Pros and Cons of keeping a roo

[CoopBoots]

We've all had those whoops before, our first straight run of 20 chicks was 8 pullets lol

Any access to a wire dog crate?

Seconding this. I almost always jail cockerels during their crazy period, unless I have a good rooster to help keep them in line. It is still a good temporary solution, even if you plan to rehome him, and he can still see the rest of the flock, chat with them, and not feel lonely.

 

[Raubkatze]

Boy - I think I am going to rain on your parade! I see trouble ahead of you. I am betting that is a pre fab coop, and they described it as holding 6 birds. Am I right? I am guessing that the coop size is 3 x 4 feet?

Having the watering system, and feed system placed in the middle, is good. Do you see how they block the view of birds on the opposite side? You need more of that. Right now the only use of the vertical space is the ladder, which is a great addition. You need more. Platforms where birds can get under and on top of basically double the space below. Mini walls - leaned up against the outside wall, can give shade, or act as a hideout. More clutter is better even to the point it is hard for you to walk through.

I am going to strongly advise your to remove the rooster from this set up. Your pullets are not ready for him, there is no where to hide or get out of reach, and the cockerel is only going to get worse not better.

Thing is, your coop is way too small. It is working now, because your birds are not full grown. Many people like you come to this website, when their birds are 6 months old, bewildered because their darling chicks have been raised together, and now are fighting and bullying each other. Some chicken behavior is ugly. It is almost always due to space.

Now, you might be able to remove the rooster a little easier, IF you add a pullet to the deal. That would reduce your flock numbers so that you could get through the long nights of winter.

So what to do? Give them away, and do not ask questions. Once the bird is theirs, it is theirs. Advertise on the feed store wall, or social media. You might contact the local 4-H club for other poultry people, often times there will be someone that is willing to help you out. If they want to feed a family, that is a noble thing.

If you can't give him away, can you or someone else you know dispatch him? You don't have to eat him, if that is repugnant to you, and at this age, there won't be much. I have heard of zoos or exotic animals will sometimes take them. You can bury the bird and plant a rose bush, or wrap him up and put him in the garbage.

The thing is, the sooner the better. Putting him in a dog crate is a good short term solution. But getting him out of your hens is important.

And this is the last drop on your parade, I promise. Occasional free ranging will not make up for a too small set up. In the long nights of winter, my birds roost up at 4:00 pm, and do not come down off the roost until 7:30. That is a lot of time to be squeezed together in too small of a coop. Your run is big enough, but that coop would be much better hold 3 full size birds, not 6.

I know you are not going to want to remove some of the birds, you just got them. But a peaceful flock is a lot of fun, and one where they fight, peck holes in each other is not. Always solve for peace in the flock.

Later, if you build a larger coop, after it is built you can get more. And really that would be better because then your flock is not all the same age. I think a multi-generational flock is the best chicken society.

Mrs K

Yes, it is the dreaded prefab coop. I will summon @Perris who has years of experience with this brand of coop. I did lots of research before I got this one. It came down to the fact that my husband and I do not own any wood working tools and would have had to either a) purchase everything + the wood to attempt to build a structure to house our precious animals as our first wood working project or b) buy something. We settled on buying something and keeping our flock small. So far inside of the coop they seem to have plenty of space as they all love to huddle together. I know the Australorps are not fully grown. I don't know how big the spotted ones will get as they are not what they were advertised as.

I will work on getting more things for them to perch on or hide on.

 

[Raubkatze]

Seconding this. I almost always jail cockerels during their crazy period, unless I have a good rooster to help keep them in line. It is still a good temporary solution, even if you plan to rehome him, and he can still see the rest of the flock, chat with them, and not feel lonely.

I do have a wire dog crate I could keep him in.

 

[Perris]

I am betting that is a pre fab coop, and they described it as holding 6 birds. Am I right? I am guessing that the coop size is 3 x 4 feet?

Thing is, your coop is way too small. It is working now, because your birds are not full grown.

In the long nights of winter, my birds roost up at 4:00 pm, and do not come down off the roost until 7:30. That is a lot of time to be squeezed together in too small of a coop. Your run is big enough, but that coop would be much better hold 3 full size birds, not 6.

Yes, it is the dreaded prefab coop. I will summon @Perris who has years of experience with this brand of coop. I did lots of research before I got this one.

As requested.

FYI @Mrs. K , just the other night some 15 fully grown large fowl chickens here, including a couple of roos, piled into my large lodge (recommended for 8 LF). I had a good look because when shutting up I noticed the other 3 were practically empty. One of those others, designed for 6, had 3 roos and a cockerel in it. Another one had two broodies in the nest boxes. This sort of roosting pattern is not uncommon here, where the flock of nearly 30 have four Nestera coops (3 medium lodges, supposedly for 6, and 1 large, for 8) to roost in as they wish.

And I have been assured, in person, by an officer of the Animal and Plant Health Agency here (part of the Dept Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who regulate the grading and marketing of eggs for sale to the general public), standing in front of the coops discussing this, that if there are sufficient spaces for the number of birds, and THEY CHOOSE to pile into one or another coop however much above the recommended holding capacity for said coop, it is absolutely fine on every welfare measure.

The standards, he assured me, especially the space allowances, are intended for birds who are confined, and who have no choice about where (and with whom) they roost. Fwiw, I find most of my flock prefer to snuggle up tight next to one another even when half the roost space is unoccupied. A bird roosting with space around them is generally a bird unpopular with the rest of the flock, or sick. And our longest nights in winter run from about 4pm to about 8am, so involves the same long times as yours.

So obviously I think the coop will be just fine for the number of birds Raubkatze has. I hope the run won't last long though, as even 1 bird will desolate that small boring space quite quickly.

 

[NatJ]

Thing is, your coop is way too small. It is working now, because your birds are not full grown. Many people like you come to this website, when their birds are 6 months old, bewildered because their darling chicks have been raised together, and now are fighting and bullying each other. Some chicken behavior is ugly. It is almost always due to space.

Occasional free ranging will not make up for a too small set up. In the long nights of winter, my birds roost up at 4:00 pm, and do not come down off the roost until 7:30. That is a lot of time to be squeezed together in too small of a coop. Your run is big enough, but that coop would be much better hold 3 full size birds, not 6.

A point that I think can make a big difference: whether the door of that coop is ever shut.

If someone herds the chickens in before dusk, closes the door, and leaves it that way until morning, the chickens are stuck with each other in that small space.

If the door is always open, the chickens can stay out in the run as late as they like before going to bed, and come out as soon as they wake up in the morning. That means they are only in the coop to actually sleep (plus the time they spend putting themselves to bed.)

If the run is safe enough, leaving that coop door open might make the difference between "it works well enough" and "it fails badly." No guarantees, just another detail that can sometimes tip the balance one way or another.

The common estimates of 4 square feet per bird in the coop are often adequate for the birds to stay inside for multiple days at a stretch. If they really can go out of the coop every waking minute, every single day of the year, they can usually get by without as much space inside the coop.

 

[ChaosMom]

As requested.

FYI @Mrs. K , just the other night some 15 fully grown large fowl chickens here, including a couple of roos, piled into my large lodge (recommended for 8 LF). I had a good look because when shutting up I noticed the other 3 were practically empty. One of those others, designed for 6, had 3 roos and a cockerel in it. Another one had two broodies in the nest boxes. This sort of roosting pattern is not uncommon here, where the flock of nearly 30 have four Nestera coops (3 medium lodges, supposedly for 6, and 1 large, for 8) to roost in as they wish.

And I have been assured, in person, by an officer of the Animal and Plant Health Agency here (part of the Dept Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who regulate the grading and marketing of eggs for sale to the general public), standing in front of the coops discussing this, that if there are sufficient spaces for the number of birds, and THEY CHOOSE to pile into one or another coop however much above the recommended holding capacity for said coop, it is absolutely fine on every welfare measure.

The standards, he assured me, especially the space allowances, are intended for birds who are confined, and who have no choice about where (and with whom) they roost. Fwiw, I find most of my flock prefer to snuggle up tight next to one another even when half the roost space is unoccupied. A bird roosting with space around them is generally a bird unpopular with the rest of the flock, or sick. And our longest nights in winter run from about 4pm to about 8am, so involves the same long times as yours.

So obviously I think the coop will be just fine for the number of birds Raubkatze has. I hope the run won't last long though, as even 1 bird will desolate that small boring space quite quickly.

I definitely foresee a second Nestera in my future. lol

They completely defy all the guidance here at BYC (which I greatly respect), and my birds love theirs. However, I can see that adding new pullets as time goes by will be tricky in the coop, until the new ones start laying. So probably just getting a second when we do that and let them choose.

Love the low maintenance!

For what it’s worth, I have started to regard our 8’ X 15’ run, which is completely covered with hardware cloth, as an open-air coop, half of which is covered with a tarp, and the Nestera is simply the bedroom.


Edited to correct the horror of the missing comma

 

[Perris]

A point that I think can make a big difference: whether the door of that coop is ever shut.

If someone herds the chickens in before dusk, closes the door, and leaves it that way until morning, the chickens are stuck with each other in that small space.

If the door is always open, the chickens can stay out in the run as late as they like before going to bed, and come out as soon as they wake up in the morning. That means they are only in the coop to actually sleep (plus the time they spend putting themselves to bed.)

If the run is safe enough, leaving that coop door open might make the difference between "it works well enough" and "it fails badly." No guarantees, just another detail that can sometimes tip the balance one way or another.

The common estimates of 4 square feet per bird in the coop are often adequate for the birds to stay inside for multiple days at a stretch. If they really can go out of the coop every waking minute, every single day of the year, they can usually get by without as much space inside the coop.

I think you are missing my point. There is no run here. When I close the coops I close the door - and there may be 15 or so large fowl including roos in it, till dawn, when I come along and open it.

If you care to peruse any of the photos of my flock that I post on various threads and in competitions, I think anyone can see they do not suffer any ill effects from roosting in these coops.

 

[Perris]

the Nestera is simply the bedroom

exactly. And they only go into it when they are ready to sleep, and are let out of it when the sun rises. They do wake earlier - roos prove that - but they are fine in there till dawn.

 

[NatJ]

I think you are missing my point. There is no run here. When I close the coops I close the door - and there may be 15 or so large fowl including roos in it, till dawn, when I come along and open it.

If you care to peruse any of the photos of my flock that I post on various threads and in competitions, I think anyone can see they do not suffer any ill effects from roosting in these coops.

I was addressing @Mrs. K who said the OP's coop was "too small." I saw some statements, and I think I also detected some assumptions, about how much time the chickens spend inside the coop, and I was trying to address that specific aspect of it. (And I did quote the bit I was responding to, trying to make it clear exactly what I was addressing.)

As regards your point, your experience is that the coop works fine for your chickens. That shows it can work sometimes. That does not show that it will work in all cases. So I did not see a need to say anything either way about it.

 

[Perris]

I was addressing @Mrs. K who said the OP's coop was "too small." I saw some statements, and I think I also detected some assumptions, about how much time the chickens spend inside the coop, and I was trying to address that specific aspect of it. (And I did quote the bit I was responding to, trying to make it clear exactly what I was addressing.)

As regards your point, your experience is that the coop works fine for your chickens. That shows it can work sometimes. That does not show that it will work in all cases. So I did not see a need to say anything either way about it.

apologies; you were indeed addressing Mrs K. My mistake.