Rooster Chat

[ccrow]

I kinda wish one of my hens would get broody... then again, I'm limited by the size of the coop(DH has said he will never build another one, lol!) so maybe it's for the best. But many of us here know that we can manage just a couple extras... Right?

I would love to get to see babies growing up in the flock.

Right now I have two roos and only four hens(well, technically one cockerel and one pullet but they're almost a year old), and the additional future wives are growing in separate accommodations. I had one hen who had bare spots on her wings but she unfortunately became dinner for a fox several weeks ago. One of the remaining ones is recovering from a botched attempt by presumably the same fox. I think she may make it but she's still on the sicklist. I'm currently putting her out in the run with the others during the day, but in a wire dog pen to keep her safe from the testosterone poisoning, lol. Then at night she stays in a dog crate in the heated basement. My poor birds- they miss ranging but I'd rather have them bored than feeding fox kits.


Here are the five healthy birds.


This is my poor fox attack survivor barred rock in her little pen(with a box as shelter if she wants)


Here's Chucky, the golden-laced Wyandotte(with the silver-laced hen)...


And Ozzy, the black Australorp, who was just running away from Chucky.


And for good measure, here are the black sexlink and my BO, Floppy.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Do roosters show them where to nest or brood.I rhought it was where to lsy eggs.

 

[Amiti]

Do roosters show them where to nest or brood.I rhought it was where to lsy eggs.

I can only say from my very limited experience that my new cockerel showed the girls the nest he prepared and they all switched from the nest they had been using for a while to his. He fluffed and called and even sat on eggs before he got all the girls to lay in the one he chose. But, from my understanding, i have an excellent cockerel. Not very common to have one that will set on eggs.

 

[hellbender]

I'm getting pretty long in the tooth and have had chickens my entire life but can honestly say, I have yet to see a cock-bird that gave two hoops in hell about what location a hen would lay her eggs...You folks who have such birds should thank your lucky stars that you are witnessing something phenomenal.

 

[tobit]

I've since had a look at 1 egg per hen in my cockerel's flock:

Hen 1




Hen 2



Hen 3




Hen 4




So I'm pretty sure he's been doing his job!!

 

[hellbender]

I've since had a look at 1 egg per hen in my cockerel's flock:

Hen 1




Hen 2



Hen 3




Hen 4




So I'm pretty sure he's been doing his job!!

I does appear that job is being covered!

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Every rooster I have had has sat in a spot calling his hens over abdarranging nest.But I didn't think they showed them where they should brood at.

 

[hellbender]

I've seen cockerels/cocks in nests but it looked to me like they were just meddling and expressing curiosity. I never saw any trying to get hens interested, in fact, the hens seemed annoyed, more than anything else. I suppose there are all kinds of chickens and chicken behavior, not all manifest in every flock.

 

[Amelia Egghart]

My Nero finds new nesting spots, goes in there, fluffs up and waddles around in a circle, chattering the whole time, getting the girl's attention. Here he is checking out an old box that's been closed off for a while:

 

[tobit]

I've seen my cockerel go into our unused mini coop and invite/lure a hen towards/into the tiny nest (in which he was) and constantly making cute little noises, he only did it when there was no best box space in our main coop!