Integrating 10 week old cockerels and pullets to flock with 20 week cockerel?

[juliasflock]

I have a 20 week old cockerel in with my hens and pullets. I have 5- 10 week olds I want to integrate. 2 of the 10 week olds are cockerels.
I want to integrate all 5, because the more there are, the easier integration seems to be. After they are integrated, I plan on getting rid of the 10 week old cockerels.

Will my 20 week old cockerel attack the 10 week old cockerels? I was hoping not because they are not sexually mature yet.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Mrs. K]

Roosters are a crap shoot, you can try it, it might work, might not, have a plan B and a plan C and have them set up and ready to go.

Plan B the 20 week old cockerel is not mature...BUT HE THINKS HE IS. I think I would try this, pull all the roosters, and put them where you have the chicks now, but the hen chicks in with the hens. Without the hens, this might work best.

3 pullets with the hens - do a safety zone, have lots of hideouts and extra feed stations.

 

[aart]

All(probably) the older birds will attack the new ones.
How will you integrate?
How big is your coop and run?
How many older birds total(number and ages)?

Here's some tips about.....
Integration Basics:
It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.
Good ideas for hiding places:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know how much room you have in your coop(s) or run(s), how they are tied together, how your two flocks are housed right now, or what integration techniques you plan to use. It sounds like you have experience integrating already so I'll try to stay away from that. Your concern seems to be if the 20 week old cockerel will attack the 10 week old cockerels because they are male. I think the decision you are trying to make is whether it is better to try to integrate all five or just the three pullets.

Frankly, I don't know. A lot of that depends on how close to puberty those two are. My guess is that at ten weeks they will not be seen any differently from the pullets when it comes to integrating them by the cockerel, the older pullets, or your mature hens. When they hit puberty that will likely change. I don't know when they will hit puberty, could be tomorrow, could be a couple of months. I'm not sure what the dynamics between that immature 20-week-old cockerel and your mature hens are or will be in a few weeks either. Lot of unknowns.

Some people really believe that the more you try to integrate at one time the better it is. With my set-up I don't see that. I have a lot of room which I think affects what I see during integration. As long as my younger ones have a couple of buddies to hang out with they are just as good as when I have 20. But people with different set-ups, flock make-ups, and different integration techniques can easily see different things.

I was hoping as I typed all this it would get my thoughts in order and I would come up with a solid recommendation. That did not happen. My definition of a successful integration is simply that no one gets hurt. The ones I'm really worried about are your three pullets, they have to stay.

I think if I were doing it I'd try with just the three pullets. I'm not sure when you would consider them integrated but with mine they'd pretty much form a sub-flock and avoid the older ones until they mature enough to start laying. By then those cockerels will be well into puberty and things will probably have long been too exciting for you. I just don't think you gain much if anything if you try with all five.

But I will not criticize you if you try all five. I think that has as good a chance of working. When you remove those two flock dynamics will change some. Probably not that much, they will be in a pretty junior position. But that is sort of my tie-breaker. If you are going to change flock dynamics, do it once instead of twice. To me, overall, it is still pretty much a tie.

 

[juliasflock]

All(probably) the older birds will attack the new ones.
How will you integrate?
How big is your coop and run?
How many older birds total(number and ages)?

Here's some tips about.....
Integration Basics:
It's all about territory and resources(space/food/water).
Existing birds will almost always attack new ones to defend their resources.
Understanding chicken behaviors is essential to integrating new birds into your flock.

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact.

In adjacent runs, spread scratch grains along the dividing mesh, best if mesh is just big enough for birds to stick their head thru, so they get used to eating together.

The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no copious blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide 'out of line of sight'(but not a dead end trap) and/or up and away from any bully birds. Roosts, pallets or boards leaned up against walls or up on concrete blocks, old chairs tables, branches, logs, stumps out in the run can really help. Lots of diversion and places to 'hide' instead of bare wide open run.
Good ideas for hiding places:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I have a grow out coop with a small run that is attached to the main run. The 10 weekers have been in there for about 6 weeks, so the whole flock has been see don't touch for that long. My integrating has been very successful in the past, with eventually removing the barrier between the two runs so the chickens can mingle, but go to respective coops for a few nights until pecking order is established, and then I close up the small grow out coop so they are all together in the main coop.

I've just never added young cockerels to a flock that already had an older established cockerel, and didn't want a blood bath. One of the 10 week cockerels just started crowing, so I might have to squash the idea of integrating all 5 anyway.