Our rooster decided he didn't like living in a coop. He moved into a large hedge. He comes out in the morning and goes in at night. My concern is the cold weather will he go inside if it gets too cold or just stay there. During the day our hens 9 and the rooster just free range in the back yard. He has his own coop but won't use it. Any suggestions.
Why does he have his own coop? Usually they live with the hens. It might be something about the coop itself that's keeping him from going in. Does he seem to want to join the girls?
Oh yes he loves the girls. Every morning he stands on their coop waiting for us the let them out. The coop the hens are in is actually the one he was raised in. One day before we had hens he just moved into the bush.
If he was raised in that coop, he will go in if it gets cold enough or if there is cold wet wind. It is likely he chooses to monitor things and the hens from outside right now. Different breeds have different behaviors regarding how they patrol their territory and how far they range. It sounds as if he is sticking fairly close by. Predators would be the only concern. Does he fly fairly well?
It’s perfectly natural for your rooster to sleep in the hedge. And it saves you some time sweeping up his droppings. I suppose the problem could come from predators. I don’t know what predators you have there but a wiley cockerel should be able to evade most of them.
Last night it got down to 32 degrees for a few hours with a misty rain. When I got home from work I checked in on him. He seemd ok, do chicken shiver?. He wasn't. he just looked at me like its too early go away. He flies some he mostly herds the girls around the yard when his not chasing them down.
He herds the girls into the garage sometimes so he knows its open to him. But a 7pm he goes all field of dreams and heads into the corn (hedge). We are in the suburbs so the occasional hawk and in the evening possums and raccoons. He is very good at protecting the girls.
When they go all stubborn like that they can be frustrating. Just hope he doesn't talk the girls into joining him.
I have lived in a variety of places and I'm positive the suburbs have more predators than the country; at least in the places I have lived. A lot can happen to a bird at night when it's not caged. Chicken can not see when it is completely dark so they're easy pickings. Chickens are creatures of habit and will try to go to the same place each night to roost. I'd lock the rooster in for a week to get him used to roosting with the hens. After that he'd probably go in at night with the hens.
