Animal Lovers Web Blog

Well, it was only a matter of time before our two cockerels decided that life together, sharing our lovely hens, was just a little too close for comfort. Primrose, our baby cockerel (how he got his name is answered elsewhere), is around five months old now and definitely in the throws of sexual maturity.  His not-so-manly crowing still needs some serious working on! Unfortunately, Tiger, our older cockerel is having none of it and is making his feelings very clear.  We have had to intervene to stop any serious fighting and poor Primrose has taken to flying out of the chicken run to escape from harms way.

We had been hopeful that both boys would see sense - they have a huge free-ranging area to live in together with seven hens to share.  In fact, Primrose didn’t seem to take any interest in Tiger’s harem at all and stuck to entertaining our other two hens, Amber and Velvet, that were hatched out at the same time as Primrose.

As an interim measure, our old dog run has been transformed into a chicken house and Primrose the cockerel, Velvet and Amber our hens are now settling into their new accommodation.  Unfortunately, the fencing around the run isn’t as high a challenge as we hoped and I seem to have spent most of the day rounding up chickens who really don’t seem to appreciate that we are trying to do our best for them!

In the end, the scissors had to be sharpened and Primrose, Tiger, Amber and Velvet have all had a lop-sided haircut and said goodbye to their flight feathers.  Problem solved…

…I wish!  Went to lock up the hen “houses” this evening and couldn’t locate Primrose in the dog run.  My worse fear was that he had run away for good and so it was with slightly less anxiety that I was to find him perched back in the old hen house with the other chickens.  Tiger, thankfully, was giving him a wide berth.  Fortunately it was dusk, otherwise I think that he would have had Primrose for supper!!

Poor Primrose doesn’t know if he is coming or going (it’s not surprising with a name like that, I suppose!).  I think that I might have to try trimming his other wing tomorrow and, ultimately, a new home may be the best option for our darling young cockerel in the long run. It really does appear that keeping two cockerels is indeed one too many!

Diane
Animal Lovers Web.com

Well, we finally bit the bullet and decided that we had to try to integrate our new chicks into the main hen house with the older birds. They’re about 10 weeks old now and getting really quite big.  In an attempt to make the transition as smooth as possible, all of our chickens have been mingling together in the run for a couple of weeks now and seem to have to been getting on together pretty well.  The chicks have also been exploring the hen house and helping themselves to food and water.

We decided that the best thing to do would be to close the door to the barn where the chicks normally sleep at night and see if they voluntarily made their way into the hen house.  Unfortunately, we think they may have been at the end of the queue when brains were given out and they just stood around helplessly at the hen house door, looking at the other chickens who had already tucked themselves up for the night!

Once it got really dark, we decided that a helping hand was necessary before they all became supper for any lucky fox that may be around.  After lifting them onto the perch, they seemed to settle down for the night, which was a real relief.   A few timely checks into the evening suggested all was well and we set our alarm clocks early to open the hen house door this morning.

It was with trepidation that we greeted the chicks this morning, but are delighted to say that all three chicks were still happily perching and we were really pleased.  

After a couple of nights assisting the chicks to bed, we hope that we can leave them to their own devices and that they will make their own way into the hen house at night, even if their old barn door is still open.  It seems to be working out ok so far and we are very pleasantly surprised.  Obviously, as Primrose , our cockerel chick gets older, harmony in the hen house may not last forever.  We’ll savour the moments whilst they last!

Diane

www.AnimalLoversWeb.com

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