Adding a ROOSTER

[deborah1111]

Hi Everybody! I am new to BYC. I had chickens when I was growing up, but it has been 30 years. I have a full grown hen she is a Red Laced Wyandotte, and her 2 babies, they are brown leg horns, and I have 2 Silver laced Wyandottes, 3 Australorps, and 3 Delawares chicks that are about 8 weeks old. I have the opportunity to take a full grown Blue Lace Red Wyandotte Roo. Would you try and rehome him into this coop?

I am open to as much advise as I can get. I really want to add a rooster, but I don't know how.

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

If you want another rooster, I think that is great, but you do need to be careful.

I have a good setup, free range my chickens, a coop and an attached run, that has a door so that the pens can be seperated. Plus lots of kennels and a chicken tractor. Because of this I can put my new roo in the run closed off. He and the other roos work out their differences and he gets to know the hens, then after a few days I let the roo out. If you have a tough dominate hen I would put her with the roo.

Because it sounds like you have young-ish chicks I would be careful because you don't want the roo to hurt them. If you could just tell the person with the roo then I would just reserve him until the chicks are more capable of defending themselves.

It should go well if you just keep them separated for a while.

 

[Daisy8s]

I added a juvenile rooster to my existing flock and it ended well after some initial spats.

Anytime you add a chicken of any kind you want to quarantine them to make sure they're healthy. Then, you want them to be able to see/hear the rest of the flock for a few days to get used to each other. Then, it's the big integration day--some people advise putting them together at night so they wake up together. I haven't found that this does anything as everyone knows who the new one is!

If you are set up to do the quarantine and slow integration then there's no reason you shouldn't add a new rooster. I found that my rooster actually protected the chicks from the older, meaner hens. But, that trait probably varies from rooster to rooster.

I would strongly advise watching the integration process closely on the first day. I watched for about 2 hours and all seemed fine--then we had to go out of town for about 6 hours. When I returned my poor rooster was huddled in a corner with a mean hen pecking his back to a bloody mess. It took weeks for him to recover (in isolation). Of course he was a juvenile. The moral of the story: watch closely for the whole first day to be sure the new bird doesn't get trapped and beat up.

Good luck!

 

[deborah1111]

Thank you for the advice. I thought the best way was through the seperationa nd the slow integration process. I will definetly be available on the day I integrate to watch them for a few hours

 

[deborah1111]

I will let everybody know how it goes, maybe even post a few pics. Thank you again I'm excited to get Anican

 

[devora]

What is a Red Laced Wyandotte?? Is it the same as a GLW or a different bird altogether?

 

[deborah1111]

I am sorry. I meant a golden laced wyandotte.

So I ended up with a blue laced red wyandotte Rooster. His name is Anican. I love him and he took to my lady and the babies just great. He even stopped my lady hen, (I call her Lyndsey Lohan) from going after the little ones. In a few months. I am going to let them out to free range this weekend. I have been bringing treats (Lettuce, watermelon rinds) to them in the morning and in the evening. I am hoping that there will not be any problem bring them back to the coop in the evening. How far will they venture? Any suggestions?

 

[aoxa]

I've never had problems adding roos to a flock except between other roos. If you don't have any other roosters, there shouldn't be an issue. All of my boys are great with chicks (I have 6 boys over 19 weeks). 2 of my roosters will feed/keep the babies warm.

Jagger found some corn.

Feeds it to his son

What a good dad

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

I free range my chickens all the time. The first couple of times they won't go far and might not even realize how far they can go. Just watch out for predators. Hawks are the worst. I have only lost one to our hawk since we moved (18 months ago), compared to losing 2 a week at my old house (although it is hard to notice when you have as many chickens and as much land as we do. If you have always had your chickens inside most hawks won't pay attention, because they never were able to make a meal out of them. I would let them out mid-day though, hawks are usually resting then.

If you have a good dog, like our 10 year old pit bull-lab Boom-Boom, you shouldn't have a problem with coyotes and other "land" creatures. Boom-Boom chased one for two miles once. We haven't seen or heard any around here since. If you don't have one, I would find one. It is so hard to keep coyotes away in rural areas, although you can buy products that claim to do the trick, nothing is better than a good dog.

Your chickens should be fine and go back in their coop at night, since they have always been safe there.

Note: To help them learn that tree cover is safe (most of the time) from hawks I would put food around the trunks of trees for a few days. This will just teach them to hang out there where hawks can't get to them.

 

[deborah1111]

Thank you for the advice. I have a pair of Red Tail hawks that live across the stredet in the Eucalyptus grove. I only have a few trees on my back property and it is only an acre and a half. Do you think the red tail hawks will go after my babies? My babies are about 2 months old?