My hens and roosters that were raised together are 6 months old so not quite laying. I purchased an 8 month old rooster and after quarantine, I put him in the run separated by fencing. At one week i tried to put him in at dusk and the dominant rooster wasn't having it. I separated him again for another 7 days. This time i put him in the coop after dark when they were all roosting. Its been 14 days and there hasn't even been a scuffle. The dominant Roo is a plymouth barred rock, the second in command is the buff orpington raised with the barred rock, and the older bigger new roo a Blue Ameraucana is low man on the totem pole. I only had 10 hens,but purchased 6 white leghorns a few days ago getting ready for the meet and greet in a few days. Then in a couple weeks integrate them into the flock.
All sounds ok. A few months back i put a new roo with the flock with an existing roo about a month older. After literally 5 seconds of disagreement the new one conceded that he was second in command and there was no trouble thereafter. I had 2 roos from a hatch, and at 3.5 months of peace and quiet they had a ding-dong that proved fatal for one of them - guess it just shows that if both roos are hell-bent on being in charge, it can be very ugly. CT
