Can I put a 10 month old Roo with 5 week old chicks?

[crazymom]

I bought several hens at a local feedstore and was quite surprised when several started crowing. The feedstore declined to give me a refund so I kept the Roo's. Due to predators, we now have a 2 year old hen, 3 1 year old hens, and 2 1 year old roosters ("Princess" and "Welsummer").

Right now Princess is not letting Welsummer near the flock. Welsummer is all alone wandering around our yard or sometimes afraid of coming out of the coop. We also have 7 chicks that are 5 weeks old. Welsummer likes to look at them, but hasn't flown into the fenced area to be with them. I take the chicks in at night but now that they are old enough and it is warm enough, I am probably going to leave the cage outside at night as I did with the older chickens when they were that age. I am tempted to let Welsummer stay with the chicks.

My question is: what are the chances that Welsummer and the chicks get along? Or is Welsummer better off with Princess and the girls?

 

[Matt A NC]

Quote:
Slim to none. This would be very risky and may result in the death of the chicks. I wouldn't try it. AND once the chicks start to mature the older rooster will try to mate the little ones a long time before they are ready.

Matt

 

[theoldchick]

Little chicks don't do well with the big guys unless mother hen is around to protect the little chicks.

 

[Lollipop]

If your rooster was mature he would do fine, but it sounds like he`s still struggling with his maturity. Don`t do it...........Pop

I`ll edit this to say that my practice is to put all my chicks in a large pen with a MATURE COCK to police them. The cock is always good with them and alows no fighting among the youngsters as they grow. A young rooster does not act the same and is as much of a danger to chicks as older hens are. Hope you get the pictire........Pop

 

[crazymom]

Thanks for the information! That's what I suspected, but was hoping that I was wrong.

Poor Welsummer. He's stuck with Princess until we can re-home one of them.

Matt, At what age can I combine them? I have combined hens before, but never with a Roo in the mix. Any suggestions for separating them until they are ready to mate?

Since there is a very low hen to Roo ratio, the Roos are pretty rough on the hens that I currently have. We sometimes give the girls a spa day where we send the boys outside to free range and the girls get to relax inside the fenced area.