Adding a Rooster to my Pullet flock

[homesteadmama8]

You get different opinions because people have different experiences. We all have different set-ups, each chicken has its own personality, you can never tell for sure how a living animal will react in a given situation.

I'm a firm believer that the more room you can provide in any integration the better off you are. That's not a square feet thing, if a chicken needs to run away they need enough room to run away. How much room do you really have? It's not a coop only or a run only thing, it's how much room combined to they have when they need that room.

My pullets start acting like mature hens about the time they start to lay. You say your 17-week-olds are just starting to lay. They may need a few more weeks to actually make that transition. It won't be all of them laying but just a few should be enough.

A GOOD mature rooster should not bother pullets not yet laying. Most mature roosters should be OK but every now and then you get one of the others. As I said, each chicken is an individual.

An Orpington rooster should work well with those pullets. They are all full-sized fowl and have fairly similar traits. A Buff Orp rooster with those BR and BA hens has the potential to create some really interesting colors. 1-1/2 years old should be enough for him to be mature. I'd consider it a great age.

I try to suggest you go by what you actually see instead of what some stranger over the internet like me says. What I would expect to happen if a few pullets are old enough is that he swaggers up to the flock, impressing them with his magnificence and self-confidence. He mates a couple (maybe willingly, maybe some chasing involved) and the flock is his. It's often that easy. The age of your pullets concerns me a bit but if you quarantine him for a month that kind of works itself out. But observe and go by what you see. It doesn't always happen the way I or anyone else expects it to.

Thank you, this is a very helpful perspective!

 

[homesteadmama8]

I'm doing a rooster integration right now. I read that too in multiple places, that you can just dump them in the coop at night, but I didn't do it myself because I worried about how a rooster deprived of all contact with other chickens from a lengthy quarantine might react when he wakes up and realizes he's suddenly surrounded by new girls - and how my hens might react given they've never seen a rooster. My roo turned into a chaotic clown and really scared the very first hen he saw. A few hours later he was a gentleman, but if that first outburst had happened in a small area I worry a hen or two could have gotten injured just from freaking out in a confined space. It would be less risk in a really big coop I guess, but a non-trivial concern for a smaller one.

Yes, that plan does make me a little uneasy