bought from and think it may be easier to brood my own??)

But I can't put up with the crowing and injuries till then. Its a difficult situation and I've turned it over in my head so much that my head hurts. Sure would appreciate some fresh minds and suggestions.

 

[Stephanie739]

I play things day by day. If/when situations get to be more than can be handled, I change the situation. If you want to keep the rooster, knowing that you will be moving and can later better accommodate him, keep him unless the situation becomes unbearable. Good luck. I'm afraid I will be having to make some decisions about roos in the not too distant future, but I'm waiting until I have to make them!

 

[NatureBoy86]

Well first, Sorry to hear about this situation your in and I do appreciate its severity. City restrictions can be a huge bummer, wish you luck on a speedy sale of your current home so you can get out into Nature quickly

As for the lil guy, Was the injury from aggressive mounting? I would think naked necks would be more susceptible to torn necks due to there not haveing feathers where the roo would normally grasp. Just an idea to review. Do you have any friends that can board him till you move or sell him and get a new fellow later, lots of great roos in need of good homes. Best of luck to you!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's a rough decision. From looking at the breeds in your signature, it looks like you are open to different breeds of roosters. It's not like you are set on one specific breeed.

I'd suggest getting rid of all your roosters until you move. The way I see it, that takes care of all your current problems. You don't know if you are moving or not, or when. I would not go through that much stress if I did not have a definite end in site. When and if you move, get a rooster then. If you get a mature rooster with those hens the integration should go prety well. There are so many roosters out there, with a little looking you should be able to get a good one.

The typical integration is looking for diseases the chickens have been exposed to in the last few weeks, diseases the previous owner did not recognize, or possible underlying diseases that the stress of moving brings out. Chickens can be carriers of disease but be immune to its symptoms. No matter how long you quarantine them, these will not show any symptomns, yet they can infect your flock. Coccidiosis is a good example of this, but there are others. It is also possible your flock has a disease they are immune to but will give to the new chickens. The way I suggest you handle quarantine next time is to pick one of your flock as a possible sacrificial chicken and put her with the rooster in quarantine, maybe after keeping the rooster by himself for a couple of weeks. I think it is better to risk one of your flock than the entire flock.

Good luck!!!

 

[Noobchick]

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That's exactly what I think happened. I saw him try to mount her once last week and he grabbed about there. Was worried at the time when I saw him start the attempt but all was well. (She's not quite mature yet but he doesn't seem to care.). She squawked and pitched him off and was none the worse for wear. (Was actually kind of funny because I swear I could see little stars dancing around his head after he was bucked off.)

So I thought it would be fine. Apparently not though. I love the NN pullet and sure don't want to give her up but definitely don't want her suffering these kinds of wounds over and over again.

 

[Noobchick]

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This is an excellent mantra. I think I need to print this out and put it on my fridge! Thank you!!

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Thank you for this. This makes my decision a lot easier; I was afraid introducing a new roo later would be next to impossible between the quarantining and the actual integration. But this is a workable solution. (And I'll be sure to post on here for advice/guidelines before looking for a roo in the future.) Thank you again!

 

[gritsar]

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