Introducing new roosters to the flock

[Leelu13]

At the end of last summer, we bought chicks and ended up with two turken roosters in the mix. One stayed here with us, and has been a relatively quiet boy, with his fellow flock of 9 hens.
The other rooster went to live with the person we had split the hatch with. Today she decided he's too much to handle, and hubby brought him back home to us. Needless to say, his brother is none to happy so far.
Can anyone share success tips for introducing makes roosters to the flock? Almost the entire flock (turkens and black marans) are 6 months old.

 

[TheBeardie]

That's not enough females to go around. There is no set number because each roo has their own personality and will tolerate other males differently. Though the common set number is around 10 hens per rooster.

As for reintroducing another cockerel, try the look but don't touch way. Most people have the newcomer separated from the rest of the flock for up to six weeks, so no diseases get introduced to the existing flock. After that, let them be able to see one another, but not touch. Then, introduce them and see how they react. This might not work, your cockerel might not allow this to happen or vice versa.

My main worry would be your pullets being injured, having two young cockerels with so little pullets is asking for over breeding. I'd get more pullets so the possibility of over breeding will lower. Either that or get rid of one of the cockerels.

 

[Mrs. K]

If you have a happy flock, I would not put this rooster in my flock. I would cull him either myself, or let him go to someone else. This is going to add a lot of tension to your flock. You might loose egg production due to the tension.

While the idea of 10 hens to a rooster is to have consistent fertility. In a smaller flock, I would not have two roosters. Usually the space is smaller, and this is going to cause a lot of havoc and tension in your flock.

I don't think there is a way you can get them together for sure. Roosters are a crapshoot, two roosters are a cock fight. Now they may fight once, and figure it out, or they may fight every chance they get. They might kill each other, especially if you have a truly back yard set up. Smaller areas, make this much more difficult.

Personally, in my experience, I have had a father/son work out, but two flock mate roosters tend to fight more. A rooster with a flock, is going to be quite aggressive to a strange rooster coming into the flock. Roosters do not understand sharing at all.

To me, to have 2 roosters, you need to have about 25 - 30 hens, and a great deal of space to range, not a back yard.

You can certainly try the see but not touch, but I have seen them fight between the fence. You do need a way to separate them if they do fight, you need a plan B set up. Personally I would start with the plan B. Put him for give away and don't ask questions.

Mrs K

 

[Leelu13]

Thank you for your replies. I agree it's not a great mix. Right now I have him separated from the rest of the flock. I will try slowly introducing him to the others, but I'm already looking into rehoming him, in a worse case scenario

 

[Leelu13]

This is the poor guy. He's pretty skittish and scared right now.