Best Integration Methods?

[chicky-little]

Has anyone integrated a rooster into a flock with an existing one?

I added a 5 month old rooster with the same method I mentioned above your post. No issues at all.

 

[Tbird84]

I've usually not had problems in the past, but not this time. I'll keep working at it though.

 

[Tbird84]

Once I was adding chicks to a flock. And they peep all the time, and run crazy and I swear, my rooster finally could not take it any more and just jumped up and down and Huffed. Instant silence, dead run to the safe zone. He looked just like a dad with his hands on his hips.

He had had it, I laughed till I cried.

Mrs K

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

I let my hens out into a large area with tall grass sorrounded with a poultry net and litter the ground with cherrios and watermelon (All of the chickens favorites) then I put the chicks in there and let them mingle. For the first hour They just eat then later they start to establish a new pecking order. At night I have to put the chicks on the roosts because they don't know How to get in the coop

 

[Henrik Petersson]

Apart from what everyone says, breed matters. In my experience, Lohman Brown (a type of red sex links) are the worst bullies.

Cochin LF are supposedly very mellow, so I would be worried that they'd be bullied if the other chickens are of other breeds that aren't said to be as mellow. So I would integrate carefully.

The 1st time I had to integrate, I'd had the newcomer, a rooster, in quaranteen for two weeks, in sight of the six hens. When I tured him with them, it took him about 10 seconds to breed one; no problems ever.

I would not bother using the "see, don't touch" method if I were to integrate a rooster into an all-hen flock. It seems redundant. Quarantine is good, though.

 

[WindingRoad]

That's how I did. I had a BO and ISAB. About 18 months old. Grew up together. Got along fine. No pecking order. And I put my 2 SLW right in with them. My ISAB became the head chicken. And still is. She is slowly getting better. And the 2 SLW just stay out of her way. I check crops every night and my 2 SLW always have full crops. IDK.

OMG.

 

[Doc7]

OMG.

?

 

[WindingRoad]

?

Typo.

 

[Table4Six]

I do think breed plays a big part but I recently add 4 seramas hen/pullets in with my silkies. Quarantine was worst than intergration, the serama hens bullied the pullets and the poor girls are missing so tail feathers. When I put the seramas in the coop I had my husband install higher roost as the seramas fly and the silkies don't but it wasn't needed. I put them in and they went over to the water, feeder and then started dust bathing and within in minutes the silkies joined then in the dust, I guess in chicken world a family that grooms together stays together It was just another day in the neighbor hood no bickering at all.

I love the look your silkie roo is giving the serama pullet in the second pic so cute!

 

[JaeG]

Our original flock is very peaceful but contains no white birds. We tried to integrate 4 white birds and 1 that's ginger and blue. The ginger and blue one has been accepted no problem, even though she's a Silkie. The 4 white (non Silkie) birds are still needing their own separate space after 6 months or they are the recipients of some nasty comb pecking. I'm hoping when we move house and they are in a completely new space everyone just gets over it.