Ameraucana Breeders Club
The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club => Ameraucana Marketplace => Topic started by: Blue Egg Acres on February 03, 2011, 11:25:35 AM
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Just wondering how the rest of you keep your extra cock birds? Do you run them altogether or pen them separately? If you run them together do you just let them fight it out? I have more than I have pens to keep them separate.
BTW I have several 2010 hatch wheaten and blue wheaten cockerels available. Contact me if interested.
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Barbara,
I find if you never seperate them, they work a pecking order out before before it gets too out of hand.
Once I have seperated them, I keep mine seperate. I have six seperate \"rooster boxes\" and a couple grow out pens that I keep the cockerels and roosters in.
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I\'ve been leaving two cocks per coop of 8 - 12 or so hens. 1 cock rules the roost, while the other spends most of the time out of the way on the roost.
With some matings I rotate cocks in and out of breeding coops and sometimes keep extra LF cocks in a coop/pen together (bantam cocks in another coop). The pecking order has to get reestablished each time one is taken out and one is added. The neat part is they may get bloodied up, but they learn to back down rather than fight to the end. You can try to level the playing field some by taking out the \"alpha\" cock for a day when a new one comes in the coop. There are several ways to help make the transitions a bit smoother.
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If you have to pen roosters together that have been apart, put at least a half dozen or more together for the first time at the same time. That way everybody is fighting everybody, and none get beat up all that badly. It\'s chaos at first, but they soon settle down. I call it the apocalypse method.
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I call it the apocalypse method.
LOVE IT!!
I don\'t have much choice but to pen mine together - space is pretty limited - and they seem to work it out pretty quick.
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\"rooster boxes\".
Jean, can you describe and/or post pics of these when you have the time? Thanks!
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Thanks Mike for the funny. First time I have laughed out loud for a while. I\'ve got the winter blues......
Barbara here is a sample picture of some we made a while back. You would want to tweek it a bit to fit your needs. I don\'t like the way my doors are put on, I would rather they open to the side.
All my show cocks go in these.
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Yeah, I think I would get some different hinges and put 2 on the sides of each door, plus move or replace the latches. They should be easy to clean and pretty much draft free.
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Thanks for the pic Jean. And thanks to everyone for your in[ut.
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Here are a couple photos of a wire coop mounted on the wall in a breeding coop with several birds. This coop has an angled floor so eggs roll out to the front, but now I am just using it to house an extra cock.
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I\'ve been leaving two cocks per coop of 8 - 12 or so hens. 1 cock rules the roost, while the other spends most of the time out of the way on the roost.
With some matings I rotate cocks in and out of breeding coops and sometimes keep extra LF cocks in a coop/pen together (bantam cocks in another coop). The pecking order has to get reestablished each time one is taken out and one is added. The neat part is they may get bloodied up, but they learn to back down rather than fight to the end. You can try to level the playing field some by taking out the \"alpha\" cock for a day when a new one comes in the coop. There are several ways to help make the transitions a bit smoother.
When there are two cocks in the pen, how much of the breeding do you think the subordinate cock accounts for? Any?
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Very little. With the coop area in the barn and wired pen area outside there are times when one cock is inside and one is out...the subordinate one could get lucky if he is fast and gutsy.
The idea isn\'t to have both breed, but to have the backup bird in case something happens to the #1 cock.
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Thanks for the pics John. I think we\'ll put some of these together.
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I also use them to put broody hens in until they start laying again. This keeps them out of the nest boxes and the wire bottoms help to dissuade them from setting.
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Barbara,
I can keep up to three together. They usually work out the pecking order fast. I usually try to keep two and let the others free range with my laying chickens until I need them.
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Barbara,
It\'s off topic, but I have that new (used) incubator up and running. I converted it to an electronic thermostat, put a window in the door and made some other fixes. The GQF models all look alike, but it is the 4th from the left. Have you started up the one you bought yet?
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John,
It\'s cleaned and setup and runs and heats fine. I\'m really late getting my breed pens setup this year though so don\'t have any eggs in it yet.