Where to put the rooster??

[Lovely_Ladies]

I created a simple divider for in the coop made of chicken wire and a wood frame (but the frame isn't all the way around so I can fold it up for another day), I choose to make everyone share the same waterer so there is a gap in my divider to fit a big waterer but no one can sneak through. During the day, I put the rooster in the kennel with his own food and water, the ladies can come and go from the coop to the run, if they are comfortable and not stressed, they will approach him and investigate him through the kennel, they need to get use to him.
Make sure the kennel is big enough for him to walk around a little, I'm not a fan of cages for chickens but some people are okay with it.

Hi we just got our rooster. He is sooo handsome and docile. We did keep him in the dog kennel like we discussed. The girls wondered around him in the cage looking at him. I let him out just to see how everyone would react. The girls all flapped there wings and a couple stared him down two hens bumped chests with him but they all are drinking & eating out of the same feeders. Of course I’m outside in the run with them. Watching them every single minute. Everyone is just walking around making soft clucking noises & mingling.

 

[CluckerFamily]

Hi we just got our rooster. He is sooo handsome and docile. We did keep him in the dog kennel like we discussed. The girls wondered around him in the cage looking at him. I let him out just to see how everyone would react. The girls all flapped there wings and a couple stared him down two hens bumped chests with him but they all are drinking & eating out of the same feeders. Of course I’m outside in the run with them. Watching them every single minute. Everyone is just walking around making soft clucking noises & mingling.

That's Great!

 

[RevlisRemmah]

We are getting a Rooster in a couple weeks and I will have to integrate so I’m watching your thread closely! Would you be willing to show pictures more your handsome guy??

 

[Lovely_Ladies]

We are getting a Rooster in a couple weeks and I will have to integrate so I’m watching your thread closely! Would you be willing to show pictures more your handsome guy??

OF COURSE I WOULD BE HAPPY TO SHARE PICTURES!!! Who doesn’t have a zillion pictures of there chickens lol.

 

[Lovely_Ladies]

We are getting a Rooster in a couple weeks and I will have to integrate so I’m watching your thread closely! Would you be willing to show pictures more your handsome guy??

Here’s another picture.

 

[Lovely_Ladies]

We are getting a Rooster in a couple weeks and I will have to integrate so I’m watching your thread closely! Would you be willing to show pictures more your handsome guy??

Also, as I stated in earlier posts my game plan for how to integrate the chickens with dog kennel in the run. Everyone was super friendly so I let him out and removed the dog kennel. Shortly before the chickens do what they do (eating drinking stretching returning to the coop etc) my rooster decided that he wanted to mate with girls. I let them carry on for a bit because they are chickens and simply doing what nature intended for them to do. My girls were not to thrilled with my roo and one of my hens went inside the coop way before bedtime just to escape. So while the chickens were all in an uproar my daughter (15) & I started to panic as we too were not familiar with this type of thing. I yelled out to my daughter to open the gate to let the girls out of the run to make it easier for me to catch him. Sooo...OF COURSE my rooster got out too. The girls had long since returned to the run/coop while my daughter and I were trying to find the roo because he ran off into neighbors soy beans crops. It took us an hour to find/grab him and get him back to the coop.
Our rooster did not know his way home so we had to train/teach him where his home is.with the girls we kept them locked up inside the coop for an entire 7 days when they finally got to come out they automatically knew where to go at bedtime. We took the advice from @CluckerFamily and created a partition where the girls were on the side of the nesting boxes and he was on his own separate side but they could still see each other. Everyday we let the girls out and then open the door in the partition for the roo to have room to occupy the entire coop all day long until the girls want to go to bed. For 30 minutes before I open the gate for the girls to come in I take the roo out to hold him and pet him and let him stretch his legs to run around inside the run. Then we put him back inside the coop on his side. And the girls climb the ladder & go to bed. Right now today we let the roo out of the coop. The girls are out free ranging while he’s locked inside the run. The girls continue to visit him through the fence. I couldn’t continue with him inside the coop because all he did allllllllllllllllllll day long was crow nonstop. Our new game plan is to continue to carry on with the chickens this way for the next seven days and still keep the partition up in the coop during this time at night. The next phase will be letting all the chickens out to free range together. I will definitely provide you with an update. I hope this is helpful to you.

 

[RevlisRemmah]

Also, as I stated in earlier posts my game plan for how to integrate the chickens with dog kennel in the run. Everyone was super friendly so I let him out and removed the dog kennel. Shortly before the chickens do what they do (eating drinking stretching returning to the coop etc) my rooster decided that he wanted to mate with girls. I let them carry on for a bit because they are chickens and simply doing what nature intended for them to do. My girls were not to thrilled with my roo and one of my hens went inside the coop way before bedtime just to escape. So while the chickens were all in an uproar my daughter (15) & I started to panic as we too were not familiar with this type of thing. I yelled out to my daughter to open the gate to let the girls out of the run to make it easier for me to catch him. Sooo...OF COURSE my rooster got out too. The girls had long since returned to the run/coop while my daughter and I were trying to find the roo because he ran off into neighbors soy beans crops. It took us an hour to find/grab him and get him back to the coop.
Our rooster did not know his way home so we had to train/teach him where his home is.with the girls we kept them locked up inside the coop for an entire 7 days when they finally got to come out they automatically knew where to go at bedtime. We took the advice from @CluckerFamily and created a partition where the girls were on the side of the nesting boxes and he was on his own separate side but they could still see each other. Everyday we let the girls out and then open the door in the partition for the roo to have room to occupy the entire coop all day long until the girls want to go to bed. For 30 minutes before I open the gate for the girls to come in I take the roo out to hold him and pet him and let him stretch his legs to run around inside the run. Then we put him back inside the coop on his side. And the girls climb the ladder & go to bed. Right now today we let the roo out of the coop. The girls are out free ranging while he’s locked inside the run. The girls continue to visit him through the fence. I couldn’t continue with him inside the coop because all he did allllllllllllllllllll day long was crow nonstop. Our new game plan is to continue to carry on with the chickens this way for the next seven days and still keep the partition up in the coop during this time at night. The next phase will be letting all the chickens out to free range together. I will definitely provide you with an update. I hope this is helpful to you.

Sooooo helpful thank you!!!!! I didn’t even think about him not knowing where to sleep, we were going to set our new guy up in a mini-run next to the girls run and give him a covered crate to sleep in and to get out of the sun. But then how will he know that the coop is his home and thank you for the pictures of him! Handsome handsome boy!

 

[Lovely_Ladies]

I know that this is off topic, but your coop is gorgeous!

Thank you so much for the compliment! You would not believe the amount of hoops and leaps we went through trying to get a coop for the girls. We bought them from tractor supply store along with all necessary items for raising chicks. After spending over $100 to get the tank up and running with proper heat lamps, bedding, food/water feeder etc. we had to wait until my husband got his next paycheck with, the intentions of returning to tractor supply to purchase a prefabricated coop/kit. It was precut and basically you bring it home with the directions: attach part A to part B & so on. However, the pandemic hit and of course we live in what was then considered the epicenter of COVID-19 (New York). All surrounding borders were closed and deliveries were extremely delayed on a good day. As a result, no matter what store we went to the response “we do not know when our next shipment will come in”. I remember thinking to myself “not only are all the stores sold out of T. P. But they are also sold out of chicken coops”. Additionally, everything online was sold out with a TBD when any products would be restocked so that we could make our purchases. We kept waiting and checking on updated information about the chicken coop with continued responses of “not yet”. Meanwhile what started out as a fun adventure was becoming a nightmare as the chicks were rapidly growing & I was waking up to be greated by 2-3 chickens perched on the top/side of the tank waiting for me to come in feed/water, change bedding and hold, love and pet them. Additionally, we had purchased all of our vegetables we intended to plant which was delayed several days/weeks because New York was still getting frost warning right up to the end of May so my Florida room became part chicken coop part nursery. With the chickens rapidly growing thanks be to the gods that I married a master mason who spent his entire working career in construction because we spent days searching the intranet & reading reviews to purchase blueprints in addition to numerous trips to Home Depot for the supplies. There were several hiccups with the blueprints but with some general modifications and a weeks worth of nonstop building, head scratching, tools being thrown across the barn and hair pulling we finally had a completed chicken coop that said “it could hold up to 15 chickens” which might be true however I would never want that many chickens “cooped up (<—- i couldn’t resist) ” together like that. Of course after a lot of googling I read that chickens tend to see the color red best, then blue, then yellow. For me I wanted something different than the usual red & white chicken coop that you see every day around every country block. I decided to go with the blue paint with white trim and some patriotic decorations. We still have a solar motion detector (White) to go above the coop door, & I am going to use sponges cut into the shape of a Star to be dipped into white paint creating an entire border of white stars along the bottom of the coop. I appreciate you for your kind comment as I have been teased a lot about my chickens who must have come from 5th Avenue and live in a posh high society penthouse. My thoughts & feelings at the time I decided on how I wanted to decorate the coop were deeply influenced/inspired by the pandemic, the protests, the riots and the intense sadness/heartache I was feeling about what was happening all across America (the world). I have an intense love for all my chickens & i enjoy sitting outside watching them do all the quirky things that chickens do. Sitting out back surrounded by my patriotic atmosphere and listening to the soft clucking noises my chickens make brings me a great deal of peace during a time when society is beyond anything our forefathers ever thought of/planned for the future of the “UNITED” States of America. Perhaps I will post an updated photo of the completed coop sometime in the future. Take care, & be well!
~Lovely Ladies

 

[Flockincrazy]

Hello Everyone,
I have six 17 Week old hens. They have a chicken coop that is 5’ X 4’. They have a run which is approximately 10’ X 25’ plus free ranging all over everywhere. We have a neighbor who only wanted hens & bought several chicks two of which turned out to be roosters. She would like to give us one of her roosters (which is approximately the same age as ours). Is there a special way to bring this rooster into the flock? Or do we just put them out together and let nature take its course?? Please help we are expecting the rooster to arrive no later than 8/14/2020
~Lovely Ladies

***I have attempted to attach photos of the coop (a work in progress) & the fenced in area (the run).

When adding a rooster into a flock of just hens i just put them together the girls never care if you add a boy to the mix

 

[Lovely_Ladies]

How old is this cockerel?

Hello aart, sorry to get back to you so late, the rooster is a few weeks older than my ladies.