Aggressive rooster & 10 week old chick integration

Preface: Major deaths this year from raccoon's; Chief, a gentle but stupid 5 year old protector, another nice protector dude that was just fitting in but @ 4 weeks later he was gone along with 3 hens during that mix met their maker. All secure now but ****

So now I only have 4 hens left (culled 6 last fall), ten 10 week old chicks that I started integrating 3 days ago and a young wild Leghorn that my neighbor gave me (2nd one in 3 months - see above :-( ) that I've had for 11 weeks. Well, there were 5 hens but one was a maverick that did not take kindly to the new guys advances, he was a virgin coming in and basically scalped her. I treated her and let her stay up in the laying box for a couple days but when I kicked her out she literally flew the coop. I couldn't find her but the raccoon's did

The issue is the new rooster is really aggressive, more than I've ever seen before towards the new hens in the tractor. The first 2 days he circled the tractor purposefully. Today he was a little less aggressive but was still more concerned with them than I'm accustomed to. Usually I put them in the tractor in the yard for 3-4 days and then put them in the coop at night so they "wake up" together. But this time because he seems so aggressive, I'm thinking of letting them out during the day and monitor his behavior and capture him if he's too crazy on/with them and give him back to my neighbor who's on board with that. The other caveat is I might have one or maybe 2 roosters among my new flock.

To simplifyI:
1) Go traditional and integrate at night
2) Integrate the 10 into 4 + 1 and monitor for over aggression
3) How long do you recommend I wait to do either 1 or 2 above?

Thanks in advance for your time

Unless you want fertile eggs, I'd get rid of the roo - they can more of a pain than they are worth. In my experience, the level of protection offered by a roo is over rated and certainly not sufficient to make me keep one.

CT

I agree with @CTKen, you should get rid of him. He can become serious problem, especially with cockerels in the batch, since they are not that young anymore.

And if you want fertile eggs you will have them when your cockerel(s) grow up.

And I would never introduce them during the night. Had a bad experience with it right before this Christmas. I will never do it again.

I need them, they protect from hawks, I have too many trees around.
I've been doing this for almost ten years and always integrate at night.

hazelville said:

I need them, they protect from hawks, I have too many trees around.
I've been doing this for almost ten years and always integrate at night.

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Everybody's situation is different so you will have to decide on your own. If you think that you need them, just wait for the pullets to start laying so you can be sure that rooster won't do any bigger damage.

Thanks for nothing!
Don't mean to be rude but you did not answer one question of mine, just that I should get rid of the rooster. I have roosters for a number of reasons and yes, they can sometimes be a pain but I like the way they keep the hens in line, no more missing tail feathers and he does protect them, when he hears a hawk he herds all of them into the coop.
I appreciate you taking the time to comment but honestly, if you have some useful tips for the particular situation I described I'm all ears but otherwise, stop wasting my time with your personal idiosyncrasies about your dislike of roosters, it helps neither of us

If the rooster is that aggressive, I would wait until the pullets are laying. He will want more hens and they will be ready to mate. It might go better.

Now, the pullets are not ready for laying or sexually active, from the rooster's point of view, they are just a competition to his current hens. If you wait, it might go better.

It might not too, roosters are a crap shoot. I have had my share of predators, and it sucks!

Mrs K

I think a bit more info would be helpful.

How old is he?

Was he raised with mature birds or did he come up in a group of chicks only?

I have already said that everbody's situation is different and if you need rooster you should keep him. And like we all said, wait for pullets to start laying, then you should introduce them to the flock, and you should first put it in the tractor, just like you did before and wait for maybe a week. Then I wouldn't put them during the night right away, I would wait for that week while they are in the tractor and then I would let them roam in that yard (it would be even better if they could be alone in that yard for few hours so they can learn where they are without adults chasing them). And tgem after a day or two, I would just remove the tractor from the yard, and they should follow adults into the coop. If they don't get there by themselves, you can pick them up and put them to the coop.
Now if you will wait for pullets to grow up, you won't have problems with rooster, but with hens. They will fight for their spot in the pecking order. But if you introduce them too young, everybody will be a problem.

Do you plan to keep the rooster(s) that you will get from this batch of chicks or you plan to get rid of them? If you want to keep them, you should introduce them to the coop, but if you don't, don't even introduce them, that will only start fights in the coop for no reason. My other tip is, if you are going to keep only one rooster, and you should wait for all of them to grow up, you should pick up younger rooster and keep him instead of keeping this old rooster. That way, you can introduce them to the older hens even younger.

I would do this when they are older. Now since you already started introducing them, I have a few questions first. How big is that tractor where you keep chicks currently, and how long do you think they can be in it?

Oh and they are many nicer ways to say or ask what you want. People here are great and want to help, but if you don't want to listen and think abput what everybody is telling you, there is no point.

Thanks for getting back.He is a young rooster that grew up in the wild, they forage and then go into a coop at night in the farm across from me.
The tractor is 4x8. Yesterday a couple got out and he was chasing them all over. I need to integrate them before a trip next week so thinking I'm going to give the Rooster back.
I only have 4 hens so the ratio shouldn't be too bad but I've also had a rooster that grew up with the chicks and he was even worse.
It's a crap shoot for sure so thanks for your input