Adding a rooster

[JewelsJj]

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.

Thank you for this. Our main goal of having him is for protection . We like to free range our girls and any extra help is what we need. We have good space for him and we lost a hen to a fox so he will occupy her space. My goal is to put a wire dog pen in a spot in their run for a week or two, after quarantine, and see how they respond to each other. I’m not sure if I should eventually introduce them in the run confined or when I let them out to free range. Also, should he be confined for a bit to learn his new run and coup?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Where are you quarantining him? A true quarantine means housing him where wind cannot blow dander between him and the flock. Most if us don't have that much room. Wherever you quarantine him might become his place to go to sleep at night or he may join the flock and follow them to their sleeping spot.

It's probably a good idea to house him in his new sleeping spot to teach him where his new home is so he goes to bed there at night. A lot depends on if he is accepted into the flock or not. You obviously want him to sleep in a predator proof area.

 

[JewelsJj]

We will quarantine him in our garage at night and put a fenced in temporary area for him during the day, we have 5 acres so he will be about 100 yards from the girls. Although I hadn’t thought of blowing dander or if the girls are out then wandering to his area. It’s the best we can do for now. I was then hoping to put that same cage into the run for a week maybe to let them interact, that’s the only issue is at night of putting him back into the garage or just letting him follow them into the coop, that’s what I’d prefer of coarse. If it could be that easy lol

 

[Ridgerunner]

The best you can do is the best you can do. That sounds like a lot better quarantine than many people do. But don't be surprised if the girls seek him out when they are ranging if they can.

Often it is that easy. It is very possible you would be happy just to let him out. But you are dealing with living animals, you never know what will actually happen. Just how cautious do you want to be? Dad would have just turned him loose without quarantine, but he would have been OK with him sleeping in a tree. Many of his chickens did though most slept in the hen house.

 

[J-Habs]

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

I wouldn't introduce him at night. At least with my flock, they're all jockeying for their spot on the roost boards. Just do it during the day.

 

[JewelsJj]

I wouldn't introduce him at night. At least with my flock, they're all jockeying for their spot on the roost boards. Just do it during the day.

Yes that’s when our girls do the most damage to each other.

 

[JewelsJj]

The best you can do is the best you can do. That sounds like a lot better quarantine than many people do. But don't be surprised if the girls seek him out when they are ranging if they can.

Often it is that easy. It is very possible you would be happy just to let him out. But you are dealing with living animals, you never know what will actually happen. Just how cautious do you want to be? Dad would have just turned him loose without quarantine, but he would have been OK with him sleeping in a tree. Many of his chickens did though most slept in the hen house.

Thank you, and everyone for your input it is much appreciated!!! Just talking about it has given me good ideas, and now I will stop stressing myself out. Thank you all!

 

[LaurenRitz]

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

If he shows agression to his current hens, or to you. Your husband is a different issue. Most birds will test out women first. Part of this is behavior. If he wing dances for you that's not necessarily a problem but it could become one if he tries to "herd" you and you don't go as directed.

If they have him isolated, why? If not, how do they treat him?

Is he calm? Does he run away from you, or just calmly get out of your way? Does he hold his ground? This is chicken challenge #1. The dominant roo doesn't give ground. Just walk straight through him--make him give way.

The main things I would look for are aggression, and fear. If he runs away like you're jack the ripper that's not a good sign. If he challenges you that's not good either. You want him to be calm, certain that he's the king and you just happen to be emperor.

You want him to be gentle with his girls if he has any, and even if he's low in the rooster hierarchy he's treated with respect by the other roos.

 

[JewelsJj]

If he shows agression to his current hens, or to you. Your husband is a different issue. Most birds will test out women first. Part of this is behavior. If he wing dances for you that's not necessarily a problem but it could become one if he tries to "herd" you and you don't go as directed.

If they have him isolated, why? If not, how do they treat him?

Is he calm? Does he run away from you, or just calmly get out of your way? Does he hold his ground? This is chicken challenge #1. The dominant roo doesn't give ground. Just walk straight through him--make him give way.

The main things I would look for are aggression, and fear. If he runs away like you're jack the ripper that's not a good sign. If he challenges you that's not good either. You want him to be calm, certain that he's the king and you just happen to be emperor.

You want him to be gentle with his girls if he has any, and even if he's low in the rooster hierarchy he's treated with respect by the other roos.

Thank you. They say they’re getting rid of him due to too many roosters and he was a surprise hatch they had, so we will see. These are all excellent things to look for so thank you so much!!