Cockerel Integration
Many people think that you cannot keep cockerels together or even keep them with hens. Cockerels will take on a number of wives (hens) and look afer them - even alerting them to the dangers of birds of prey, foxes etc. If a hen hatches a cockerel or cockerels they will live happily together only if there is enough space and hens for them to share. If you do not have enough space for extra cockerels you should not be allowing your hens to sit on eggs! You will never get 100% hen chicks.
At the Retreat the cockerel is the creature we are most asked to take in. Breeders dump their birds everywhere and anywhere and some will even murder their birds by ringing their necks!
Cockerels will live in all male groups if they are provided the space, food and freedom that they want. They are beautiful and make a wonderful noise (sometimes at 4 o'clock in the morning).
The two main reasons why people get rid of their cockerels is because they are noisy (and therefore non animal friendly neighbours complain) or that they do not earn their keep by producing an egg a day.
If you already have a cockerel and want to introduce another from outside you will need to bring the new one in with some other hens. Keep the two groups apart at first, but somewhere that they can see each other. After about a week to ten days let them out together. They will fight a little at first and this is no different to new hens arriving. However, if the fights are causing injuries then you should remove them and try again later.
At the Retreat large numbers of cockerels live together and get on very well, even choosing to sleep in large groups of cockerels only.
New cockerels are kept in pens in the area where they all sleep so that each bird can start to build a relationship through the wire before release. When we're ready to release the new cockerel we add extra food to distract the main group and let the newcomer out.
There will always be hierarchy with all creatures - including hens!