The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[SallyinIndiana]

Suppose to be around 32 here tonight, have one chicken house wrapped up and will wrap up the rooster house before the day is over.

we had to divide the growout house / our first coop just for while we are finishing our larger coop. So the adult chickens have about 3/5 of the floor and all of the roosts while the little chicks that I already had in the growout area are now in a chicken wire cage covering about 2/5 of the floor with a temporary roost that sits a whole 3 inches off the floor. The adults are getting spoiled with the heat from the brooder light gradually floating over to them. I had to force them out into the chilly weather this morning.

 

[chickensnew2me]

Newbie question. I have an 8 month old cockerel in with 7 6 month old cockerels, and I have 2 6 month old cockerels in another grow-out area. Can I combine them or are they too old to add the 2 with them?

 

[immyjay54]

Newbie question. I have an 8 month old cockerel in with 7 6 month old cockerels, and I have 2 6 month old cockerels in another grow-out area. Can I combine them or are they too old to add the 2 with them?

They will probably fight to the death. It is very hard to put cockerels together. Gosh, even ones that have been raised together since birth sometimes will get to fighting once the hormones kick in. They start ganging up on one then another and another. Be very careful if you are wanting to keep them. Good luck.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I agree. I have some pens where I have had several cockerels together but they were under 6 months old and no females. I call it the bachelor pen. My pens are pretty big. My pens are around 30' (more or less) wide by 70' long, so they have plenty of room to run in.

 

[RedRidge]

I have 10 cockerels still together who are 25 weeks old and they are beginning to get hormonal. I haven't made my final cuts yet so still have these 10 together. Now that we have had our first heavy frost free ranging is no longer an option so I suspect confinement will create more problems.

So to buy time I will need to scrounge up some individual pens before too long or I will end up with one or more hurt. Extra wire dog crates to finish growing them out can come in handy. I take the bottom pan out and can easily move them to new forage by picking up the entire thing. I have some show pen pairs also, but they aren't as big and it's more difficult to move the pairs.

 

[Fentress]

Mine are at 22 weeks and consistent with what I have read on this thread, they are still changing/maturing. I just decided to separate them from the flock instead of culling and making my breading decision now, which would be premature. I had assumed that if they were away from the pullets they would be calm with each other, although mine would still be about 200 feet away from the main flock and in view of the pullets. I did not know that you all kept your cockerels in individual pens.

Mark

 

[immyjay54]

Whether we show or don't show, it has to be hard with all the cockerels. Especially if we have more then one line. We don't want to cull to early because we might be getting rid of our best ones. lol I personally do not show but I still want my best boys for breeders. What is so hard for me, sometimes one becomes my pick that really isn't one that I want to use for breeding but something caused him to be my pet boy, lol, and it is really hard to kill these. No one in my area has these birds so I never plan on placing anything that I don't want. The boys go to freezer camp and the girls that aren't breeder quality go into the layer pen. This is one of the biggest problems for me with raising these birds. I just hate to kill them. I have one that is approx 1 1/2 hears old and one of the biggest pets that I've ever had and I know I can't keep him forever but it is sure hard for me to bring myself to cull him. He is a real goof ball. lol Beautiful bird but just not what I would call breeder quality.
I had what some call the bachelor pads and about 6 or 7 months old they began to chase one. I took him out then they started with another one. I knew it was time for me to make my choice. I kept 2, let them with the girls and all is fine now. They will jump at each other once in a while but no real fighting. It is hard to keep more then 2 together with the girls unless you have an awful large area for them to run. I guess eventually I will have to build a large row of individual pens just for the boys. ha,ha. Or have less lines. Oh my, it's hard to keep it simple when we have such a love for the breed.
Now with the winter weather coming in, it only makes it harder with all the frozen water. Wow, what a job. It just isn't as much fun in the winter for me. Having to trod through the snow isn't as easy as it was 40 years ago carrying 5 gallon buckets of warm water. lol
Good luck all. Enjoy those beautiful birds.
Jim

 

[chickensnew2me]

I have decided not to put them together. Was trying to reduce number of coops to feed and water but it's not worth losing a rooster.

 

[immyjay54]

I have decided not to put them together. Was trying to reduce number of coops to feed and water but it's not worth losing a rooster.

Best idea ever. lol

 

[monnie662]

I have decided not to put them together. Was trying to reduce number of coops to feed and water but it's not worth losing a rooster.

I've put all of mine together for the moment but it sounds like it won't be long until I"ll have to seperate them, was also trying to save steps and the hens just don't like them and just now are starting back to laying another problem to solve on my hilltop, pens pens everywhere. And Jimmy maybe you need to move South and fight the fireants, not too many mosquitos at my farm but no snow as of yet but can't ever tell.