Adding a Rooster

[ECiesielczyk]

I am looking to add a rooster (9-10 month old) to my flock of 12 girls (ranging from 6 months to 2 years old) and have one lined up. I know that I am supposed to keep it separate from the rest of the flock for at least 3 days. Here is my question: where the heck do you guys keep it?

We only have one coop/run and my girls are free ranging. Short of keeping it in the house (hmmm crowing first thing might not be the best way to encourage happiness in my family) I am not really sure how to keep it separate and yet let it range. Any ideas? We rasied our chickens in big tubs in the house then moved them to the coop. Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

That helps a lot. With no other roosters that makes it a lot easier. Since he is not a really young one, that also makes it easier, especially with the older hens in the flock. Older hens can get pretty brutal to a young adolescent rooster, but since he is mature, that is not an issue.

I’m not going to tell you what to do about quarantine. That’s a personal decision. Different people do different things.

I’d just turn him lose with the hens. In most integration situations I’d say house the new chickens next to the existing flock so they can get used to each other. But I really don’t think that is necessary in your case.

What should happen is that he will immediately mate with some of the hens. That shows his dominance. Your existing head hen might put up some resistance, but since he is mature, he should be able to sway her and assert his dominance pretty easily. That mating ritual is a dominance thing as much or even more than a sexual thing. The one on top is showing his dominance. The one on bottom is accepting that dominance.

There is a reasonable chance this will shake up the pecking order a bit, but probably not much. You might even see the rooster breaking up those pecking order fights between the hens to keep order in his flock. That’s one of the duties of a dominant rooster, but the other hens have to accept his dominance so he can do that.

There is a much smaller chance that your head hen will not accept his dominance and try to fight him for it. That does not happen that often. Quite often the dominant hen becomes his best buddy but they are living animals so you never know for sure what will happen.

 

[Mrs. K]

Just put him in with your hens. You don't have a huge number of hens, and you seem pretty confident the rooster is clean. There might be some pecking order questions but in a couple of days, he will have gotten it all sorted out, if you just leave them alone to let him get it done. If you keep separating them, they have to keep starting over.

Most people with backyard flocks do not have the space to do a quarantine correctly, and if you don't, you don't. Most are pretending they are quarantining when in reality, the birds were healthy and they got lucky. There is directions on here how to do it right, but you have to change your clothes, and shoes, have a great deal of distance between the flocks ect. And if you are not going to do it right, well you may as well not do it at all.

I think the garden will just be a pain, and more than likely, he will get out and get with your hens anyway.

I am not saying you could not get burnt, cause people, even knowledgeable people have, but the price of quarantine needs to be judged against what you could possibly lose. If it would break your heart to lose some of your hens to a disease, well, then don't add new birds. but if you like the flock, accept the fact that all will die eventually, and that you will be needing to replace birds periodically, I would not worry about quarantine with a small flock.

If you have 30-300 birds or high price, rare heritage birds, well.... you probably have a bigger set up to begin with, and have more at risk financially, and can and should quarantine.

But for a small family flock, I would and have just added birds to my flock, that looked healthy and strong.

However, I would not add any bird to my place that was a rescue bird, that would not be prudent in my opinion.

Mrsk

 

[GoldDogsMom]

I don't know how others will respond to this question but when I added a rooster to my flock of 12, he was younger than most of the girls and I first let him free range with them then put him in the coop at night once the girls had gone to roost and then let everyone out first thing in the am to free range. I did this for about a week and they eventually got used to him.

 

[ECiesielczyk]

I don't know how others will respond to this question but when I added a rooster to my flock of 12, he was younger than most of the girls and I first let him free range with them then put him in the coop at night once the girls had gone to roost and then let everyone out first thing in the am to free range. I did this for about a week and they eventually got used to him.

Sorry, so wait, you kept him out of the coop while the girls went in. Did you catch him and wait until night fall? You didn't keep him separate?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have no idea why you are supposed to keep him separated for three days. Why or where did you come up with the 3 days?

If you are going to do quarantine, it should be closer to 30 days, not 3. I have no idea what your area and set-up looks like. You need to find a place where they cannot d=share food or water, cannot scratch their poop into each other’s area, and where they do not share air. Some diseases can be transmitted by air.

Do you have another rooster with your flock? How old is your rooster, new and old. How old are your hens? I have some suggestions but to save me a lot of typing out all the what-ifs, could you please help with a bit of information?

 

[GoldDogsMom]

At first he would just hang out between my 2 coops, about a 3 ft wide area cuz he was scared of all the girls so he would be there after they all went in...then I would scoop him up and set him in the coop on a roost a distance from the girls.

I didn't know what to do to seperate him and he was so timid at first...

Maybe I just got lucky that they all settled in so quickly but no one was ever injured and I kept a close watch for the first few days while everyone was out.

 

[ECiesielczyk]

I have no idea why you are supposed to keep him separated for three days. Why or where did you come up with the 3 days?

If you are going to do quarantine, it should be closer to 30 days, not 3. I have no idea what your area and set-up looks like. You need to find a place where they cannot d=share food or water, cannot scratch their poop into each other’s area, and where they do not share air. Some diseases can be transmitted by air.

Do you have another rooster with your flock? How old is your rooster, new and old. How old are your hens? I have some suggestions but to save me a lot of typing out all the what-ifs, could you please help with a bit of information?

I have 12 hens: some 2 yo, some 1 yo and one 6 month old. No roosters. I researched adding new chickens and it seems that the quaritine lasts anywhere from 3 - 30 days depending on who the source is. The rooster is 9-10 months in excelletn health.

 

[GoldDogsMom]

I was responding to the question thinking you meant to acclimate the rooster...not in terms of quarantine-definitely need to quarantine a new bird. My rooster was raised with 3 of the girls in the coop he was added to (by me)-I had put him in another smaller coop and then figured out I had 2 roosters and wanted to split them up -so I didn't need to quarantine.

I hope I didn't confuse you!

 

[ECiesielczyk]

Okay. Yes, I am adding a new bird to my flock. I would just like the girls to have one, plus in the future, when my Black Jersey Giant goes broody again, I would like to hatch a few.