Two cockerels on the farm spells trouble

Our chicks are now 9 weeks old today and starting to look more like adults both in appearance and size. Their behaviour is also showing much more similarities to the adult chickens. They have been sleeping separately from the adult chickens since we moved them outside about 2 weeks ago but freely move around with them in the day.

We were hoping to integrate them soon into the main chicken house, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that Primrose, our beautiful chick, is not a Primrose at all. With a much larger comb and wattle and a very different posture in comparison the Amber and Velvet, Primrose is almost certainly a cockerel. The markings are almost identical to Tiger at the same age.

This poses a real problem for us because of our exisiting lovely resident cockerel, Tiger, who we hatched at Easter time last year. As a general rule, more than one cockerel is not a good idea, as they will usually fight, even to the death. I know that in larger groups, where there are more hens, having two cockerels may be OK.

We can't be sure how it's going to work out here on the farm and will have to keep a close eye on our two boys, particularly as "Primrose" reaches sexual maturity. It would be a real shame to have to keep the new chicks apart all the time and we may need to think about re-homing Primrose. It's not easy finding homes for cockerels, especially as there is no way that we would let him be used for the table.

Let's hope that these two can sort out their differences and learn to share!

Diane
www.AnimalLoversWeb.com

Introducing the baby chicks to the adult chickens

Our baby chicks are now 7 weeks old and it is now time to start integrating them with the adult chickens. Since they left the brooder at about 5 weeks old they have spent their time in a cozy little building we call the green barn. We did build a little “patio” area for them out of wooden pallets and chicken wire, to allow the adult chickens to see them from a safe distance while they were housed in the barn. As the establishment of the new pecking order amongst chickens can be quite a cruel and even dangerous process.
Luckily, we have found that our own bred chicks have always been accepted very well into the group. Although, who knows what goes on in the henhouse overnight, other than when we have had too many cockerels, there has never been any signs of significant injuries occuring overnight.
We let the chicks into the main chicken run area over the weekend, and distracted them all for a few minutes with their favourite treat which is bread. The chicks were right in there with the others for the bread and apart from the odd little peck now and again from the hens, they held their own. Tiger the cockerel is above all that anyway, he just stoops now and again to get the pieces that happen to land near him. Most of the time a cheeky hen scampers in and steals it, just before he gets it, and he seems to maintain a philosophical approach about it and accepts this.
The young chicks managed to get their fair share of the bread. They also pecked frantically at the fresh grass and then had a general wander around the run, staying mainly together most of the time. They didn’t wander anywhere that they shouldn’t over a period of about 2 hours which was very encouraging.
All went well then on the first day and they went back into their own barn to roost at the first sign of darkness, which is about 5 pm at the moment. We plan to repeat this daily over the next couple of weeks and then extend the time they are mingling with the adults, before housing them all together overnight in the next month or so.

John
www.AnimalLoversWeb.com