Adding a rooster

[Willow2253]

Hi everyone, in a few weeks I'll be adding bringing home a new rooster. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on integrating him into my existing flock. I currently have a 3 year old Japanese bantam with about a dozen standard sized hens and they free range, so we needed a standard sized rooster to protect the flock. The new rooster is a 7 month old Ameraucana. We're also adding 8-10 more hens at about the same size. We have two chicken coops, and my plan is to keep him in the unoccupied one with a run for the first couple of weeks, but I thought it would be a good idea to ask for advice from some more experienced folks before I jump into this.

 

[BDutch]

I have no experiance on this one. But from reading stuff about multiple roosters I know it can be difficult and sometimes impossible to add an extra rooster. Depends on the breed, character, space (free ranging is more often successful).

Hope you get some good advises.

 

[Perris]

start with quarantine - at least 2 weeks and preferably a month - for all new birds.

Then it pretty much depends on the cocks; I have 4, the first bought in and the other three home grown or hatched and flock-raised in a free-range environment. The eldest home hatched was fine for 2 years - even played surrogate dad to last year's chicks - then started fighting with the dominant roo this winter, and has had to be confined since. The son of dominant roo is popular with some of the hens and behaves well (like his dad); there is occasional chasing but most of the time the two of them are roaming together with the flock one front, one rear, or one on either side. The youngest, home hatched and flock-raised, is still keeping his gender quiet, despite being taller than even the dominant roo (he's a Barbezieux, tallest European breed) so there've been no issues there yet.

Are you planning to cull the bantam roo once the LF is ready to go? If not, you might want to think about how you would handle them fighting.

 

[aart]

3 year old Japanese bantam

This is a male?

so we needed a standard sized rooster to protect the flock.

Not sure I'd count on that.

 

[Curley]

I had a banty rooster and a standard one that both did well together, sadly lost their lives protecting the girls one day to a ruthless mink!

 

[365username]

Carry him into the coop when you get him, but put him down calm otherwise the other rooster will react not calm. Stand out side for 5 minutes make sure nothing bad happens, if they fight let them, but if it gets to the point where one is bleeding then go in and break it up. But you still need to let them fight so they learn who's boss of the coop. Check on them every 5 to 10 minutes.

 

[Willow2253]

start with quarantine - at least 2 weeks and preferably a month - for all new birds.

Then it pretty much depends on the cocks; I have 4, the first bought in and the other three home grown or hatched and flock-raised in a free-range environment. The eldest home hatched was fine for 2 years - even played surrogate dad to last year's chicks - then started fighting with the dominant roo this winter, and has had to be confined since. The son of dominant roo is popular with some of the hens and behaves well (like his dad); there is occasional chasing but most of the time the two of them are roaming together with the flock one front, one rear, or one on either side. The youngest, home hatched and flock-raised, is still keeping his gender quiet, despite being taller than even the dominant roo (he's a Barbezieux, tallest European breed) so there've been no issues there yet.

Are you planning to cull the bantam roo once the LF is ready to go? If not, you might want to think about how you would handle them fighting.

We’re hoping to keep both. We love the bantam, but he’s only taking care of a handful of the hens. He’s not a fan of our wyandottes. We’ll step in if we have to once they get introduced, but I understand some squabbles are inevitable to sort out the new pecking order. I’m hoping it doesn’t lead to that though, the new rooster is currently on a farm with other roos, and he’s not very dominant towards them.

This is a male?

Not sure I'd count on that.

Yes the bantam is a male. Mainly we’re concerned because he’s ignoring about half the flock. He tends to ignore our wyandottes, and we’ve had some trouble with predation on them because of it. Thus wanting a standard roo that can handle them.

Carry him into the coop when you get him, but put him down calm otherwise the other rooster will react not calm. Stand out side for 5 minutes make sure nothing bad happens, if they fight let them, but if it gets to the point where one is bleeding then go in and break it up. But you still need to let them fight so they learn who's boss of the coop. Check on them every 5 to 10 minutes.

Thanks, we’ll be sure to keep this in mind when we introduce them.

 

[Perris]

ours ran each other ragged for about 2 weeks before it got bloody and I intervened. The trouble is they still don't agree on who's boss, and I don't think they will till one is very badly hurt, which I'm not prepared to allow. (I let the challenger out yesterday to see if they would reconcile, and within 5 minutes they were at each other again.)

 

[BDutch]

This is what i concluded after reading all the reactions and what I’ve been reading on another platform:

After putting the rooster in quarantine, and passing some time alone with the Wyandottes, you can give it a try to put the two flocks together when free ranging.

But if the roosters keep fighting badly it can be necessary to split the flock in two permanently.

please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Shadrach]

Separate housing for your bantam and his hens and one for the rest would seem your best bet after quarantine.
I keep be breed/relations here with currently 7 males and despite the fights (mostly over quickly with minimal harm) everyone rubs along.
The other consideration is space. The more space they per group the better the outcome.