Introducing 2 young roosters

[Vanessa373]

Hi Everyone,

I’m after some advice. We got 5 baby chicks in Sept to add to our flock & unfortunately 3 were taken by a quoll or something that dug under our secure coop. The 2 remaining ones have turned out to be roosters! We have a flock of 7 hens that we want to introduce the roosters to. The roosters are 12 weeks old & have been living in a separate coop for 4 weeks which shares a fence with the free range paddock (also housing 2 goats). The hens and roosters have been able to check each other out through the fence during that time. We want to put the roosters in with the hens & have read differing ideas as to how best to do that. The roosters have a roost in their small triangular coop but neither use it, the sleep on the hay on the ground (even if I put them up on the roost before bed). I am leaning towards just putting the roosters in the free range paddock during the day to integrate with the hens & see how they go.

Does anyone see an issue with this or have advice on how to do this a better way? The most common way seems to be to put the newcomers on the roost with the other hens after dark but I’m not sure about that due to the roosters choosing not to roost in their current pen. Keen for some tips!!

 

[3KillerBs]

Welcome to BYC. Where, in general, are you located? We can give better advice when we know your climate, conditions, and predator load.

Here are some useful articles on integration:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/my-coop-brooder-and-integration.74591/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/introducing-new-chickens-using-the-“see-but-don’t-touch”-method.67839/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/adding-to-your-flock.47756/

As your cockerels grow and mature it is likely -- not inevitable, but likely -- that they will not continue to get along. Also, while some people do successfully keep pairs and trios, 2 males to only 7 females would be a very high ratio, reducing the chance that the boys will get along as they mature.

Can you show us photos of your setup? The more room you have the more likely it is that having multiple males will be successful.

 

[Vanessa373]

Welcome to BYC. Where, in general, are you located? We can give better advice when we know your climate, conditions, and predator load.

Here are some useful articles on integration:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/my-coop-brooder-and-integration.74591/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/introducing-new-chickens-using-the-“see-but-don’t-touch”-method.67839/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/adding-to-your-flock.47756/

As your cockerels grow and mature it is likely -- not inevitable, but likely -- that they will not continue to get along. Also, while some people do successfully keep pairs and trios, 2 males to only 7 females would be a very high ratio, reducing the chance that the boys will get along as they mature.

Can you show us photos of your setup? The more room you have the more likely it is that having multiple males will be successful.

Thanks for the advice! We’re on the east coast of Australia. We know it’s unlikely the roosters will get along forever but I’m willing to try in the beginning rather than sacrificing one of the boys straight away!

Here is a photo of our setup. The triangle cage is where the roosters are now, the shed in the background is the coop where the hens are and where the goats are is the free range paddock

 

[3KillerBs]

Thanks for the advice! We’re on the east coast of Australia. We know it’s unlikely the roosters will get along forever but I’m willing to try in the beginning rather than sacrificing one of the boys straight away!

Here is a photo of our setup. The triangle cage is where the roosters are now, the shed in the background is the coop where the hens are and where the goats are is the free range paddock

That's such a nicely roomy setup!

The more room and the more clutter where birds can break contact with each other the more favorable the conditions for a smooth integration.

I credit advice from @aart, @DobieLover, and @Ridgerunner for my 3 successful integrations this past year.

 

[aart]

Just the 5 hens shown, how many and how old(in weeks or months) are they??

Do the cockerels and hens free range together now?

 

[Vanessa373]

Just the 5 hens shown, how many and how old(in weeks or months) are they??

Do the cockerels and hens free range together now?

There are 7 hens, 2 buff orpingtons not pictured. They’re all 10 months old.

Only the hens free range but I want to get the cockerels out to free range too but wanted to check in with the experts on here first before just popping them in the free range paddock all together.

 

[DobieLover]

3 were taken by a quoll or something that dug under our secure coop

If something got in, it's not secure. If something dug in, I would install a predator apron.

You don't have roosters. You have cockerels. That makes a difference in this case.
And, yes, do actually have hens or are they pullets? Are they laying?

If each group has been exposed to the other for at least a week, I would release the cockerels into the large pen and let them explore for an hour before letting the hens/pullets in with them. It's a nice big area so the boys have plenty of room to escape if they need to.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi Everyone,

I’m after some advice. We got 5 baby chicks in Sept to add to our flock & unfortunately 3 were taken by a quoll or something that dug under our secure coop.

Quolls are carnivorous marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea.

I was curious so I looked it up. That lets us now you are in the middle of summer right now. That lets us know the weather is not limiting things for you.

The 2 remaining ones have turned out to be roosters!

At 12 weeks they are not only cockerels but probably really immature cockerels. Puberty probably hasn't hit yet though it could have or be real close. That adds a lot of uncertainty in how they will behave and how the girls will treat them. Immature chicks generally act one way. Mature chickens often act another. Immature cockerels in puberty can be real unknowns in behaviors. Each chicken is an individual and each flock has its own dynamics. You don't get guarantees with living animals and their behaviors but there are often some trends or tendencies.

What I'm trying to say is that we can give you some ideas of what will likely happen but when those boys hit puberty everything can change.

We have a flock of 7 hens that we want to introduce the roosters to.

Technically they are pullets until they are 12 months old but at 10 months they should behave like fully mature hens. To me, how they behave is more important than what some dictionary tells you to call them.

have been living in a separate coop for 4 weeks which shares a fence with the free range paddock

Excellent. You have done the "see but don't touch" for four weeks. It's time to try the next step.

The roosters have a roost in their small triangular coop but neither use it, the sleep on the hay on the ground

My brooder-raised chicks tend to sleep on the floor until they are 10 to 12 weeks old. I've had some take themselves to the roost around 5 weeks of age and some wait even longer than 12 weeks. To me that's just chickens being chickens. When they are ready to roost, they roost. To me roosting means they are sleeping up there at night. They often play up there during the day. And this assumes there are no adults present. If adults are roosting up there mine probably won't roost at night for several more weeks. As long as mine are predator-safe and not sleeping in the nests I don't care where they sleep.

I am leaning towards just putting the roosters in the free range paddock during the day to integrate with the hens & see how they go.

This is the way I'd approach it. Since you have goats in there it is probably pretty big. The way mine is set up I just open the door and let them come out whenever they want to. Sometimes mine are out within15 minutes, sometimes it takes three days. I let mine go at their pace.

The most common way seems to be to put the newcomers on the roost with the other hens after dark but I’m not sure about that due to the roosters choosing not to roost in their current pen.

Most of the time my immature chicks go back to their own coop to sleep when I first let them out. On rare occasions they may eventually join the adults on their own but almost never immediately. I'm quite happy if they don't all sleep together immediately but if they want to try it and see what happens. Before I lock them in the main coop at night with the adults I like for them to prove that they can live in the run with each other during the day. When I'm ready to move them to the main coop at night I wait until after dark and toss them in on the coop floor. I don't bother trying to put them on the roosts, the way my coop is set up they aren't going to sleep up there with the adults until they mature more. My goal is to get them to sleep in the coop, they will work the where out themselves. The morning after you first lock them in I'd be there at daylight to see how it is going. With mine that's never really been a problem but for some people it is a disaster.

Most of the time when I move chicks from my grow-out coop to the main coop I only have to do that once. I lock up the grow-put coop so they can't go back in there. But occasionally they try to sleep near their old coop. I wait until after dark when they are easiest to catch and toss them in the main coop until they get the message.

Your boys are approaching puberty. Puberty is when the hormones hit and can be a huge game changer. Those hormones are telling them to dominate the flock. The boys may fight each other. One of them will become dominant. That could involve a fight to the death or it could happen so calmly that you don't even know it happened. If you have a lot of room they often have a few skirmishes and the loser runs away. There may be a lot of chasing and running away involved but they might reach an accommodation on how to care for the flock. Or it may be a fight to the death. No one can tell you for sure what will happen.

The way the boys dominate the girls is that they mate with them, either willingly or by force. With immature cockerels it is usually by force, with mature roosters it's usually willingly but there can be a lot of in betweens. Eventually the girls will almost always accept one of the boys as the dominant rooster but there can be different paths to that.

One path is that nothing really happens. This transformation is so peaceful that you don't see it happening until one day you realize the boy is mating the hens and they are OK with that.

One path is that the boy(s) terrorize the hens. They chase them down and force mate them. Often a mature hen or even a relatively mature pullet like yours wants the future father of her chicks to behave like a good father should. Most immature cockerels have a hard time meeting that standard so the girls run away. They are not willing to stand up to them and fight. This can get pretty violent and be pretty brutal to watch.

Sometimes a mature hen will stand up to the boys and fight them, especially your dominant hen. When the boys start to act up they terrorize the boys. They can beat them up pretty good. Eventually they grow out of this phase but it can be pretty brutal to watch.

Usually I have a mature rooster in the flock when the boys go through this phase. And there are pullets the same age as the cockerels. Those dynamics are different. When I have mature hens and immature cockerels going through puberty I might see any of these three paths. Most of the time it isn't that violent but I have a lot of room and weather where the hens can avoid the boys or just run away. I very firmly believe that the more room you have the easier any of this is.

My main suggestion is to observe and see what happens. Trust what you see more than what some stranger over the internet like me tells you that you will see. Base your actions on what you see but have a plan in case it goes wrong. Especially with a lot of room a lot of times this is so easy you wonder what all the worry was about. But occasionally there are disasters. You don't get guarantees with any of this stuff.