Adding a Rooster

[SD Bird Lady]

Do you have a garage or other outbuilding and a dog crate? If you are serious about a quarintine then he should not be allowed to range anywhere the girls already have access too. so you willl be in isolation for 3 weeks or so. After that I agree with golddogsmom. If they are all ranging then there is less confrontation and more room to retreat if neccessary. Generally introducing animals of the opposite sex is a lot easier than introducing same sex animals in my experience.

 

[ECiesielczyk]

Do you have a garage or other outbuilding and a dog crate? If you are serious about a quarintine then he should not be allowed to range anywhere the girls already have access too. so you willl be in isolation for 3 weeks or so. After that I agree with golddogsmom. If they are all ranging then there is less confrontation and more room to retreat if neccessary. Generally introducing animals of the opposite sex is a lot easier than introducing same sex animals in my experience.

No outbuildings but my garden is fenced. There isn't much cover and I would assume he could just fly right over the fence. To keep him from anywhere the girls are allowed, I would have to keep him in the house as the girls have full access to the yard and fields.

 

[GoldDogsMom]

No outbuildings but my garden is fenced. There isn't much cover and I would assume he could just fly right over the fence. To keep him from anywhere the girls are allowed, I would have to keep him in the house as the girls have full access to the yard and fields.

How big is your garden? Could you rig up a cover for it?

 

[SD Bird Lady]

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.

I also do not want to tell you what to do but if your plan was only 3 days then you might as well save yourself the hassle. As long as he came from a healthy flock and you have done an inspection for mites I would just turn him loose. However I claim no responsibility if he does get everyone sick. **insert legal jargon here haha**

That is what happened here with our roo and top hen (big mamma). She still lets him mate but it is on her terms haha

 

[ECiesielczyk]

Okay, thanks guys. I wasn't planning on quaritining him long for a couple of reasons: he has been on his own for a while and we don't really have the ability to keep him separate for 1 month. He has been checked for mites and is overall in excellent health. I was hoping to integrate him in sooner rather than later.

Another question about it. If we add him to the coop, will he come back the first couple of nights or will i have to catch him and put him in?

 

[missnu01]

He really should be kept totally separate for a few weeks before you add him, but after that this is how I do it. I added a young rooster when I already have an older rooster, and I just put the new rooster in the coop in a dog crate for a few days, there were a lot of crowing contests and flustering of feathers and I was pretty worried but after a week or so of living separate but together I let the new rooster out, and the old rooster flew at him, and the younger ran away and they have been fine ever since. They still argue over who is going to breed the hens but basically the older rooster pulls rank and everyone follows him. The younger rooster is more attentive and randier than the older roo so it works out between them...I would think adding a rooster to a bunch of hens should be fairly easy. I would put the new roo in the coop for a few days in a crate and then let him out and it should all be alright.

 

[SD Bird Lady]

Okay, thanks guys. I wasn't planning on quaritining him long for a couple of reasons: he has been on his own for a while and we don't really have the ability to keep him separate for 1 month. He has been checked for mites and is overall in excellent health. I was hoping to integrate him in sooner rather than later.

Another question about it. If we add him to the coop, will he come back the first couple of nights or will i have to catch him and put him in?

I would guess he will go back in since the girls already do....if not maybe take out some scratch at night for a couple days and he should get the hang of it. The way to every man's heart is through his stomach!!

 

[GoldDogsMom]

I would guess he will go back in since the girls already do....if not maybe take out some scratch at night for a couple days and he should get the hang of it. The way to every man's heart is through his stomach!!

It took my "Squeaky Roo" a couple of days of me coaxing him in and then he started going in on his own.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Another question about it. If we add him to the coop, will he come back the first couple of nights or will i have to catch him and put him in?

I'd expect him to go in with the hens but no guarantees. Keeping him in a crate for a couple of days in the coop would improve your odds of this, but so would catching him and putting him in the coop at night if he does not go in the first nihgt.

Something that might be real easy and should work. Keep him locked up until they go to bed, then turn him lose in the coop. He'll sleep with them and there is a real great chance he will go back in there the next night when they do.

 

[ECiesielczyk]

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

Mrsk

Okay, another silly one: what is a rescue bird?