That was weird..

KikiDeAnime

Spooky
7 Years
Dec 29, 2017
4,746
11,596
617
Battle Ground, WA
Not sure if this is where to put this so let me know if it needs to be moved.
-
I let our 4 pullets out of their coop run for a small monitored "free range" in the bigger fenced yard as it isn't covered with netting yet and forgot that they're small enough to squeeze through the fence to the middle yard where our 5-6 month old Bantam Silkie cockerel is.

After 3-4 minutes, our 11 wk old Mille Fleur D'Uccle pullet got in with him but all he did was stare at her from a distance. He refused to get any closer to her but did, what I assume, talk to her.
I quickly grabbed her and put all of the chicks back in their coop run.

Is this good behavior towards a chick???

I had already planned on putting all of them together with him once they were older so I'm hoping this is good behavior.
 
Yesterday, I tried each of my two roosters with my current six baby chicks, aged two weeks and four weeks. The older rooster did as your roo did, was indifferent. The younger one, aged four years, made repeated efforts to go after and peck the chicks. I was closely supervising this exposure so no chicks were harmed.

While most roosters are like my older one and show indifference to chicks, they are still unpredictable and could do serious damage if left alone with small chicks. I needed to know which way my roosters would respond to my chicks because I open portals in all my run partitions when my chicks reach two weeks so they can begin to mingle with the flock of adults.

Knowing that the younger rooster is inclined to be aggressive with the chicks, I will not be letting them have free run unless the younger roo is out of the picture.

So the answer is, indifference is what you want to see when your rooster meets your chicks.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom