The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: snowman99 on January 05, 2016, 01:15:39 pm
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We inherited some Pekin chickens early in the year, what we thought was one rooster and five hens. We then got two hybrids to get some eggs, Warrens I think.
Turns out one of the Pekin hens was in fact a young rooster and is now looking very much like his father. He must have been born mid to early summer. This is a bit of a predicament. My other half will absolutely not let any harm come to any of the chickens so fattening him up for the pot is out.
My current plan is to get a couple more hens so as to spread the attention. Both roosters are mainly jumping on the Warrens at the moment, presumably as the Pekins are not in lay. I'm worried the hens will get too much attention. The house is 5 foot x 3 foot with 10 foot total of perches so I think there is room for a couple more. I will build a bigger one in the spring. They are free range in a 20m x 30m garden at weekends and odd days, and in a 3m x 7m run when we are at work.
Are we wasting our time with this? I don't really want 20 hens and 2 roosters, nor do I want the roosters to fight with each other much. They haven't started yet but maybe they will in the spring? The other half has said that if I need to build two enclosures and coops, she will make me. I'd rather not. Is there much of a demand for Pekin roosters? She would re-home it if a good home came up.
Hopefully we can get a handful more and they'll all behave themselves but I'm new to roosters and bantams.
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As you say, problems will arrive in Spring Snowman, when they will fight to establish their territory with as many hens as they can get. You may have to separate them to avoid injury if the youngster doesn't back down. Pekins are notoriously broody hens, so you've got all that to come as well.
Very difficult to rehome cockerels generally, although when we had a Pekin thrown down our driveway from a passing car we rehomed him within days. He was a particularly handsome chap though and very friendly.
10 feet of perch is good for 20 bantam hens only with bantam cockerels needing a foot each because they do a lot of wing flapping and crowing in the mornings. Large fowl hens need a foot each. So sounds to me like the coop is at capacity now.
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So you currently have 4 pekin hens and 2 large hens... You have a fair bit of space, how about dividing the runs up and giving the largest pekin boy a coop together with the 2 Warrens? As the Warrens are larger than him the 1-2 ratio will be less of an issue, he'll be worn out trying to jump high enough anyway ;)
Then the other pekin boy has 4 girls his own size which is fine. I wouldn't put a pekin hen in with the 2 large birds as she'll be an easy target to get bullied and be miserable.
We had a pekin boy in with large hens once, he tried mating but they could easily brush him off. Size matters ;)
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The other half has said that if I need to build two enclosures and coops, she will make me. I'd rather not.
Why not suggest if it's so important to her that she does it herself?
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There is an inescapable truth that the more stock you have the more inevitable are difficult decisions and actions regarding what " keeping them from harm" actually means you have to do. My sister in law has a similar sized flock with. 2 cockerels and seems to have no problems. You never know. It might work
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I've found that cockerels that are related, as long as they have plenty of room, will spar and size up to each other but not fight visciously.
The only thing I can think of is give it a try and if it doesn't work send one to me!!
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You could try advertising him on here, or are you near any poultry auctions? If the cockerel is a good bird folks do buy them for breeding. Given enough room the cockerels may not fight. We currently have 13 to select our breeding birds from for this year but we house them over Winter with a Peacekeeper - an older, fully mature bird who will automatically become top of the pecking order and prevent fighting. Only downside is that you have to keep them entirely separate from the hens and not have any free range cockerels wandering around or they'll try to kill each other through the run panels.
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This reminds me of two gorgeous marans boys I hatched and decided to keep - one a splash and the other a cuckoo (I had also hatched 3 cuckoo hens) - couldn't believe what the boys did to each other the following spring, it was heartbreaking as one of them had to go.
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I've found that cockerels that are related, as long as they have plenty of room, will spar and size up to each other but not fight visciously.
The only thing I can think of is give it a try and if it doesn't work send one to me!!
I have 3 related cockerels all out of the same hatch, they square up to each other but never fight properly. They have 18 hens between them :)