Hi folks.
I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with your flock and another flock coming in contact. My neighbors have a flock of meat birds. They are mostly penned in. They are keeping a few of the skinnier ones over the winter ( for company for their bonus chick from Murray McMurray, LOL) I know that several of them are roosters . They Today I saw their chickens start to foray into my yard for the first time. I don't care if they come over, I think they are great. My question is will they fight with my girls? Also, will one or more of their roosters eventually come over and claim my girls? What do you think? The roos are immature right now, they have just started crowing. I don't have any roosters in my flock. THoughts?
Flock intermingling with neighbor's. Should I be worried?
Well, it's sort of problematic, though you seem to be laid-back enough to deal with it. I think there is a good possibility the roos will start staking claims very soon. While he may try to bring hens over to his place, I think it's more likely he'll start roosting with yours (unless he's one of those bred so the breast is too large for walking, let alone roosting).
Another thing to figure out is if you'll be letting your hens set and whether you want chicks that are a mix of layers and meat birds.
I would not let my birds be mingling with neighbors cuz they can be sick -they can make your birds sick as well...and ya will have a problem..Roos..uh oh...they can go after the hens and ya will have bunch of baby chickens..lol..
I am on the caution side and just won't let anybody's birds mingle with mine...unless I get new diease free birds to add to my flock...
Hmm....you are all probably right. I don't let my chickens set on their eggs, so no babies right now. Plus, most of mine are still pullets, so we only get 2 eggs a day max :)
Of course, I wouldn't really mind stealing my neighbor's roo if heis a good one :)
They haven't come over today. They seem to still be really cautious around eachother. I go back to school in a few days, and the girls have to stay in their pen when I am not home. I'll have to keep thinknig about it.......
I would ask if they have ever had any disease problems and tell them what is going on. Don't be hateful about it, just tell them you are wanting to know and that it is in their interests too to know that their birds are mingling with other birds. Having a rooster doesn't mean you have to let the hens set on eggs. Provided they are a breed that is inclined to hatching eggs. Some breeds are not setters at all. Others will set on a small ball or walnut half of the summer before figuring out it will never hatch. I wouldn't get up tight about it at all unless they have or have recently had disease problems.
But, what if one of your hens gets broody on a hidden nest, disappears for 3 weeks, and returns with a bunch of chicks, half-meat breed?!
I dunno, but I wouldn't like meat birds fathering chicks in my flock.
If they raise them for meat, chances are, they are healthy poultry. But it certainly wouldn't hurt to ask to be sure.
If mine came up with half meat breed, I'd probably let the neighbor have them..........they would probably add them to their flock or butcher them. I'd just joke with them and just tell them it's kinda like when a young man comes courtin' your daughters........................................
"Uh.......what's your intentions here, Young fella ?" "Now that we have this 'situation', what cha gonna do 'bout it?" LOL
In other words, I probably wouldn't worry about it much, as long as my gals came home to roost, and everybody is healthy. Most chickens know where they're supposed to call home when the sun goes down. You may indeed acquire a rooster.
I hope it all works out for you.
Appreciate all the info. Here is another ignorant question. Why would having half meat/half egg chicks be a bad thing?
I had sort of thought that I might borrow a rooster for a while in the spring and see if I could get some eggs to hatch, but if people think it is a bad idea, please tell me!
Meat birds grow faster than egg bearing chickens??? My Buff Orps are slower growing than meat birds...
Yeah, they are definitely WAY bigger than my buff and the other ladies. Are meat birds unhealthy in the long run, if they are not slaughtered? It seems like their meat birds are very obese! (Which is good for chicken dinner, but not for chickens walking around)
Yeah, meat birds usually have a hard time. Sometimes they're too heavy for their legs and they suffer with broken legs.
The new cornish crosses have a really bad time of it. They're not bred to make it past a certain age. Seems immoral to breed an animal that way, but everyone pays for the almighty white chicken breast...
Yeah, some of them seem really way too heavy for their own good. The roosters are pretty skinny though, how weird!
You might want to think about some cross breeds that may hopefully pick up the best of both types. Or just get some dual purpose chickens like Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons, Plymoth Rocks, etc. They are good layers, make good mothers most of the time and are big enough to be worth butchering.
Yeah, I don't have any actually plans to breed them, I am just getting ready for if and when one of the gentlemen from next door moves in LOL!
So it happened today! We were building an addition to the coop and a gentleman caller came over from next door to scope the place out. We left and when we got home this evening, we were all excited to see if any of the girls had used the nest boxes. Guess who we found inside?? You guessed it! So we now officially stole our negihbor's young rooster :) He's going to stay with us until he gets mean, then they have offered to slaughter and eat him. So hopefully he'll stay nice and we can have a roo around! :)
It was so funny to see a rooster all settled down in our new nest boxes!