How old should a rooster be to introduce it to a new flock?

[Mattole]

Hello everyone,

We have 4-5 young roosters from a clutch of eggs that one of our broody Speckled Sussex hens hatched out 10 weeks ago. We will be needing to find homes for most of these roosters since we do not want to eat them. We are wondering - what age is best for relocating them into a new flock? Also, how many roosters can be in a flock consisting of 12 hens?

Thanks for your help and good day to you.

 

[ZooMummzy]

I would guess no more than 2 roosters for 12 hens, but that is just my guess. As far relocating them, as soon as possible! I started when mine were 6 weeks old and I'm still trying to find homes for them and they are 6 months old.

 

[Farmer_Dan]

I've had mixed results, usually, the rooster has to be big enough to fend for himself when introduced to a group of new hens. The term "hen pecked" isn't random... Those girls will eat the roo if they can, but if he's big enough to assert himself, they'll be nicer to him.

We tried one roo at 6 weeks and he was almost torn apart, we put him back in there at about 3 months and the girls love him now.

As soon as possible is a good motto though if you're talking about how soon to get rid of them. The integration should and will be dealt with by the new owners.

 

[pennie1]

I have tried having 2 roos with 15 girls and it still caused problems. I now have 1 roo per 9 girls.

 

[Mattole]

Thanks for the replies. My sense is that I want the roosters to be well-developed so as not to be 'hen-pecked' by the girls of the new flock that they will go to. We don't mind keeping them longer - we're kind of attached to them in fact..

But how about this: the dominant rooster-lad of these 10-wk old chickens was just today, after I posted my question on this forum, grabbing and trying to mount one of the older hens in our main flock. At least I think he was trying to mount her. And he did so right in front of the main flock rooster. And the main flock rooster did nothing to reprimand him! I thought that youngster would get his tail kicked for that...