Good morning! We have 7 14 week old chickens. 2 Barred Rocks, 2 Buff Orpintons, 1 Lavender Orpinton and 2 Americana. all 7 were purchased together and have been together since day 1. They are now in a 5*10 coop with 4 nesting boxes and a 10*16 run/yard built around the coop. Now we realize 2 are roosters. No issues so far...I can hold both of them but looking for options to keep them, even if I build a separate pen on the other side of the yard. We are not looking to breed, just wanted eggs but have really enjoyed raising them and hate to get rid of them with no issues as of yet.
Roosters!
- Thread starter MCreery
- Start date
Those are some very pretty chickens!
Your coop and run look brand new. I like the rounded roosts, but why is the roost in the run and not inside the coop? The coop looks like it could accommodate even a few more Hens.
However, to avoid tragic subtraction in chicken math, I would advise to use hardware cloth rather than just "chicken wire" around the entire coop and run. Raccoons coming out of those woods at three in the morning can tear right through chicken wire and you could wake up to an awful sight.
Does your run have a footer? The reason I ask that is that dogs can dig, and sometimes view backyard chickens as dog KFC.
Regarding the Rooster (s), if they are allowed in your locality but you don't want fertilized eggs, you can build a "bachelor pen" as you mentioned. Between that and the hardware cloth, your chicken-related expenses will go up of course.
If the Rooster(s) run with the hens, there should only be one Roo to every 7 Hens or so.
At the moment, I'd be more worried about chicken security, especially in the run where those beautiful chickens are shown roosting.
Your coop and run look brand new. I like the rounded roosts, but why is the roost in the run and not inside the coop? The coop looks like it could accommodate even a few more Hens.
However, to avoid tragic subtraction in chicken math, I would advise to use hardware cloth rather than just "chicken wire" around the entire coop and run. Raccoons coming out of those woods at three in the morning can tear right through chicken wire and you could wake up to an awful sight.
Does your run have a footer? The reason I ask that is that dogs can dig, and sometimes view backyard chickens as dog KFC.
Regarding the Rooster (s), if they are allowed in your locality but you don't want fertilized eggs, you can build a "bachelor pen" as you mentioned. Between that and the hardware cloth, your chicken-related expenses will go up of course.
If the Rooster(s) run with the hens, there should only be one Roo to every 7 Hens or so.
At the moment, I'd be more worried about chicken security, especially in the run where those beautiful chickens are shown roosting.
- Thread starter
- #3
There is a footer and roost in the coop, the yard has several as well. They love it. They stay in the coop at night and it has lattice on the back side. Luckily we don't have any raccoon issues. More birds than anything (and squirrels). But thanks for the advice, I'm leaning toward building another coop/yard just to be safe. thx
You don't get guarantees when it comes to animal behaviors. It just doesn't work that way, about anything can happen. When talking about animal behaviors I use "might" a lot more than "will".
Those two cockerels will determine which one is boss. They already have, you just may not have noticed. As they mature they might revisit that a few more times. It might be a fight to the death, they might reach an accommodation on how to share. Your space, coop and run, is nice for the number of chickens you have of they were all female or even with just one rooster. It might work out with two boys but it's pretty tight.
People might have problems with roosters over-mating or causing hens to be barebacked whether they have a hen rooster ratio of 1 to 1 or 20 to 1. They might not have any of these problems with either ratio. Breeders often keep one or two hens with one rooster for the breeding season without issues. But a secret to that is that they use hens and roosters, not pullets and cockerels. Pullets and cockerels are immature and do not always act like mature chickens. Not all chickens mature either for that matter. The girls have a part to play in flock dynamics and sometimes their behaviors don't help that much, but the biggest problem is that the hormones can drive the boys wild. They often have little or no self control. Sometimes it isn't that bad but as someone on here said watching cockerels and pullets go through puberty is often not for the faint of heart.
Yours are 14 weeks old, right at a good age that the bottom could fall out this afternoon. You said you want to keep both boys and breeding is not an issue. I'd strongly suggest you have an area you can move one or both boys into at a moments notice. It can happen that quickly.
Long term they may be able to coexist with those girls, everyone together. Not likely but it could happen. You could try leaving one boy with the girls and giving one his own pen. You could put both boys together in a pen by themselves. Usually with no girls to fight over they are pretty peaceful. Usually. You could build a separate coop/run and try giving each boy a few hens. I would not try that until they were more mature. I generally suggest you make your decisions based on what you see not what a stranger over the internet like me tells you might happen. But I strongly suggest you be ready to do some isolating if you need to. You may never need to but I think there is a pretty good chance you will.
Good luck!
Those two cockerels will determine which one is boss. They already have, you just may not have noticed. As they mature they might revisit that a few more times. It might be a fight to the death, they might reach an accommodation on how to share. Your space, coop and run, is nice for the number of chickens you have of they were all female or even with just one rooster. It might work out with two boys but it's pretty tight.
People might have problems with roosters over-mating or causing hens to be barebacked whether they have a hen rooster ratio of 1 to 1 or 20 to 1. They might not have any of these problems with either ratio. Breeders often keep one or two hens with one rooster for the breeding season without issues. But a secret to that is that they use hens and roosters, not pullets and cockerels. Pullets and cockerels are immature and do not always act like mature chickens. Not all chickens mature either for that matter. The girls have a part to play in flock dynamics and sometimes their behaviors don't help that much, but the biggest problem is that the hormones can drive the boys wild. They often have little or no self control. Sometimes it isn't that bad but as someone on here said watching cockerels and pullets go through puberty is often not for the faint of heart.
Yours are 14 weeks old, right at a good age that the bottom could fall out this afternoon. You said you want to keep both boys and breeding is not an issue. I'd strongly suggest you have an area you can move one or both boys into at a moments notice. It can happen that quickly.
Long term they may be able to coexist with those girls, everyone together. Not likely but it could happen. You could try leaving one boy with the girls and giving one his own pen. You could put both boys together in a pen by themselves. Usually with no girls to fight over they are pretty peaceful. Usually. You could build a separate coop/run and try giving each boy a few hens. I would not try that until they were more mature. I generally suggest you make your decisions based on what you see not what a stranger over the internet like me tells you might happen. But I strongly suggest you be ready to do some isolating if you need to. You may never need to but I think there is a pretty good chance you will.
Good luck!
I would create the second pen and place one of the roosters there if he is to be kept. Hens / pullets could be split between the groups. Confines as shown too tight for reliable keeping of too mature roosters without at least periodic dust ups.
Great work on the footers!!!! Yeah - I would split up the two Roosters.
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