Rooster sleeping just outside coop every night??

[Denisea3465]

So we have a young (26 wks) cockerel that only a few times has chosen to go in at night. We have an enclosed run outside the coop and he always roosts just outside the entrance to the coop. There is plenty of room for him inside. Is this normal?

Now that it is getting so cold out, I have been wanting to shore up the window to the coop but I can't if he is going to be locked outside. Is it just a matter of shoving him in nightly or is this normal/happy cockerel/rooster behavior? Google hasn't really given me any help. Thanks in advance!

 

[Dawnclucks22]

So we have a young (26 wks) cockerel that only a few times has chosen to go in at night. We have an enclosed run outside the coop and he always roosts just outside the entrance to the coop. There is plenty of room for him inside. Is this normal?

Now that it is getting so cold out, I have been wanting to shore up the window to the coop but I can't if he is going to be locked outside. Is it just a matter of shoving him in nightly or is this normal/happy cockerel/rooster behavior? Google hasn't really given me any help. Thanks in advance!

Putting him in for a few nights might encourage it... does he get bullied by the others?

 

[Ridgerunner]

You do not have a rooster, you have a cockerel. Roosters and cockerels are two different animals.

What is the make-up of the rest of your flock, sex and ages? It is really normal for immature birds to not sleep on the roosts until they hit a certain level of maturity if there are more mature birds on the roosts.

They are living animals so it is almost guaranteed that someone can come up with an exception to anything any one of us says about behaviors. I can usually come up with exceptions to what I say. Normally my pullets move to the main roosts somewhere around when they start to lay. My cockerels can be all over the calendar. Some cockerels start sleeping on the main roosts pretty young, some wait a lot longer than 26 weeks.

I don’t know what your coop or roosts look like or how many birds of what age or sex you have, but until mine (pullets and cockerels) reach a certain level of maturity they tend to sleep in places other than on the main roosts. It happens so often when I integrate that I put up a juvenile roost, lower than the main roosts, above the nests, and horizontally separated from the main roosts to give the juveniles a safe place to go that is not my nests. I still occasionally have some that don’t want to go into the coop at night.

You may totally blow my theory when you tell us the ages and sexes of your other birds, the more you tell us about the conditions the better we can guess. But most of the time when something like this happens the bird is being bullied and is looking for a place to sleep where it is not getting beat up.

 

[Fairview01]

I have 4 cockerels. The entire flock is the same age. They also roost just outside the entrance on the ramp. The pullets did the same thing but with the cooler fall temps the pullets have decided the coop roosts are a better place to be.

The dominant cockerel still roosts out on the ramp, the other 3 are inside crowded at the entrance with their heads on the outside.

Go figure. They do what they do. I no longer care where they roost or don't roost nor try to figure out their crazy senseless behavior.

 

[aart]

4 cockerels!?
How many pullets?

Wonders about size of coop, length of roost, and ventilation.

 

[Denisea3465]

My apologies for the late response, busy with life as you can all relate...

We have 9 birds total, 8 hens and the one cockerel. 5 of them are 27 weeks old and the older three are going on 2 years now. All the girls go in at night and Lola (haha) just stays on a branch just outside the entrance. I did put him in this morning because his water is starting to freeze outside now. I will see if he chooses to stay or if I find him outside again. Thank you for your input!

 

[Ridgerunner]

My guess is that the pullets have forced their way into the pecking order since they are all laying. So the older hens accept them as they are pretty much mature. At 27 weeks your cockerel has not yet matured enough to be accepted by the older hens and he is afraid of them. It's not a great correlation but it's somewhat like expecting a teenaged boy to dominate a bunch of middle aged women. Not going to happen. With chickens a lot of it is about domination. There is not much compassion in a chicken flock.

So what do you do? I'd consistently put him in the coop after dark and lock him in there until the next morning. The first morning or two be down there relatively soon after daybreak to see how it is going. If things are calm relax, he is unlikely to get hurt. Just keep doing that until he starts going in on his own. That may take a few days, that may take quite a while.

If the older hens are beating the crap out of him when you go down there and he is locked inside, my plan B would be to isolate him at night in some kind of shelter if you feel he needs a shelter or just let him continue to sleep where he is. Eventually he will mature to the point the older hens will let him inside.

 

[Northern Hen]

You do not have a rooster, you have a cockerel. Roosters and cockerels are two different animals.

What is the make-up of the rest of your flock, sex and ages? It is really normal for immature birds to not sleep on the roosts until they hit a certain level of maturity if there are more mature birds on the roosts.

They are living animals so it is almost guaranteed that someone can come up with an exception to anything any one of us says about behaviors. I can usually come up with exceptions to what I say. Normally my pullets move to the main roosts somewhere around when they start to lay. My cockerels can be all over the calendar. Some cockerels start sleeping on the main roosts pretty young, some wait a lot longer than 26 weeks.

I don’t know what your coop or roosts look like or how many birds of what age or sex you have, but until mine (pullets and cockerels) reach a certain level of maturity they tend to sleep in places other than on the main roosts. It happens so often when I integrate that I put up a juvenile roost, lower than the main roosts, above the nests, and horizontally separated from the main roosts to give the juveniles a safe place to go that is not my nests. I still occasionally have some that don’t want to go into the coop at night.

You may totally blow my theory when you tell us the ages and sexes of your other birds, the more you tell us about the conditions the better we can guess. But most of the time when something like this happens the bird is being bullied and is looking for a place to sleep where it is not getting beat up.

Your post was most helpful. I have had chickens for just over a year now and am learning all the time. Right now I have 13 total chickens: One Rooster, 9 mature hens, one 17 week old cockerel who is afraid to sleep in the coop, and 2 more juveniles at 7 weeks old, one may be a male. I have kept the cockerel either in the coop with the rest or in a separate cage during the day while the others free range and in the coop at night. I am afraid to let him free range with the others now for fear he won't return and I can't catch him. I would love to let him out but have no fenced run. He was fine as long as mom who hatched him was protecting him but started to cause me grief when he came to about 13 weeks old or so.