How long till my hens accept this rooster??? I want peace again!

[teach1rusl]

My five pullets/hens are 6 months old (are laying). They've always been a very tight group, with very little squabbling between them. I recently adopted a 9 month old EE cockerel. He had his own little coop area within my large run, so the hens could see him, and he could see them. I went from there, to letting him spend some time with them during the day, but putting him back in his own little coop at night. And now he is in the coop full time with them (for the past week).

Not only is the squabbling between the rooster and most of the girls bad (which I expected as he fights for top spot...and attempts mating), but the squabbling between my girls has become horrible, especially when getting ready for roosting time at night. Pullets who have been best buddies have been picking at one another (generally jockying for position furthest away from the rooster). I'm used to calm and harmony among my little flock, and all this picking is driving me nuts. He goes after some of them (mostly dominating my smallest EE girl), some of them go after him...even my normally super sweet little orp girl has begun picking on some of the other girls...it's chaos!

How much time is typically needed for an established flock of pullets/hens to accept a rooster??? Thanks!

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

It is possible that they will never like him. We have had roosters that the girls can't stand and others that they just love. We have a Ameracauna hen that we got a really nice rooster for and she absolutely hated him. Got a different Ameracauna rooster and she was madly in love with him. You might have to think about a different roo for your girls.

 

[Lollipop]

Just thinking about this for a second. Usually in this situation, it`s a cockeral that is added to an established flock of older hens that gets rejected because of his immaturity. In this case, the cockeral is 3 months older. I`m recalling reports of Ameracauna pullets that didn`t start laying until they were 8-10 months old and wondering if the boy is just a late bloomer. Noticed that you said he attempts to mate and that leads me to doubt his success rate. Perhaps all he needs is a little more time to mature. ThePamperedPullet could be correct about them never liking him, but I would give him more time to establish his dominance.

As for the roosting behavior, any change, even the drinking water, can stress chickens. They resist change even more than humans do. Anything ranging from drinking water, food, caretaker, new coop, nesting boxes, or even the addition of a new member of the flock can be enough to change their behavior. Chickens are very territorrial and that`s the reason BYC has posts concerning adding new flock members at least 3-4 times a week. They just don`t like strangers and newcommers take a lot of time to be accepted. I believe that things will settle down as the boy has his time to mature and takes his place amongst the ladies. Don`t think they are being bad, they`re just acting like chickens. Enjoy the experience........Pop