Want to add a rooster to my flock - need some advice

kimthom66: I think I would let him stay separate at night for a about a week. Since you have let him mix during the day, I would continue that. They haven't killed him yet. On day 6 or 7 you could just let him decide where to sleep. He is just now coming into his hormones so it will be a while till he has the size and experience to dominate and be the flock leader.

I bought 7 EE hens and a roo all 9 months old in August..everyone gets along great. Herbert is a gentleman and very protective of his girls with no aggression towards me or the dogs and cat.

Last week I bought 11 Buff Orp hens that are 5.5 months old but the folks didn't have a roo for them so today I picked up a 12 mo old Blue Orp and a 6 mo old Black Orp. Currently they are in separate dog kennels and Herbert is asserting his crowing ability, tomorrow I am hanging a cabbage and going to let them all hang out under some supervision.

I only had the Buffs separate from the EE for 3 nights and they all got along tremendously even sleeping on the same perch.

Now if everyone would start laying....

Patti in Texas - Adding hens to a flock with a rooster is a whole different game than adding roosters to a flock with a rooster.

Full grown roosters will fight, and some will fight very wickedly and ugly, when new roosters are added to the flock. The new roosters will be strangers and competition males. Your original rooster sees all the girls as HIS, and he is going to very probably be very aggressive.

If the two roosters that you just bought, were brought up together, then a possible solution would be to cull the rooster that you have now, and give the flock to the brothers.

However, brothers are not guaranteed to get along, and they too may have some terrible fights. You do have enough hens for 2 roosters, but that does not mean it will be a good idea. Having multiple roosters takes a great deal of luck. Sometimes brothers work out, sometimes father sons work out, and sometimes they work for a while to have a disaster later.

Generally speaking, strange roosters do not work out, and keeping them separated but near each other just eggs on the fight. They can fight bloody through the fence. And if you are the least cramped on space, this is going to multiply the problems hugely.

Mrs K

Thanks Mrs. K! Their run is 64x32 and they free range outside the run so space isn't an issue. The buff hens have taken to hanging out around the cages they are in while the EE's are ignoring them and hanging with Herbert. Herbert hasn't been paying any attention to the buffs since we got them a week ago so I am hoping he hasn't "adopted" them yet. I suppose we shall wait and see what happens....stay tuned.

We added two br/ee roosters to our flock this summer. The 2 year old br rooster we already had could not have cared less. We were prepared to cull the new roos if needed but absolutely no issues. Occassionally, when one of the youngsters is breeding a hen the older roo will run over and protest. We did spend a lot of time with the new flock living adjacent to the existing, sobtheyvwere all used to each other byvthe time we mixed them. We have 42 hens, that may have helped. The full story and process is much longer, but this is the meat of it.

Thanks! I don't anticipate an issue but have a cabbage ready to be hung in case they need a distraction....I could send the dogs out to babysit as well. I bought the extra roo since it's hard to get them out here( most folks want hens) and I will be increasing the flock again in the spring.

Patti in TX said:

Thanks! I don't anticipate an issue but have a cabbage ready to be hung in case they need a distraction....I could send the dogs out to babysit as well. I bought the extra roo since it's hard to get them out here( most folks want hens) and I will be increasing the flock again in the spring.

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we can't get rid of roos. We started breeding our br roo with ameraucana hens which produces really cool roos. We kept a couple and found a home for a couple. The extras we had to cull.

Update - Herbert the Americauna got beat up pretty well by the Black Orp...once he played "dead" I scooped him up and we put him and a couple of his hens in a separate pen. My chickens don't like cabbage,either. He took him about 30 min to start crowing again and now they peck at the fence. The Blue Orp ignored both of them and they ignored him.

My neighbor will probably buy the Americaunas since I prefer the Orpingtons because they are a Heritage Breed and I can get more for their eggs and chicks.

Tonite everyone except Blue and Black get to stay in the main house and they get to stay in the quarantine area.

Tomorrow is a new day.....

LR Gamefarm said:

when you do find one you can just throw him in with the hens and if he is of breeding age he should start mating with them right off and when you put him in the dominant hen will peck at him but if he's old enough he should lay down the law and show here that he is the boss then he should be okay and after a while the hens will follow him around just watch him sometimes they get over protective of his hens and will attack you if he gets that away don't hit him or get on to him just walk out of the pe and keep on going if you discourage him he wont protect the hens from predators i had a rooster that killed a raccoon that was trying to get one of the hens i know this first hand my old lead rooster was aggressive towards things that touched his hands until i kicked him and after that i lost 23 red star hens to a cougar so now i only have 27 red star hens but i don't have him any more he went off the deep end when he spurred me in the head for grabbing a bantam hen that got in the pen with him but other than that the age of the bird shouldn't matter i recommend getting a bird younger or the same age as the hens so that away he will live longer

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I don't recommend "throwing him in with the other hens". First of all, you should always quarantine for at least a month to make sure he doesn't have any illnesses. Second, it is never a good idea to add a chicken immediately into an already existing flock. Birds will get hurt.