Adding a new rooster.. Yay or nay?

[heatherfeilner]

Hi all, I have a small flock that last week consisted of 3 leghorn hens, 2 New Hampshire hens, a silkie hen and a silkie roo. The girls are all about 7 weeks old and the rooster about 10 weeks. The very day my roo started too crow- a fox got him . ( RIP Larry Bird)
Now I'm very paranoid about letting the girls free range. I'm always somewhere outside while they're out, but the fox came mid-morning so I'm worried I'll get out of eyesight and lose another. My neighbor is wanting to give me an adult Australorp rooster, since he has two has to rehome one. I'd love to take him but I assume it's a bad idea to mix an adult roo with 6 young hens?
Any advice?

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

It would be fine to get the roo. ANd he would do a world of good for your hens. All roos will try to protect the hens, but there's not much a Silkie can do.
An Austrolorp would provide much better protection, though a fox still might be a bit much for him. But he would provide a bit of peace of mind for you and your girls.
As got him being older, he should be fine. I have roos with my young ones all the time, and since they're hens, there should be no problem.
I never let any hens out without a rooster and have never lost a bird. So all that being said, I say yay.

 

[GitaBooks]

I'm sorry to hear about your rooster.

Silkies are more prone to predation than other breeds, since they can't run, jump, fly, or even see as well as other breeds. They also don't have as good spurs for fighting predators off. I really like silkies, I have a few myself, but we lost four of them to predators and one to being landed on by another chicken (upon which she later died from sickness). The other hens should be better off free-ranging.

As for adding another rooster, I've never tried adding an adult in with young hens, but some roosters are surprisingly gentle. In fact, older roosters tend to be nicer towards hens than "teens".

Good luck with your chickens!

 

[LRH97]

Hello and very sorry about your roo! Always nice to find a fellow Illinoisan on here! Anyway, I would not put an adult roo with such young hens. The adult roo will of course want to do the "deed" and it probably wouldn't end very well with 7 week old girls. I love roos, but to to tell you the truth there really is no major need for them unless you want babies from your own flock at some point. They do offer some degree of protection, but I have four roos out on range with my forty hens and when we have fox problems, they always tend to nab a bird when they're after them. Be warned: they're very crafty devils. I have yet to see a roo stand his ground against a fox. You could always ask your neighbor if he could hold on to one if possible and wait until your girls are at least 3-4 months old.

 

[Cheep N Peep]

If you are really worried, you could build a small tractor, maybe eight feet long by two feet wide and three feet high, with a two by two space being enclosed by wood rather than some form of fencing... that way you could separate him until they are mature, and you would have a hospital/broody hen tractor, ready made!

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

Oh, and sorry about Larry Bird! I really think he'd be fine, older roos tend to be very gentle toward pullets

 

[heatherfeilner]

Talk about crafty!! This fox got into the run, grabbed him and was out without a trace! I found that it did go into the woods about 20 feet to "have dinner"

The problem with the run has been fixed and is secure, the girls just love to run around the yard and I hate to have them cooped up. The bad part is where we live, we have every possible chicken predator.

With roosters though, I've heard some people say that they will wait until a hen has matured and some they say no. Hopefully the neighbor isn't having too bad of a time with two roosters and maybe I'll consider in another couple months.
Thanks everyone