If a hen hatches eggs, can you put the father of the chicks with them?

[Chicken Whisperers]

Okay, so I do believe that Peaches (EE) is a roo. Now, we are deciding whether to keep him. If two of them mate and then eggs hatch, can the father roo live with the mother hen and chicks? Or will he attack them? I am really hoping we will keep Peaches, but it all comes down to a few questions about their personalities. We have an extra coop that we use for introducing and raising baby chicks. Thinking if we have a roo, we will never have to buy chicks again!! But we also don't want them all the time, so I was thinking we can put him in the extra coop. But if we use it to raise chicks we might need it. Any advice?

 

[llombardo]

I'm not sure about him being with the chicks, but I'm not sure why he would have to be seperated if there were no chicks? Collect the eggs daily and no babies. Get a broody hen and either let her hatch or remove eggs at your discretion.

 

[CannedMonster]

He shouldn’t attack any babies.
All chickens will peck chicks to teach them pecking order and manners.
That’s not the same as an all out attack though.
I’ve heard of aggressive hens attacking chicks but it’s rare and the hen should probably be culled.
The bigger issue is usually human aggression.
As their teenage hormones start up their personality can change.
Sometimes just a little; sometimes a lot.
He will become sexually mature before any girls he was raised with too.
The girls aren’t usually ready until 5-6 months.
So he may make them miserable but it sounds like you can separate him so that’s good.
But like llombardo said, if you continue to collect all the eggs you won’t get chicks.
Then you can let him mature before letting one of your girls set some eggs.

 

[Poultrybreeder]

I have raised 6 batches of chicks this year, 5 of which a rooster was present for (Each batch had a different father). I did not have any problems. Just a side note, you may occasionally end up with a rooster that will attack chicks. I have never experienced this, but have seen it happen at other breeders farms. So it is always a good idea to have a place to separate the rooster, just in case.

 

[chickens really]

I raise mine with all my Flock. My Rooster tidbits for the Chicks and protects them.
Collect your eggs daily and break your Broody if you don't want more Chicks.

 

[Dmontgomery]

We have hens hatching in the coop all the time. The roosters and hens all live together and we have never had a rooster be aggressive towards any of the chicks. Possibly we’ve just been very lucky, but our roosters have always been gentle around the little ones.
As already mentioned, a 4 month old rooster is going to be very hormonal and will aggravate his sisters a lot. The girls won’t be ready to mate as soon as he is and there will be trouble for a few weeks until they are all mature.
Keep Peaches, but change his name. Sorry that’s not very PC of me.

 

[Shadrach]

In my experience the roosters behave better towards the chicks than the more senior hens, father or not.
The mothers may not let anyone near her chicks for a while and as long as she has space to avoid the rest of the flock there are rarely any problem. Eventually mum will let dad imprint the chicks and apart from the occasional disciplinary peck by dad things are fine.
The important point is they must have sufficient space.

 

[orrpeople]

Generally, keeping him with chicks is fine. The problem I have encountered is that a head roo will often thrash on a young cockerel (4-6 weeks sometimes) especially if the little guy tries to assert himself in any way.
You know your flock - just be on the lookout for anything amiss.

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

Good luck!!!!!

 

[Chicken Whisperers]

Thank you guys so much! That makes me feel a lot better now: we will probably keep him. Will prolly just keep him with the hens and yea, collect eggs eggs every day. Thank you!!