I got 25 Ameraucana chicks last April from John Blehm in Michigan. Some were LF wheatens, some LF buff and some LF silver Ameraucanas. I kept all of the pullets, and three of the cockerels -- one of each variety. The other cockerels I gave to a lady farmer friend a few counties over.
Most of the Ameraucana chickens live in "Stalag 2" -- a chicken compound that includes a henhouse with a large chicken yard, a small converted dog house with its own smaller fenced in chicken yard, and a sally port with two independent gates at the entrance -- similar to those you see used in prisons -- that we use to make sure no chickens escape out of the compound and into the street.
Next to the Ameraucana's compound is "Stalag 1" -- a chicken compound that includes a henhouse and three independent, fenced in chicken runs. In Stalag 1, we have an assortment of eleven hens: production reds, buff orpingtons, easter egger mutts, and two Ameraucana wheatens from John Blehm that we had to move into Stalag 1 back in the summer because of overcrowding over in Stalag 2.
Stalag 2's Ameraucana flock is ruled by an alpha roo named Andy, who was one of the buff Ameraucana cockerels that came in that straight run shipment from Blehm last spring. As they were growing up, Andy just naturally seemed to emerge as the flock leader without any intervention from us at all, so we just let it be.
We did separate out the other cockerels when the birds got older, though, and the fights over the ladies began.
We put the wheaten male and the silver male in the smaller run with the makeshift dog house chicken coop. I guess you could say we turned that smaller run into a "Bachelor Pad".
Stalag 1 had been ruled by an adult easter egger, but we were forced to cull him recently. That left his flock of eleven ladies without a roo.
So this past weekend, we moved the wheaten cockerel -- whose name is Bert -- out of the Bachelor Pad over in Stalag 2. We put him in with the eleven ladies over in Stalag 1, so he could become their "man of the house."
This means that Bert has all of Stalag 1 (the larger of the two chicken compounds) to himself and his harem of eleven hens and pullets.
That means that Bert now has opportunity to mount any of eleven young ladies, pretty much any time he wishes.
But this boy isn't mounting just any of the eleven young ladies he now lives with.
He is mounting only the two wheaten pullets that came in the same shipment of chicks last April that he came in. He doesn't have anything to do with any of the other hens. He has been wearing out those two so bad the last several days that -- to protect them -- I moved them into the back chicken run and then closed the gate so that they would be fenced in AWAY from Bert.
And danged if Bert didn't figure out how to fly on top of the fence, and then use the fence as a spring board to fly into the back chicken run, so he could get to those two little wheaten pullets. Believe me, that is NOT easy for a rooster to do as high as we built the fencing and the gating that separates the different chicken runs within Stalag 1.
Why is this rooster only interested in mating "his own kind?"
He's only been with the flock of girls for four days now. Before that, he lived in the Bachelor Pad devoid of any contact with hens at all.
Do you think he'll eventually come around to mating the other nine ladies too?
What should I do? I can't let him wear these two little wheatens out.
Most of the Ameraucana chickens live in "Stalag 2" -- a chicken compound that includes a henhouse with a large chicken yard, a small converted dog house with its own smaller fenced in chicken yard, and a sally port with two independent gates at the entrance -- similar to those you see used in prisons -- that we use to make sure no chickens escape out of the compound and into the street.
Next to the Ameraucana's compound is "Stalag 1" -- a chicken compound that includes a henhouse and three independent, fenced in chicken runs. In Stalag 1, we have an assortment of eleven hens: production reds, buff orpingtons, easter egger mutts, and two Ameraucana wheatens from John Blehm that we had to move into Stalag 1 back in the summer because of overcrowding over in Stalag 2.
Stalag 2's Ameraucana flock is ruled by an alpha roo named Andy, who was one of the buff Ameraucana cockerels that came in that straight run shipment from Blehm last spring. As they were growing up, Andy just naturally seemed to emerge as the flock leader without any intervention from us at all, so we just let it be.
We did separate out the other cockerels when the birds got older, though, and the fights over the ladies began.
We put the wheaten male and the silver male in the smaller run with the makeshift dog house chicken coop. I guess you could say we turned that smaller run into a "Bachelor Pad".
Stalag 1 had been ruled by an adult easter egger, but we were forced to cull him recently. That left his flock of eleven ladies without a roo.
So this past weekend, we moved the wheaten cockerel -- whose name is Bert -- out of the Bachelor Pad over in Stalag 2. We put him in with the eleven ladies over in Stalag 1, so he could become their "man of the house."
This means that Bert has all of Stalag 1 (the larger of the two chicken compounds) to himself and his harem of eleven hens and pullets.
That means that Bert now has opportunity to mount any of eleven young ladies, pretty much any time he wishes.
But this boy isn't mounting just any of the eleven young ladies he now lives with.
He is mounting only the two wheaten pullets that came in the same shipment of chicks last April that he came in. He doesn't have anything to do with any of the other hens. He has been wearing out those two so bad the last several days that -- to protect them -- I moved them into the back chicken run and then closed the gate so that they would be fenced in AWAY from Bert.
And danged if Bert didn't figure out how to fly on top of the fence, and then use the fence as a spring board to fly into the back chicken run, so he could get to those two little wheaten pullets. Believe me, that is NOT easy for a rooster to do as high as we built the fencing and the gating that separates the different chicken runs within Stalag 1.
Why is this rooster only interested in mating "his own kind?"
He's only been with the flock of girls for four days now. Before that, he lived in the Bachelor Pad devoid of any contact with hens at all.
Do you think he'll eventually come around to mating the other nine ladies too?
What should I do? I can't let him wear these two little wheatens out.
