Help - Cockerel!

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Tubaman

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This is a little bit of a long winded story but some advice is needed.....

We currently have 12 chickens - 4 Warrens (age of 3 unkown, about 18 months 1 warren 25 weeks), 1 Cream Legbar (20 weeks - not laying yet), 2 Polish (12 weeks), 2 Araucanas (12 weeks) and 3 Pekin Bantams (10 Weeks?).

We have been keeping chickens for nearly 2 years and have lost a few (too many) to Mr Fox but have learnt a lot along the way and love our present flock. When we bought our bantams, there were 2 'normal' bantams and a frizzle. My wife desperately wanted the frizzle - the farmer told us that he wasn't sure if the frizzle was a cockerel or not and he would give him to us free of charge. If he turned out to be a cockerel we could return him or keep him, what ever we wanted to do.

This morning, it crowed!

Ok so here are the many questions....

1) Will his crows get louder? Our next door neighbours didn't hear him this morning! Also how often is he likely to crow?

2) We eat our eggs (and sell them to friends), do we have to keep the cockerel away from the eggs we intend to eat? (might be a daft question but I really have no experience in this field!_)

3) If we were to keep him, I would quite like to breed some chickens (thinking with the Poland) is this possible and a good/bad idea?

4) If I do have to segregate him from eggs we eat - when do I have to start?

5) Will he try it on with any egg?

6) If we keep him to breed, do I house him with the Poland - and then can he free range with the other birds as long as he does not get to the other eggs?


Any experience or knowledge would be gratefully appreciated and I apologise for so many (quite possibly stupid) questions but when it comes to cockerels I know nothing!!!

Thanks in advance
 
1. If he is a youngster then his crows may get louder, but the only way to tell is to live with it for a bit. He will crow whenever he feels like it. The worst bit is usually the very early morning crow as dawn breaks because in summer this is way too early for most neighbours.
2. You don't need to keep him separate. It is perfectly safe to eat fertile eggs. Eggs need 21 days in very warm (ie 37-39 degrees) and slightly moist conditions to develop, not the conditions many of us keep our houses or our eating eggs in.
3. The only thing about mating him with a poland or anything else which isn't a frizzle is that you will get cross-breeds as a result. It is very difficult indeed to sell/give away cross breed cockerals, particularly small bantams as people won't want to grow them on for food. You must think seriously about plans for the boys as if/when the FTGH option doesn't work then you are left with despatch, or giving away as reptile/raptor food for example.
4. Segregation not necessary
5. He will try it on with any hen ;)
6. Personally, if you have room then I would keep him with the whole of the flock for most of the time, but separate him and the polands into a trio when you are ready to collect eggs for incubation. This purely for ease, I find it easier to keep one flock, but for breeding purposes 12 hens is too many to be sure he will be fertilising the polands.
 
If you want to produce crossbreds, would the Pekins perhaps be suitable? Alternatively. If he is a pretty boy and you want to breed from him, you could get a couple of Frizzle girls and then produce saleable chicks. (Good excuse for getting more hens?) But do think carefully about the long-term consequences of breeding chicks. Would,you feel, able to cull sweet little unwanted boys? Because you are likely to be faced with this dilemma.
It would be best to wait until next Spring before planning any hatches, to give him time to mature and get fully fertile, also this end of the year isn't good for hatching chicks. Best to wait until the warmer months are coming for them to grow in. By then, you would also know whether you want to keep him. The early morning crowing is only a problem in summer, when he will start at around 4-5 a.m. waking people whose bedroom windows are open. But some cockerels do crow persistently during the day - we used to live two doors away from one who really stopped us enjoying being in our garden because he crowed nonstop. Our next door neighbour nearly had a nervous breakdown because of it. You will just have to wait and see what yours turns out like!
Good advice from Mrs. Biscuit about improving fertility by separating him with his wives, whoever they turn out to be, but if you do this it will be best to wait couple of weeks for the hens to get well impregnated before beginning to collect eggs for incubation. Hens store sperm, so you can improve fertility by letting it build up. Maybe with bantams you may get lucky and one or more of the selected hens will g broody and save you the cost of an incubator.
 
Thank you both for your replies. I have thought about what we would do with the 'little boys' should we hatch any. What do people normally do, just cull them themselves?
I would also like it if the hens hatched out the chicks, is this unlikely or should I be thinking of getting a Silkie - eventually!

If I were to breed, then am I understanding correctly that I need to cross a Frizzle Pekin with another Frizzle Pekin so I don't get crossbred.

Would a Frizzle Pekin Cockerel and a Poland hen produce a Frizzle Poland??

I realise these questions may sound daft but just to reiterate I have know knowledge of breeding!! ;)

Also why is it always trios that chickens are sold/kept in?

thanks again for your helpful answers :-)
 
Hi Tubaman. Keeping a pair results in the one hen being trodden to death. Trios and the two hens are less battered but still damaged, so that is the breeding minimum. Quartets (which is all we keep) result in one hen being 'favourite' so we remove her for a while or fit a saddle. I think 6 hens with a cockerel is about right.

Cross breeding is fraught with disaster. The anticipated results can be far off what you expected. Even breeding apparent like-for-like can throw up previous crosses you were not aware of. We are very careful of the breeding parents so we don't end up with a load of worthless offspring.
 
You won't get a frizzle poland from putting the frizzled pekin cockeral with the poland hen. To get a poland you need 2 poland parents. Instead, you will get a crossbreed which may or may not have a [partial] crest (like a poland) [partly] feathered legs (like a pekin) and it may or may not be frizzled/partly frizzled. It really isn't a good idea, nobody will want the boys.

You want to put the frizzle pekin boy to your smooth pekin hens - I realise I said in answer 3 above he needs to go to a frizzle, but I meant to type pekin, so apologies for that :oops: If you put frizzle to frizzle you often end up with frazzle! [not a technical term :-)07 ] The frizzling goes a bit haywire and becomes too much, or can be patchy etc.

So, the next question is what colour are these pekins? Some colours work fine together, others can throw up surprises - some good, some less so.
 
Thank you again for the replies, re Marigold - the crows are doing well, all my direct neighbours love the idea of a cockerel and I have strict instructions not to get rid of him!!
However, I was watching him this morning and he crowed, as I turned my back he crowed again but slightly differently. I turned around only to find another pekin crowing on top of the coop!!

Obviously I know I can't keep 2 cockerels together but my eyes have been opened to having a cockerel and breeding so this is my plan and I am wondering if some advice/thoughts can be given....

The cockerels can be taken back to where I bought them (the deal was if they did turn out to be boys then they could be returned), I am thinking of returning both and then getting an Araucana cockerel as we already have 2 of these hens and they are beautiful birds.

Does anyone have experience with this breed, are Araucana cockerels likely to be more noisy or violent? Would I need to get a few more Araucana hens and could they all live in the same coop/run?

Sorry for daft questions again!
 
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