Raising chickens for beginners not only includes day-old chicks but also the results about eight weeks later as those chicks turn into gangly little cockerels and pullets with scruffy feathers, big feet (especially the males) and attitudes—constantly bopping each other with their wings or using their tiny beaks as weapons.
Welcome to the world of teenage chickens, that in-between stage when our chooks are no longer chicks but also aren’t full-fledged (pun intended) roosters and hens. This time is also when the mother hen and her offspring seem to mutually agree that the time of mama shepherding them through their day is kaput.
Raising Chickens for Beginners: Teenage Behavior
Tom Watkins, president of McMurray Hatchery, gives insight on raising chickens for beginners during their teenage time.
“Basically around 6 to 8 weeks after hatching, the mother hen senses it’s time to stop protecting her chicks,” he says. “If the mother and her young are in a run with other hens and their young flocks, the hen may not even know or care which chicks were once hers.
Also Read: 3 Reasons To Raise Chickens
“On the other hand, the former chicks are no longer looking for their mother to provide protection or food. Besides, the mother is likely no longer giving the food cluck to her young. If she’s found some kind of bug, for example, she’s likely eating it herself.”
This new independent time can illicit some interesting behaviors as teenagers are chest bumping fellow flock mates and even their mothers. For the mothers, they can show the teenagers who’s boss with some beak pecks to the offender.
According to Watkins, “After the mother hen is through raising her chicks, she is still going to want to be on top of the pecking order. It’s instinctive.”
More Space = Less Conflict
Watkins relates that conflicts among teenage chickens become fewer if birds can be put out to pasture. When a teenage chook has a chance to escape its tormenting flock members, skirmishes are less likely as each pullet and cockerel is off doing its proverbial own thing. Indeed, at this contentious stage of chicken development, letting birds range about for a few hours every day is one of the best ways to defuse issues among flock members.
Also Read: 7 Chicken Breeds to Raise for Colorful Eggs
“I don’t care whether you have six birds or 200, letting your chickens free-range for at least a short time every day is good for them and heads off problems that result from being cooped up,” Watkins says.
“Being outside on pasture also helps chicks and teenagers develop earlier. The birds seem to feather out sooner, as well, and their foraging skills develop quicker. I believe that chicks raised under a heat lamp are the slowest ones to develop. Being outside and on pasture helps chickens develop in a survival-of-the-fittest-type way.
“Being outside also helps develop your chicken’s curiosity. There is so more to do outside: searching for bugs and seeds, for example. I also think being outside at a younger age enables birds to leave their mother hen earlier in their lives. But that’s just an opinion.”
Raising Chickens for Beginners: Teenage Changes
Two of the more interesting aspects, when a chick transitions into the teenage period, are the development of sex-related anatomy and behavior change.
1. Combs & Wattles
“People send pictures all the time to McMurray Hatchery wanting us to identify whether a chick is a male or female,” Watkins says. “Some people claim that they can sex chicks when they’re 2 weeks old, but I’m much more confident about predicting their sex when the chicks are about 6 weeks of age. The wattles and combs of the cockerels are well developed by that age.
“But, on the other hand, some roosters and hens are much slower to develop, and it’s very easy to make a mistake when that is the case. A lot of people will get fooled when they see the first little stub of a comb appear, and they think that has to belong to a rooster. But that little comb could turn out to belong to a fast-developing hen.”
During the teenage period, both sexes’ growth rates continue to be quite rapid. By week 16, the general advice is that we should stop giving our young flocks chick feed and replace it with layer rations.
2. Aggression
This time also brings forth another behavior – aggression.
“At 16 weeks, cockerels can become more sexually aggressive toward the hens and more combative with each other as their hormones rise,” Watkins says. “A lot of young roosters like to fight with each other.”
By weeks 20 to 22, if not before, breeding attempts will be common among teenage males. The cockerels will frequently try to mount the hens and pullets. From my observations, older hens will often respond with aggressive moves, especially pecking, toward the unwanted advances while pullets will attempt to escape a cockerel’s advances. If a cockerel does succeed in cornering a pullet, his initial mounting attempts at this time often fail because the male loses his balance. Eventually, of course, the cockerels display competence in this area.
Also Read: How To Deal With Aggressive Chickens?
Roosters Begin to Crow
Another aspect of this time is a cockerel trying to crow for the first time. The poor creature can’t seem to progress much beyond the first syllable of the “cock-a-doodle-do,” and even that opening volley of future roosterhood being announced is more comical than majestic.
But gradually over the next four weeks or so, the budding roos do become more adept at crowing. And the feistiness between all these hormonal males can become even more intense. It’s at this time that chicken raisers, if they haven’t already, should strongly consider culling their cockerels or trying to find a new home for them. However, be warned that hens can also crow, so be sure of the sex before you cull!
Watkins says one cockerel for every eight to 10 hens is sufficient, and there is no biological reason to keep more.
The Epic Day
The teenage weeks and months eventually end, of course, and the best sign of that is when pullets produce their first eggs around weeks 20 to 22 for industrial birds and approximately 24 weeks for the heritage breeds.
Human parents aren’t the only creatures that experience trying times with teenagers. The teenage weeks and months can stress us chicken enthusiasts, but when our cockerels give their first full-throated crows and our pullets lay their initial eggs, we forget the previous troubling times.
This article about raising chickens for beginners originally appeared in the May/June 2023 issue of Chickens magazine. Click here to subscribe.
