Integrating injured 8 week old rooster?

[Debbie0]

I have a situation I need some help with. A 2 week old chick was attacked by a mature hen. I found it scalped and what I thought was blind. I brought it in the house cleaned up as best i could and waited. Within a week one eye opened up. I think it was badly swollen. The other eye covered over with a yellow scab that looked like hard skin. The chick survived and an empty bedroom became a nursery for it. Fast forward 6 weeks, the chicken is still in the house much to our cats dismay. She is is dry friendly hangs out on my shoulder whenever I am in the house. Gardens with me. The other eye has miraculously emerged, the outside of the eye is a little deformed but I am pretty sure she can see out of it. She is not a she but is a rooster as his adorable attempts at cock a doodling. I need to get him out of the house. I have tried to integrate him on many occasions but fights start quickly…Is it fair to keep him on his own in a coop outside if I build one? Thoughts about intergration. I am sure within the new flock or 16 there are 2 roosters. I just can’t stand the thought of a fight and someone getting hurt after all this time… Thanks for your suggestions. DebbieO Here is Helen and I…

 

[BrickCoop15]

I am not sure of your setup, but you could create a safe area (wire dog crate would work) for him and put him with the rest of the flock. I would keep him in his safe area for a minimum of two weeks. Integrating new birds is always easier when they have become familiar with each other prior to the actual integration.

Keeping him separate might not be the best thing for him, but if it works for you go ahead and do it. I have housed roosters separately at times because I ended up with too many roosters and had no luck with rehoming them. Although, he would be happier with a flock of his own he will do fine on his own.

 

[Mrs. K]

This is a common problem with an injured bird. People pull them, they heal up, and then it is a wreck when they try and reintroduce them to the flock. Introducing a single strange bird is the toughest one to do, unless it is a full grown rooster as in about 6 months old+.

The solution is to introduce 2-3 birds at a time. Add a lot of hideouts, have multiple feeders and watch. Often times it is not the whole flock, but rather leaders that attack, and followers that join right in.... SO

Watch your flock, throw out a good treat - a distance away from the group. You don't want the birds that get there first or last - those are the dominant and lowest birds, you want one in the middle of the pack. Introduce that bird to your house bird. That is one on one, and while there will be some bluster - it should be pretty even and quickly work itself out. Wait 3-4 days. Now go back, and look for two more birds - from the middle - add that pair to the other pair. If you can do this in a sectioned off place in the run, where everyone can see each other, it is good. Wait 3-4 days.

Leaving the sectioned off area (which is a handy thing to have) let the foursome into the flock and watch. If it is just bluster - let it go, if there is a heartless 2-3 older bird, catch them, and put them in the sectioned off area, for a couple of weeks.

The part about your numbers....16 eight week old chicks with 3 roosters are going to be a problem in the future even if you get this to go well. A couple of points about roosters.

• being raised together has almost no influence on rooster behavior
• the darling chick often becomes the nightmare, so being a pet at 8 weeks can be an aggressive dangerous rooster at 5 months.
• roosters become interested in sexual contact and dominance long before the pullets are ready, and can run the pullets ragged - sometimes killing them
• While flocks can have multiple roosters - they tend to do much better with a single rooster - the more roosters you have, the greater chance of a violent wreck
• Multiple roosters work best in very large flocks - say 25-30 mature hens, not same age pullets
• Multi generations of roosters work better than roosters the same age. People refer this to a father/son age group, meaning one bird is 1 year older than another, and the youngster was raised up under the rooster
• If you have children under the age of 6 I recommend no roosters. Roosters tend to attack children first, and smaller children will take that attack in the face.

Mrs K