Adding a rooster

[JewelsJj]

Hi all! I have a flock of 11 hens. 3 barred rock, 3 jersey giants, and 5 gold laced Wyandottes. We have decided we’d like to add a rooster. We have found one that is a cross between a Australorp and a true blue whiting and he is about 5-6 months old. Our girls turned a year in February. Our main concern is since we have such a mixed flock will this breed be adaptable as to how their temperaments are? I also understand he is going to be in his hormone phase. Any suggestions? I know this probably gets asked a lot and I hope I’m putting this into the right category here. Thanks for any input.

 

[LaurenRitz]

Those questions are hard to answer because every rooster is an individual.

Have you had the opportunity to watch him at his current home? Or interact with him yourselves?

The first few weeks are going to be hard for everyone involved. He's been roosternapped (thanks to @Shadrach for that phrase) with new people, new chickens, new territory and new routines. It's going to take him a while to settle.

 

[J-Habs]

You can put him in something like a wire cage and put it amongst the hens for a few hours or a day so they can get acquainted. Or just throw him in. Some won't agree with me, but I usually just throw new birds in and let nature do what it does. Theyre gonna establish the pecking order eventually. Just let it happen. Should be fine.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Mixing breeds is almost always healthy for chickens because it increases their genetic diversity and most breeds are heavily inbred

 

[red horse ranch]

The Australorp roosters I have had over the years have all been good nature d and easy keepers. With 11 hens you shouldn't have a problem with over breeding. If he is really young (under 6 months) some of the hens may boss him at first. But once they accept him he should fit into the flock pretty well.

 

[JewelsJj]

Those questions are hard to answer because every rooster is an individual.

Have you had the opportunity to watch him at his current home? Or interact with him yourselves?

The first few weeks are going to be hard for everyone involved. He's been roosternapped (thanks to @Shadrach for that phrase) with new people, new chickens, new territory and new routines. It's going to take him a while to settle.

Those questions are hard to answer because every rooster is an individual.

Have you had the opportunity to watch him at his current home? Or interact with him yourselves?

The first few weeks are going to be hard for everyone involved. He's been roosternapped (thanks to @Shadrach for that phrase) with new people, new chickens, new territory and new routines. It's going to take him a while to settle.

We are going to check him out today in his environment and go from there, I was hoping for some sound advice before since we are not familiar with having a rooster but we like to free range and any extra help with our girls is what we want. What are some things that would make you say no to getting him? Examples of things

 

[JewelsJj]

The Australorp roosters I have had over the years have all been good nature d and easy keepers. With 11 hens you shouldn't have a problem with over breeding. If he is really young (under 6 months) some of the hens may boss him at first. But once they accept him he should fit into the flock pretty well.

Thank you

 

[JewelsJj]

Mixing breeds is almost always healthy for chickens because it increases their genetic diversity and most breeds are heavily inbred

Thank you for that, as that was my biggest concern

 

[Ridgerunner]

I personally don't put any faith in how breed affects anything other than size and physical appearance. Each individual chicken has its own personality regardless of breed. You can get great roosters of any breed or horrible roosters of any breed. Why do you want a rooster? What are your goals in regard to having him? That will determine the fit better than breed.

A True Blue Whiting is not a recognized breed, more of a type that lays blue eggs. They can be about any color. If you hatch eggs from him and your girls about half the pullets should lay green eggs, half should lay brown. Half will have black feathers from the Australorp half, not sure what will happen with the Whiting portion.

Your hens are mature. At five to six months he is still an immature cockerel. It is a hormonal age but it can be challenging to predict exactly what will happen when you add him to a flock of mature hens. It may go well, it may not. A lot depends on his personality and maturity level. A lot will depend on the personality of your hens, especially the dominant hen. It is now her flock, she may willingly accept him and his dominance, but probably not at his age. Over the years I had one five month old cockerel take over a flock that had mature hens. It was a peaceful takeover, as calm as you could wish for. The hens were all pretty laid back and he had a fairly strong personality. He was able to win them over purely by his force or personality and did not need to rely purely on physical strength.

I had a cockerel that took 11 months to take over an all-hen flock and it was far from peaceful. Most of the hens would willingly mate with him but the head hen would not. If he tried to mate with one in her presence she would knock him off. She would not go out of her way to beat him up (some hens would) but she certainly would not allow him to mate where she could see him. When he hit 11 months he finally stood up to her. For two days whenever she would approach the flock he'd attack her, especially trying to peck her head. She was never seriously injured and after two days of this she finally accepted his dominance and they became best buddies. Some hens have been seriously injured or killed during this process of changing flock dominance. Some cockerels have been seriously injured or killed during this process by hens. Sometimes roosters are seriously injured or killed when they fight over flock dominance between themselves.

Most of my cockerels have been able to take over around 7 months and it is usually a fairly peaceful event but you don't get guarantees as to whet will really happen. So much depends on the personalities of all the chickens involved, especially the cockerel and the head hen.

How much room you have can be very important too. The more the better. I can't tell you what will happen with any assurance but one real possibility is that the girls will keep him at a distance, pecking him and attacking if he invades their personal space. It may not take him long to decide he needs to give them a certain amount of space and keep his distance. He needs room to keep his distance.

It is possible he will be allowed to mingle with them. Some may accept him more than others. You don't know how it will go until you try. I'd suggest you give him as much room as you can, try to not force him to share tight spaces with the girls, and provide extra feed and water stations so they don't have to compete for resources. The same kind of stuff you do for any integration.

It may be kind of rough for a couple of months (hopefully not) but if you can stick it out until he matures enough to really take over you should have a nice peaceful flock.

 

[JewelsJj]

You can put him in something like a wire cage and put it amongst the hens for a few hours or a day so they can get acquainted. Or just throw him in. Some won't agree with me, but I usually just throw new birds in and let nature do what it does. Theyre gonna establish the pecking order eventually. Just let it happen. Should be fine.

Thank you we have a wire dog cage that I will put in their run to separate and I was thinking at night of putting him into our pet carrier and then put him on the roost at night? This of coarse after quarantine. Not sure if that’s the right move or not