Rooster dumped in the woods questions

[Lunadear]

Hello all long post ahead and questions at the end!

A few days ago someone dumped a rooster in the woods right next to the road. I was able to catch him after it got dark because he was roosting low in the trees after a cop stopped by and questioned/laughed me. (We have a lot of night predators so I didn't want him to get hit by a car or get eaten) I have 22 hens (20 normal hens and 2 bant's) for about 4 years now (the girls vary in ages) and never owned a rooster because I didn't want one. Our girls free range in woods and a large field and are locked up at night so we have plenty of room for another addition.

What I've done with him so far. I gave him a DE bath in a well vented room. I have wood chips with DE and mint in it so to help get any bugs off. Been using Vetrx too. He has been getting fresh veggies, mealworms, corn, cheerios and oatmeal for food since I only have layer crumble. And he is obviously quarantined in the house since my girls free roam all over the yard and it says they can spread disease through the air. I also have been giving him electrolyte/probiotic water mixture and rotating with plain and apple cider vinegar water. As well as cleaning the cage with disinfectant wipes daily/new everything.

I have a few questions in regard to the rooster.

1. How old do you think he is? (My guess is 5 to 6 months old since he is still figuring his crow out and has very small spurs) I'm also presuming he is a Leghorn.

2. I plan on quarantining him for 60 days since that's what I was seeing as best thing to do. Should I do longer or shorter, nothing less then 30 days?

3. Any tips to care for him? Food, crowing (not that we care if he crows all day but I will be covering him starting next week to get him used to the times my girls wake up), approx how long illnesses will start showing up (he looks fairly healthy minus yawning a bit but I haven't wormed him yet and he had mites or some kind of external parasites)

4. He is very shy because it's only been 5 days (starting to open up a little/crow more) but I rather him stay on the passive side if possible (my chickens are pets). Any tips besides daily handling?

Sorry for the long post but I appericate any advice! We named him Hawk-bait

 

[DobieLover]

He's a white Leghorn.
I would dust him with permethrin dust. DE won't rid him of mites. Repeat again in a week.
I would buy a bag of Flock Raiser or something similar and convert the entire flock to that with oyster shell on the side for the layers.
A 30 day quarantine should be sufficient.

 

[sealer39]

Looks like you have a Leghorn! I’d be willing to bet someone just bought a bunch of Leghorn pullets and later found out this one is a cockerel and dumped him. So he’s probably been raised well except for the time he spent in the wild. Who knows how long that was. First, I’d get him a bag of Flock Raiser crumbles now so he can get back on a good diet. As far as diseases, Just keep checking him for those parasites you found and just keep doing what your doing. Hopefully nothing will develop.
I hope you get up early every morning, because if he is like my cockerel, soon he will be crowing starting a 4:00 every morning. Luckily for me and my cockerel he soon decided to wait till 6:00am every day to start his crowing.

I recently read a good article on here that gave tips on how to interact with a rooster. If I can find it again, I’ll post it. Just handling him alot may not work and it may be counterproductive.

If your looking to breed him with your flock he should pass along some good genes if you like a lot of eggs.

 

[Mrs. K]

I agree with the real mite medicine. You seem to like to do homemade treatments, but really the best thing for chickens is good plain food and water, without anything added.

Adding a rooster will change the dynamics of your flock, they will look to him, he will look to you. However, the best training is putting him in with the flock. Those older gals are going to be a bit tough on him. The last one I added, did not get to sleep on the roost for 2 weeks, but they all adore him now.

So once the mites are cleared up, I would get him in the flock. To be honest, if he was out near your hens, they have been exposed.

Mrs K

 

[Mrs. K]

He really is not very big? Either he is still very young, as in 10-12 weeks or he is a batty?

 

[sealer39]

This is not the article I read but it is good. Also read the other links at the bottom. It’s all good info. My rooster is not aggressive to me because he now knows I’m the boss. But he started being aggressive to my daughters so I taught them all the techniques I’ve learned and they all get along now.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/dealing-with-and-taming-aggressive-roosters.74600/

 

[2 many chickens]

He looks like one of my guys
He's a small skittish Lil guy

 

[DobieLover]

This is not the article I read but it is good. Also read the other links at the bottom. It’s all good info. My rooster is not aggressive to me because he now knows I’m the boss. But he started being aggressive to my daughters so I taught them all the techniques I’ve learned and they all get along now.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/dealing-with-and-taming-aggressive-roosters.74600/

If you have learned a lot of techniques in managing your rooster and that has stopped aggression issues between him and others, you would do the community and other roosters a favor by writing up an article and sharing your techniques and observations with BYC. I love reading good rooster management articles!

 

[annaBsChick]

Roosters are awesome!!! Thank you SO MUCH for rescuing him! 60 days is a bit excessive. 30 days is the recommended. I do 2 weeks. Here is an infographic with my info on that type of stuff though - http://www.poultrydvm.com/featured-infographic/caring-for-newly-adopted-chicken

 

[Lunadear]

Thank you all for the replies and making me less worried!

I wasn’t sure if the permethrin dust we had was safe to put on him (picture attached) so I just put some around his cage. The parasites (whatever they were) I found on him 90% where gone after I used the DE and I’ve never dealt with chicken mites so that’s the reason I presumed that was what they were he had a ~2 on his comb, ~4 under his wings, and 1 on the outside his cloaca. They were black dots with legs(could be ticks).

The girls already have the option of oyster shells but I will be getting a Flock Raiser food for him and switch the girls over once they finish their bag out.

He was on our road for a day. My dad saw him when he went to work in the morning and I was able to grab him around 9 pm. We think he was a tractor supply straight run and they waited for him to crow then decided they didn’t want him.

My parents wake up at 5am, I get up at 6am and the ladies wake up around 7am. so we can handle the early morning crowing. Thank you for the article I’m definitely gonna read it. Out of my ladies my favorite is our White Leghorn Missy she is our alpha hen and my best egg layer so she’s the one he’s gonna have to win over the most.

He also has no interaction with my girls as he was found in the woods down the road and I brought him straight inside. I get a shower after every time I cleaned his cage since I have indoor birds as well and he’s in his own room on the opposite side of the house. I also don’t do to many home remedies because sometimes you need real meds to fix the problem. I only do the probiotic and electrolytes for a few days because he had a rough day. I also read that the apple cider was good if you had a parasite issue so I thought it wouldn’t hurt. We have our girls in an old horse barn so plenty of room for him to roost in and not be by the girls.

I believe he is a normal size White Leghorn since he’s bigger then my 2 bantis. He’s in a medium sized dog crate.

I’m used to introducing young hens I’ve raised not street roosters. I have a run that I open for the girls if weather gets bad. Should I put him in there at first or throw him into the wolves?