Adopted rooster aggressive toward flock

[catfalls]

We have 8 older hens plus 7 that are 4 months old (raised from day-old chicks), 4 bantam hens and 6 bantam roosters, and one giant (think "turkey-sized") rooster. All hand raised by us and all are calm, no pecking or fighting at all. Our big rooster is now old and lame, so we just adopted a 4 month old rooster to take over his duties. This young rooster is very aggressive towards all of our existing roosters and our old hens are aggressive towards him. He has shown no aggression towards us, but we are not happy with the change in flock behaviors. Any recommendations to try to calm everyone down and hopefully restore peace in our flock?

 

[nuthatched]

How were they introduced?

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Being completely new to the flock he most likely is trying even harder to make sure that it’s clear he is the top rooster especially with the other rooster being old/lame he is seen as the weak link needing to go. As far as the older hens go they need to be aggressive towards him. They are putting him in his place, teaching manners and how to be respectful. I personally do not think you will be able to keep a cockerel that was not raised from the start with the rest in the same area as your older rooster. He sees him only as a weak competitor that needs to go. Even with proper introductions a rooster is still a rooster and he doesn’t have a reason to allow your older lame rooster to co-exist in his new harem. If it were my flock I would get rid of the new one and get a cockerel chick allowing the entire flock a chance to raise him up before he is big enough to throw his weight around.

 

[Sally PB]

4 month old rooster

He's at the hormonal idiot stage.

and our old hens are aggressive towards him

They are probably trying to teach him some manners/put him in his place.

This young rooster is very aggressive towards all of our existing roosters

How many other roosters, and how old? New Guy is trying to prove himself.

This may not work out, so have a Plan B for this guy.

 

[catfalls]

2 of the bantam roosters are 2 years old and the other 4 are 2 months old. We had hoped to get a new roo offspring from our big rooster, as we had done with his father, but we waited too long before realizing he was lame. I agree with comments about establishing his place and our girls trying to put him in his place. I had hoped to get suggestions on how I could help them all come to terms with this new paradigm so that I wouldn't have to get rid of the new roo.

 

[ChicNmom]

How long has he been with the group?

 

[catfalls]

We picked him up Friday evening. We have him sequestered in a separate area of our run and have been letting him in the run with small groups of the others to see how they interact. He immediately attacks the bantam roosters and a couple of our big hens have even tried pecking at him through the common wire wall between the two areas, as well as attacking him when we let him into their run. The seven 4-month old hens were fine with him before he started chasing/mounting them, now they aren't so happy with him either.

In a day or so, when we feel confident he knows where "home" is, we will let him out to free-range with the younger hens to see if he will establish his own mini-flock and stay away from the older girls and rooster.

 

[ChicNmom]

The older girls will probably keep putting him in his place. That is good. He needs to learn. He will probably still go after the older rooster even in the yard.

 

[Greenwolf]

We have 8 older hens plus 7 that are 4 months old (raised from day-old chicks), 4 bantam hens and 6 bantam roosters, and one giant (think "turkey-sized") rooster. All hand raised by us and all are calm, no pecking or fighting at all. Our big rooster is now old and lame, so we just adopted a 4 month old rooster to take over his duties. This young rooster is very aggressive towards all of our existing roosters and our old hens are aggressive towards him. He has shown no aggression towards us, but we are not happy with the change in flock behaviors. Any recommendations to try to calm everyone down and hopefully restore peace in our flock?

How long has this been going on for? Like Chick Mom says have a plan B. I had a couple of instances of this with all hand raised roosters. The aggressive ones met the axe. Give it a couple of weeks at most. Then either give him to someone who has only hens or you may have to axe him. Hard to do. But it may have to be done.

 

[Greenwolf]

We picked him up Friday evening. We have him sequestered in a separate area of our run and have been letting him in the run with small groups of the others to see how they interact. He immediately attacks the bantam roosters and a couple of our big hens have even tried pecking at him through the common wire wall between the two areas, as well as attacking him when we let him into their run. The seven 4-month old hens were fine with him before he started chasing/mounting them, now they aren't so happy with him either.

In a day or so, when we feel confident he knows where "home" is, we will let him out to free-range with the younger hens to see if he will establish his own mini-flock and stay away from the older girls and rooster.

Ya ok. As stated the older girls will likely tune him in. Make sure he's not too aggressive. I had a half banty beat the crap out of my head rooster a couple of months back. He and his brother put my older boy in tatters. I separated them with a warning and when my boy was beaten and bloody I had to axe the pair. They'd known him since they were chicks. He was their dad. No problem at all for a year and a half. Then the rumble. I hated having to do it but part of a working homestead is making the hard choices.