Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: chicken george25 on January 11, 2012, 13:03

Title: Should i get a cockerel
Post by: chicken george25 on January 11, 2012, 13:03

I have 4 girls and my neighbour has a cockerel he comes round to my girls everyday about 6 times a day, now he cant get to them but they all huddle up in a corner when he is in the garden and when he comes up to there fence they huddle next to him is this a sign that they are broody? should i get a cockerel?

any advice would be excellent


Edited to correct spelling of "cockerel" for search purposes.

Title: Re: Should i get a cockral
Post by: joyfull on January 11, 2012, 13:21

do you want to breed with your hens?
If so do you have the facilities to house a broody hen and her chicks?
Can you cope with at least half of the chicks being male?
Cockerels are very hard to re-home and you don't want to mate brother to sister so culling will be inevitable.

Title: Re: Should i get a cockerel
Post by: Sassy on January 12, 2012, 08:18

Quote from: chicken george25 on January 11, 2012, 13:03

I have 4 girls and my neighbour has a cockerel he comes round to my girls everyday about 6 times a day, now he cant get to them but they all huddle up in a corner when he is in the garden and when he comes up to there fence they huddle next to him is this a sign that they are broody? should i get a cockerel?

any advice would be excellent


Edited to correct spelling of "cockerel" for search purposes.

Your girls are just doing what comes naturally but they do not 'need' a cockerel. Joy's advice is very sound and you would be wise to consider it carefully. The other disadvantage to having a cockerel is that he might keep your girls away from you as they can be very protective. This makes keeping a close eye on them for health reasons harder. :)

Title: Re: Should i get a cockerel
Post by: joyfull on January 12, 2012, 08:30

whilst not meaning to put anybody off from having a cockerel and breeding their birds I will just point out that over the last 3 weeks I have had to cull 14 cockerels (this includes the last remaining 2 that go tonight) and managed to re-home another 4. These are all from last years hatches. Some more were culled for me when I had a couple of mink attacks, so you can end up with an awful lot of boys and a lot of heartbreak  :( .
I have just got to make sure that none of my hens go broody and sneak off to hatch any eggs over the next 3 weeks.