The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lazy gardener]

So....
Two things are going through my mind in response to what @oldhenlikesdogs and @lazy gardener posted.

One...
I could put the boy over in the little house and let him grow up. However, I wouldn't want to put him there alone. I'm thinking that living alone is not good for a flock animal. Last time the other boy (who is penned indoors waiting for the grim reaper) in with said boy, He attacked him. So...it might be too late to try that tactic?


Two...
I wonder how many roos Lazy Gardener has... Was this boy an "only cockerel/roo"? Did he have brothers he was in competition with?


Aside from the sfh, I really want the Buckeye boy to have the best opportunity to be successful. I was thinking that if I remove 2 of them before they are hormonal, he wouldn't have any competition to deal with. But, if for some reason I still have them, perhaps I should put all 3 in the little house together to mature without the ladies..... I may have someone that will take two of them but if that doesn't happen I have to decide how to handle them.

Thoughts?

In response to your ? directed at me: My main flock has been culled by 11 hens. So, now, I have 1 roo who has produced 2 seasons of chicks, and his 13 hens. About a month ago, I added 8 pullets and one cockrel of the same age, thinking that he would get schooled in proper dating procedure. (this worked very well for me last year when I let 2 cockrels stay with the flock until they got too testy with the hens in November, but they were broody raised. Any how, this cockrel was not minding his manners, so I pulled him from the flock 2 days ago, and put him back in the bachelor pen. They voted him off the island, so I now have him in solitary confinement. I let the main flock out to free range under supervision this evening, and the bad boy had been out all day. Well, he took one look at all of those lovely females ranging across the lawn, and came running to help himself. Jack took one look at that boy, and sent him crying for Mama! They never made contact, but it was amusing to see Jack take off across the yard and send that boy running for cover! So, in the grow out pen, I have 9 cockrels + bad boy.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Wow....9 and bad boy in one pen. What are you going to do with all those guys? Are they soup?

 

[lazy gardener]

Yep. I have a defective pressure cooker that's being sent back, and new one (different brand) is "supposed" to arrive tomorrow. This summer is presenting a huge learning curve for me: learning to pressure can, and dehydrate. I think that with this batch, I'll just harvest the breasts and legs. (all in the name of expedience, due to it being so hot and I'm processing alone.)

 

[Leahs Mom]

How old will they be when you process?

 

[lazy gardener]

Older than I want. If I weren't lacking in energy or time, they'd have been processed several weeks ago. Feed conversion rate is not getting any better... so they're wasting more feed than they are producing meat at this point. They are 17 weeks old. Hoping to start processing next week. I'd love it if we'd get some cooler weather, perhaps even some rain.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Are you canning broth?

 

[lazy gardener]

No. Just getting started with a pressure canner, and have yet to get the kinks worked out.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Just posted this on another thread, but thought I'd post an update here too:


Update on MY COCKEREL STORY.....

A recap...

The flock has 5 adult hens.

I had 2 groups of chicks this year. (Note to self...never again unless they are all the same age and brood together.)


Each group had 6 birds, ration 3:3 female/male. I "was" planning on keeping a cockerel from each group. Oldest group SFH; Younger group, Buckeyes. Both quality breeder stock.

Approximately 5-6 weeks apart in age.


I was able to re-home one of the guys in the shf group to an all-adult flock of hens for a flock roo. So far his new home is reporting that he's doing very well for them. Another good story of a cockerel coming in to adult hens!


The boy I had intended to keep became very aggressive and bad mannered. He couldn't be trusted around the younger chicks. He even attacked one of them full on, legs forward like an eagle. Not good. So I gave the second sfh boy a chance and it was not good but in a different way. Neither of these guys had the demeanor of the previous sfh roo I had. But they had competition of the brothers and my other sfh was an "only cockerel" with no adult roo in the flock. I think I probably could train one of them but don't want to do that with the little Buckeyes coming up behind. I've kept each of the sfh boys penned separately since. They leave tomorrow morning. If I want an sfh I can get one in the spring.

****

So after tomorrow, I'll still have 3 Buckeye cockerels that are 14 weeks old.

I've been trying to decide whether to remove 2 of them to a pen a bit away and just grow them for meat or if anyone wants a flock roo, thus giving ONE of the boys the opportunity to interact with the flock as the only roo. I'm leaning toward doing that, and I have a pen I can use if he needs a little away time that is right in the flock.



Having trouble trying to decide which I should keep in the flock, however. They're so young that they are still "chicks" in their behavior so there's no telling how they will be when the hormones kick in. They are very sweet personalities at this point.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Good decisions on the SFH. As far as the buckeyes it is harder to choose before they become sexually mature. I usually favor the least dominant one. If you hold onto the other two, you can always swap them out if the one you choose doesn't work.

I have recently removed two olive egger roosters for the same reason. One was jumping on a younger rooster who was showing signs of Mareks, I made the hard decision to cull him today, he was a sweet little rooster. Both the olive eggers will be butchered. I will wait to see how the other four young roosters mature.

 

[slordaz]

Well from what i'm experiencing having better luck with my young cockerels that kept seperated from the flock completely they are used to human interaction, removed the trouble maker roosters to a seperate pen and the other rooster is now acting up as he's the only one in with the hens , but have a 3 and 4 month olds that are at the house instead of the farm, 1 was to young to be introduced to the flock the other got attacked pretty bad and has recovered, will see how things go in the next week or so, may get rid of my older roosters and leave the younger ones as don't want em hatching anyway until spring here and they will be old enough by then. Was kinda suprised that the second in command whose been a sweetheart is acting up after removing the other 2 from the flock