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Lovely_Ladies
Songster
- Jun 18, 2020
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Hello Revils,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 homeand thank you for the pictures of him! Handsome handsome boy!
I wanted to give you an update & I hope you find this information useful. So as I stated above my goal was to keep him in the coop for one week straight, on the second week let the ladies out to free rang and keep him separate in the run for a week, on the third week let everyone out at the same time to free range, and remove the divider. Let me tell you what happened on the second week. On the first day, all the ladies were let out to free range and the rooster remained in the run with gate shut and locked. On the second day same thing. Day one & two went well with 3 out of the six hens showing a lot of interest and lurking around the outside of the run. On day three...well let’s just say that my rooster flew the coop because after I let everyone out and locked him in the run and went into the barn to get the chicken feed I came back to (see attached pictures) see him working on his escape plan. Needless to say, he got out by jumping off the top of the bloody chicken coop roof
I didn’t even try to catch him to put him back in the run. Instead I stayed outside all day to watch him and the ladies. I had to avert my eyes as he was anxious to mate with the ladies. The group continued to roam & free range all day with intermittent mating sessions throughout the day. Our rooster is very good at keeping all the ladies together in addition to helping herd them back to the back yard where they belong. At the end of the day he had no issues knowing where his home is and all the chickens returned to the coop together. The divider was removed and I sat outside for about 30 minutes waiting to see/hear anything that sounded like they were not getting along inside the coop. Then I looked inside and all chickens were snuggled up next to each other on the roosting bars. Good luck integrating your rooster, I hope everything goes as smoothly for you as it did for me. Let us know 
~Lovely Ladies
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