Hatching Eggs Now

[Guest]

^^^^just to add, lots of cockerals can live happily together (as long as it is strictly no hens)

[kimble]

Very interesting thread!

Just out of interest:

1. can you neuter a cockerel?
2. can the cockerels not be kept alongside the hens? Obviously the eggs will be fertilised, but if not sat on by the chicken will they not just be a 'normal' egg? Is this an aggression thing rather than an egg thing?

If your flock truly free ranges you want two cockerels ideally - but if they fight to the point of injury one has to go. A hen has to eat and eat to get the surplus to lay eggs, the rooster needs much less - and what he does is watch wile the hens scratch about. If a good bird he scans the sky and land constantly looking for predators. They have an odd cluck they can make which is amazing in the response - every hen will explode into action and hide under something, or fly into trees.

Then the male will feed the hens if he finds something good, making a little different clucks and the hens will run over to see what he has for them. Ideally he will attack a small predator which has a hen - but mostly not unless he is a fighting bird - and then he will attack you too, so not so good.

So for the flock well being a cockerel is good, the hens like their male, and it makes them a family - although not needed.

They make a band to reduce cockerel noise I think, but you have to just isolate them at night and only let them out of the dark cage mid-day if you want them to be quite - someone I know who lives in a built up place does this. The bird is picked up off his perch at night and put into a dark box till later in the day, and the neighbors are fine with it, if they complained it would have to go, but it works great. But then some are loud and some not so much. Mine are concert grade loud.

[Scarlet]

I had a sick cockeral once. I kept him in a closed cardboard box overnight in the dining room boys weren't best pleased with me! He was still very loud !

[Lisasbolt]

Juan my chicken man, always tries to give me a cockerel for free but i love my sleep too much and i do not think my ladies would like loosing their virginity at such an old age think they might get quite a shock

[Scarlet]

Lisa, I can't hear mine! Peeps come to stay and say that "bl@@dy cockeral"" or those cows were so LOUD! Never hear a thing.......