Two pullet roosters and a hen

[Mama_Chickenfield]

Hi friends,
A little bit of background: we have 5 hens that are about 3 years old. This year we decided to add three more to the flock. We got chicks about 9 weeks ago and have since found that two of them are roosters, which we are not allowed to keep in our neighborhood. This puts us in a pickle. Our little Buff Orpington pullet (female) will be alone if we give away the roosters, which we need to because they have started crowing, but we aren’t sure if it’s okay to introduce our little 9 week old female pullet to the 3 yr old hens. The pullets have had a run placed right next to the hens for about three weeks now, and have free ranged together but stay at a distance. Any ideas on how we should handle this?

 

[Sussex19]

What I would do, is completely integrate all three of the chicks, and then when they are established with the hens, re-home the cockerels.

 

[SueT]

You are doing the right thing, it will work out. I like the idea in post #2. Whlie waiting to rehome the boys, integrate them all. The older hens may be easier to win over that way, and your little pullet will have some emotional support as it were…

 

[Prince and Pavo]

Hello! I see that you recently joined BYC, so welcome to the community!

I agree with what the others have said. I think you should add all of your younger birds in with the existing flock. That will make it much easier on all of them, especially the pullet you are going to keep.
Best of luck with the integration!

By the way (I’m not sure if you already knew this but just so you do know), a pullet is always a female, and a cockerel is always a male. A rooster is a male that’s a year or older, and a hen is a female that’s a year or older. Cockerels and pullets are males and females (respectively) that are under a year old.

 

[Mama_Chickenfield]

Thank you for your responses, this is really helpful! @Sussex19 @SueT
And thanks @CloverTheRabbit for clarifying some chicken terms for me!

 

[K0k0shka]

Another vote for integrating them together, before you get rid of the males, for the pullet's sake. And be prepared that she may never be fully accepted into the flock, only tolerated, and may be lonely and excluded. Having a single bird into a flock is tricky, they really need friends that are either their peers, or have otherwise bonded. Even if there is no violence and it seems that the new ones are "integrated", they often form their own micro flock and stick close together for company and support. I currently have 4 generations of chickens in my flock, having added new ones every year for the past few years. Each year's chickens have their own micro flock and prefer their friends from that micro flock, and each older generation picks on the younger ones, even though they've been living together for years. Last year I had 1 female out of 7, so she's the only lone chicken of her peer group left, and she's very lonely. She was hatched and raised in the flock (and her brothers lived with her until they were a few months old, ready to be culled), so no traumatic introduction or anything - she was always there, raised by a broody, but a year later she is still not fully accepted by the flock and is chased around by them constantly. They don't hurt her and she is able to eat, drink etc. so this counts as "successfully integrated", but... they intimidate her as a matter of principle, and she's an outsider. Her only friend in the world is the broody that raised her. That broody doesn't "wean" her chicks and remains friends with them, which in this case works great. However, she has new babies this year and is busy with them now, so her grown daughter is lonely and sad again. She had the best possible circumstances line up for her to be well integrated and happy despite being a loner - hatched and raised with the flock (so no integration drama), her mom remained friendly, the flock is generally peaceful and non-confrontational and has never physically hurt her. And yet... She's an outsider and visibly unhappy (as much as a chicken can be unhappy). For comparison, the year before she hatched, I left 2 pullets from that year's brood, and they were hatched and raised in my house, with no mom, introduced at 5 weeks old - so, less favorable circumstances, but they have each other and are much happier, totally content with their life.

 

[Mama_Chickenfield]

Another vote for integrating them together, before you get rid of the males, for the pullet's sake. And be prepared that she may never be fully accepted into the flock, only tolerated, and may be lonely and excluded. Having a single bird into a flock is tricky, they really need friends that are either their peers, or have otherwise bonded. Even if there is no violence and it seems that the new ones are "integrated", they often form their own micro flock and stick close together for company and support. I currently have 4 generations of chickens in my flock, having added new ones every year for the past few years. Each year's chickens have their own micro flock and prefer their friends from that micro flock, and each older generation picks on the younger ones, even though they've been living together for years. Last year I had 1 female out of 7, so she's the only lone chicken of her peer group left, and she's very lonely. She was hatched and raised in the flock (and her brothers lived with her until they were a few months old, ready to be culled), so no traumatic introduction or anything - she was always there, raised by a broody, but a year later she is still not fully accepted by the flock and is chased around by them constantly. They don't hurt her and she is able to eat, drink etc. so this counts as "successfully integrated", but... they intimidate her as a matter of principle, and she's an outsider. Her only friend in the world is the broody that raised her. That broody doesn't "wean" her chicks and remains friends with them, which in this case works great. However, she has new babies this year and is busy with them now, so her grown daughter is lonely and sad again. She had the best possible circumstances line up for her to be well integrated and happy despite being a loner - hatched and raised with the flock (so no integration drama), her mom remained friendly, the flock is generally peaceful and non-confrontational and has never physically hurt her. And yet... She's an outsider and visibly unhappy (as much as a chicken can be unhappy). For comparison, the year before she hatched, I left 2 pullets from that year's brood, and they were hatched and raised in my house, with no mom, introduced at 5 weeks old - so, less favorable circumstances, but they have each other and are much happier, totally content with their life.

Thanks for the warning. Do you think it would be best to find a pullet flock her age if possible to rehome her? I guess we run the risk of having a lone pullet in every batch of chicks we get. So maybe we’ll have to make the best of it.

 

[K0k0shka]

Thanks for the warning. Do you think it would be best to find a pullet flock her age if possible to rehome her? I guess we run the risk of having a lone pullet in every batch of chicks we get. So maybe we’ll have to make the best of it.

If you're looking for the best case scenario for her specifically, then yeah, finding her a pullet flock of peers would give her a better chance of bonding with them and eventually being on equal footing with them. Yes the new flock will be new to her as well, and she'll still be a single outsider, but if they are her age, there's a better chance that they'll accept her as an equal eventually. Otherwise the age difference always gets in the way... Older chickens rank higher by default, unless the younger ones have a significant size advantage once fully grown.

You can also just keep her and see what happens. She may not be as miserable as mine is - a lot of it is personality, too. She may turn out better able to hold her ground and even rise in rank. Mine is just very meek and fearful in general, a total pushover, which is a bad combination with being alone in her age group. And if yours is miserable after you rehome her brothers, too, then you can find her a new home of peers at that point. Females are a lot easier to rehome, especially young ones.

Good luck!

 

[Mama_Chickenfield]

If you're looking for the best case scenario for her specifically, then yeah, finding her a pullet flock of peers would give her a better chance of bonding with them and eventually being on equal footing with them. Yes the new flock will be new to her as well, and she'll still be a single outsider, but if they are her age, there's a better chance that they'll accept her as an equal eventually. Otherwise the age difference always gets in the way... Older chickens rank higher by default, unless the younger ones have a significant size advantage once fully grown.

You can also just keep her and see what happens. She may not be as miserable as mine is - a lot of it is personality, too. She may turn out better able to hold her ground and even rise in rank. Mine is just very meek and fearful in general, a total pushover, which is a bad combination with being alone in her age group. And if yours is miserable after you rehome her brothers, too, then you can find her a new home of peers at that point. Females are a lot easier to rehome, especially young ones.

Good luck!

Thank you! This is so helpful. Our pullet seems timid right now, she’s always hiding under her brothers. This leads me to believe she may have a tough time, but we’ll have to wait and see. We put the three young ones in the coop with the older flock and things went alright. One of the hens was aggressive toward the younger flock, but backed off and the rest of the day seemed to be okay. We’ll just take it a day at a time for now.