introducing a cockerel

[roadkill]

im wanting to introduce a cockerel into my hen house with my nine lady's

As its a cock bird will i just be able to put it straight into the run and it will take its place at the top of the order or will the girls gang up on it?

Also will the eggs still be ok to eat even though they will be fertilized ?

Any other tips on getting a cockerel would be great my hens are warrens

[Birdie Wife]

Depends how old it is and partly the breed... if it's a young one then there is a good chance that the ladies will bully it, as they would any other new introduction, but a yearling bird that is mostly mature should be heavier than the ladies and able to take care of himself until the flock dynamics sort themselves out.

The eggs will be fine to eat as the embyo does not start to develop until the egg is brooded. If any of your ladies go broody and start sitting on the eggs, they are still okay to eat as long as you remove them every day. I think that by law you are not allowed to sell eggs from hens that have been running with a cockerel but they are still fine for personal consumption.

What do your neighbours think? Or are you lucky enough not to have any

They can be noisy blighters - mine start crowing at 3am in the summer, and some even crow when its dark but that depends on the individual bird. Type of cockerel depends largely on why you want one!

[Two_Sheds]

Why do you want a cockerel? Are you going to breed? If not, don't bother. Noisy ruddy things.

You can still eat fertilised eggs, if you're not squeamish about that little spot of blood in the yolk.
They're called Balut in the Phillipines (I googled it). "Balut is a popular Filipino street snack and is essentially a duck egg with a fetus inside, typically between 17-20 days old. In the Philippines balut is so popular that it is equivalent to what the hot dog is in the U.S." There's pictures: Deep End Dining: Balut. The Egg of Darkness. Pinoy-Pinay. Panorama City, CA.

[roadkill]

Why do you want a cockerel? Are you going to breed? If not, don't bother. Noisy ruddy things.

You can still eat fertilised eggs, if you're not squeamish about that little spot of blood in the yolk.
They're called Balut in the Phillipines (I googled it). "Balut is a popular Filipino street snack and is essentially a duck egg with a fetus inside, typically between 17-20 days old. In the Philippines balut is so popular that it is equivalent to what the hot dog is in the U.S." There's pictures: Deep End Dining: Balut. The Egg of Darkness. Pinoy-Pinay. Panorama City, CA.

I want one now so i can get it ready for the table at christmas but i didnt fancy building another coop and run just for that reason .. The allotment im putting them on is in the middle of knowhere and already houses quite a few cockerels

[Hilary B]

DON'T put a pre-eating cockerel in with a bunch of mature hens. It would be like putting a teenage lad into the WI meeting (ie SCAREY!!!) I wouldn't recommend a now-mature cockerel as Christmas dinner anyway, and especially if he gets housed with all those hens. Either he will spend his life running away from them, or he will do what a cockerel does as often as he can, and either way he will end up tough to eat!
BTW, fertilised eggs do NOT look any different when fresh. It's only after a few days of brooding that they show changes (and I would be put off by the changes)

[roadkill]

so it looks like i will need a seperate coop then , more work lol

[Two_Sheds]

this may be a daft question ... why don't you just eat one of your hens for Xmas dinner?