The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: nic99 on February 10, 2012, 04:04:35 pm

Title: Introducing young cockerel
Post by: nic99 on February 10, 2012, 04:04:35 pm
 I have a young Rhode Island Red cockerel, the sole survivor of a poor hatch. He is now 14 weeks old and has been living on his own his entire life. I feel very sorry for the fellow and am keen to put him with my 4 hens asap. He currently goes out during the day in an enclosed run in sight of the others and back into the shed at night, as the run is not fox proof. Is he still too young to fully introduce to my hens? If so, realistically at what age could I put them together and have him be accepted as boss? He has just started feeble attempts at crowing in the mornings.
Title: Re: Introducing young cockerel
Post by: deepinthewoods on February 10, 2012, 04:14:08 pm
how does he compare size wise to the rest of your hens? they can be quite vicious if they dont see him as 'man' enough. i would try the introduction under close supervision, some pecking is normal but i would seperate again if the hens draw blood. hopefully he'll stand up for himself but it might get a bit violent for a while so be prepared!!
Title: Re: Introducing young cockerel
Post by: nic99 on February 10, 2012, 04:27:22 pm
He is about the same size as them already. They are ex- free range commercial rescue hens and fairly small compared to other large fowl.  I would estimate they are just under 3 years old.
Title: Re: Introducing young cockerel
Post by: deepinthewoods on February 10, 2012, 05:15:26 pm
he sounds big enough, just. i would try him, dont be too alarmed when they fight tho, cos they will. Itll be up to him to assert his dominance over each of them, if they gang up on him he might be in trouble, nothing more embarressingly funny than a cockerel running away from a bunch of hens! i had a fair sized orpington cockerel loaned to me for a while who got his sorry arse properly kicked  a few times before i took him back, but my cuckoo maran cockerel had all 15 hens sorted in about an hour, shame he was infertile! rip fernando :'(
Title: Re: Introducing young cockerel
Post by: chrismahon on February 10, 2012, 06:56:41 pm
Hi Nic99. I would wait until he has more confidence otherwise the top hen is likely to knock the stuffing out of him and he will never recover. We had this with a leghorn bantam cockerel about 6 months old. He was twice the size of the 2 year old hens (oversized for a bantam really) but the top hen took one look at him and wallop- he never went near her hens again.
Title: Re: Introducing young cockerel
Post by: CameronS on February 11, 2012, 05:19:41 pm
i should think he would be fine with them, they don't seem overly aggressive birds, and he was a pretty confident wee lad even at the tiny fluffy stage.

you will pssibly just have to keep an extra eye on them
Title: Re: Introducing young cockerel
Post by: JEP on February 11, 2012, 07:47:41 pm
i would try it they other way round with him being Young
introduce the hens to him in his run first
Title: Re: Introducing young cockerel
Post by: nic99 on February 13, 2012, 05:15:47 pm
Ok, thanks everyone, will give it a go at the weekend when i've got some time to supervise. A couple of the hens have been face to face with him through the bars of a carry case and were completely uninterested so hopefully it will be alright.