New rooster and new coop

We brought a new rooster home yesterday. His name is Jack. He's probably about 4 years old. We got him from some folks that are having to sell all their sheep and their farm, and they just wanted a good home for Jack so we took him. They thought he might be a Barred Rock, but he's clearly not Barred. Maybe a Silver-Penciled Rock? Or a cross breed of some kind. He's very tame though, and very gentle with the hens. None of their hens were bare-backed at all, unlike our hens who had to put up with our former rooster, who became dinner earlier this week.

Anyway, here he is:

And another view:

We also are building a second chicken coop. Here are some pictures of it in progress.

This was what it looked like this morning when we started working on it again.

Here it is about halfway through the day.

And here it is where we left off at the end of the day. The rain had been threatening all day, so we tarped it.

Wonderful pictures. I wish I could put up a nice coop that fast! And Jack looks like every hen's dream roo!

That is one beautiful bird!! He looks like he's derived from some barred crosses...

Jack is beautiful! Great catch!

What a handsome man! (And it looks as if he knows it.) Will Jack get to preside over the new coop?

He is so handsome! I hope one of the roosters that we are raising will good to the girls and not like the one we had to find a home for,he tore the feathers of there backs and they still have not grown back,he would even chase them down untill they gave in and hold onto them and would tear chunks out of there heads.

The new coop is for some new pullets we started, which are 4 weeks old today (which is why the coop is going up so fast! :) Jack will get to mix and mingle with them when they are older. Eventually we'll move the new pullets in with the older hens (and thin out the older flock) and they'll all be in the main coop. But this coop might be good for the ducks, or we can use it for raising broilers, or whatever we need it for.

Green, your rooster sounds like our other one. He was really rough on the hens, and I wonder if some of them will ever grow all their feathers back. Jack has a bit of a limp, and his feet aren't quite right - they said he got frostbite at one point, so that may be why he's not inclined to chase the hens down. The former owner said that her hens would solicit him and he'd calmly take care of business and never rip out any feathers.

He has a really funny crow. Sort of sounds like a loud kazoo. :-)

Grow, I was thinking barred cross too. Whatever he is, he's very pretty. And so tame. You can walk up to him and just pick him up and carry him around. He's a little wary of us yet, but I'm sure he'll get used to us soon.

We have one particular SL Wyandotte hen that thinks she's all that and a bag of chips. She challenged Jack when he first appeared, just like another rooster would. Neck feathers flared out and jumping up at him. But he quickly established that he was the new boss, and with a minimum of fuss. And everyone settled right down.

Great looking Rooster, and a great looking coop also. looks like you have two jacks, jack the rooster, and jack of all trades. You really scored big time. Gallesfarm, but I'm sure you deserve it. Haystack

That's funny Hay. :) Both DH and I have become Jacks of all trades more or less out of necessity. Although he's still better at it than me, just because he's had more exposure, growing up with an older brother and parents and grandparents who built their own houses, etc. But he says he suffers from "youngest child syndrome" which is that as the youngest, he always got to watch, but rarely got to actually help. I think he does OK though. :)

I like his work, and I really enjoy the pic's of men showing their handiwork for the ladies they love. It makes feel good. Hay

That is a beautiful rooster. I'm glad he's good to the hens. I am so new to all this that I didn't know that some roosters are rapists. That's terrible. Poor hens. I'm glad this rooster is gentle and sweet with the girls. I don't have any roosters. I am not sure I want any. I have a dozen hens.

Loon, I like roosters for their decorative value. But, good ones also keep order in the flock, watch for predators, call the hens when they find food, etc. And, they don't chase the hens all the time. You don't need a rooster though, unless of course you want chicks!

Maybe someday I can get a rooster that has a proven record of being nice. Lots of people see to be willing to get rid of extra roosters. I could never let anything hurt my hens.

I don't want any chicks. I've already got 4 too many hens to fit into my coop. I thought some would die but none have. I'm going to have to make an indoor exercise pen and add extra roosts for them before winter comes.

Loon, how big is your coop?

I have a rooster ordered with my hens...mostly because the house I grew up in had a rooster at the neighbors house and I miss the sound of them :-) how will I be able to tell when an egg is fertile and which ones are not. do I need to keep my rooster separated from my hens for part of the year (that would be fine I have 2 coops) I've been so busy worrying about the coops and set up that it seems I've forgotten to worry about this small detail....

My coop is small. It was designed for 8 hens. Today I got an idea to take an old ice fishing shanty and convert it into a second coop. We're working on it. THe outside wood was rotted so we pulled all that off and we'll put new wood up. The inside wood was fine. They had a long bench all the way around the structure. I figure that will be good for roosting on. I'll somehow connect to two chicken coops and that way they can go in and out of each one and take their pick and have more room to spread out. Both coops will be inside the old barn. The shingled roof on it is still good not that it matters since it will be inside. We took the skis off the bottom of it. Maybe we should have left them on. We could have taken the chickens for ride in the snow come winter. **hee hee hee** We're going to put rollers on the bottom so I can easily move it out to get in to clean the smaller coop. The ice fishing shanty is six feet high and 7 feet long and 5 1/2 feet wide.

Here's a pic of the chicks (now at 5.5 weeks old) in the new coop. We made it so there is a door on both ends. I've stapled chicken wire inside the one end so I can open the door for ventilation and so they have a "screen door" of sorts. I've taken the picture from that end, through the holes in the chicken wire.

Another chick pic:

That looks like a great setup. I like how you suspend the watering container. I think I'll do that too. They are so messy with the pine shavings. Right now their watering container is out in their exercise pen with no shavings so it stays clean but for winter they're coming inside the barn. They sure grow up fast.

That's actually the feeder, but the same reasoning applies! Keeps the shavings out! The waterer in the pic is the small plastic thing you see in the corner in the second photo. It's since been changed to a regular galvanized 2 gallon waterer. It's up on a cement block to keep it above the shavings.

An awesome coop! I've become fascinated with the carpentry of chicken coops. Maybe some day I'll have a nice one too.