Can hens hurt younger roo?

[needmorechickens!]

Well I know I wouldn't put a young pullet in with a bunch of older roosters, but can I put a 10 week old rooster in with four 19 week old hens?

They have been separate up until now and I really need to integrate them.

1. Will the hens hurt him? (he is almost as the same size as my small hen)

2. I just started my hens on layer crumbles so can the young roo eat that?

What do you think?
~Rebecca

 

[needmorechickens!]

*update* Well I went ahead and put Perkins, my young roo in the run before sunset. The girls picked on him a bit, but he was able to run into the coop for escape.
This morning I checked on him and he was still in the coop. He ran out to me for protection when I went out there. The hens are still chasing him. He had a little scratch on top of his beak that was slightly bleeding, so I put some food and water in the coop for him and some fence up on the coop door so they can look at each other while I am at work. The hens are in the run. I will let him out again tonight and see how it goes.
Poor Perkins!

~Rebecca

 

[BirdBoy88]

Yup just what i thought..

Hens can be just as mean as roosters sometimes..lol

but after a few days or a week or 2 the hens will leave him alone and before you know it he will be the leader of the pen...

Same happen to me last year.. i put a RIR rooster in a pen with 10 hens and he was taller than all the hens but they were chasing him and jumping on him like he was a piece of food..lol but now he's the leader

When putting any new chicken with other chickens this will almost always happen..i hope your rooster feels better

 

[fullhouse]

YES! I took out a big 14 week old that was terrorizing the other chicks and threw him in with the hens. They mildly picked on him for two days while I closely watched and he was never really harmed. Then I left the house for 3 hours and oh my, they picked his butt bare and bloody. He was OK, I cleaned him up and isolated him.

 

[americana-chick]

one of my 3 month roo always trys to mate with the older girls and they sure dont like it! they will turn around and chase him away, and peck him! but they like the banty roo. the other roo just sticks with the smaller chicks to do that with.

 

[ccmarie]

We had a rooster once that the rest of the hens killed. It was years ago and I'm not sure the breed. Probably white leghorn- it was white, and picked up at a feed store by people who didn't care much which breed they were. Poor Barney.