Integrating problem

[Nancy Asselin]

Need advice!
I had 2 bad experiences trying to introduce my new lavender roo who is 12 weeks old...after having him in a neighbouring coop for almost 2 weeks, 4 or 5 of my hens would try to kill him! I had to put him back in smaller coop alone.
I decided to take my lavender hen, who wasn’t one of the attackers, and put her with him for a month or so and then introduce them as a pair.
(I do place hem on the roost at night.)
Just put her with him last night and they’re pretty good this morning. The roo is bossing her a little but nothing major.
Wondering if this will help?

 

[DobieLover]

Need advice!
I had 2 bad experiences trying to introduce my new lavender roo who is 12 weeks old...after having him in a neighbouring coop for almost 2 weeks, 4 or 5 of my hens would try to kill him! I had to put him back in smaller coop alone.
I decided to take my lavender hen, who wasn’t one of the attackers, and put her with him for a month or so and then introduce them as a pair.
(I do place hem on the roost at night.)
Just put her with him last night and they’re pretty good this morning. The roo is bossing her a little but nothing major.
Wondering if this will help?

It's always easier to integrate a pair.
Can the rest of the flock see but not touch them? You want them to remember your hen.
How old are the hens? They can be brutal on cockerels.
Is the cockerel even sexually mature yet? 12 weeks is pretty young.

 

[Nancy Asselin]

It's always easier to integrate a pair.
Can the rest of the flock see but not touch them? You want them to remember your hen.
How old are the hens? They can be brutal on cockerels.
Is the cockerel even sexually mature yet? 12 weeks is pretty young.

Hi! Yes they can see each other... only separated by chicken wire wall. My hen is about 20 weeks. Cockerel isn’t sexual yet.

 

[DobieLover]

Hi! Yes they can see each other... only separated by chicken wire wall. My hen is about 20 weeks. Cockerel isn’t sexual yet.

Okay. So you don't actually have hens. You have a flock of pullets. That actually makes a big difference in this situation.
Leave the pair as they are for about a week then let them out and see how things go.
The older he gets the more the hormones will start to surge and the age difference is actually going to work in your favor as the boys mature sexually sooner than the girls. The girls should be ready for breeding when he is.

 

[Nancy Asselin]

Okay. So you don't actually have hens. You have a flock of pullets. That actually makes a big difference in this situation.
Leave the pair as they are for about a week then let them out and see how things go.
The older he gets the more the hormones will start to surge and the age difference is actually going to work in your favor as the boys mature sexually sooner than the girls. The girls should be ready for breeding when he is.

Ok thx... it’s quite a mixed flock. There are 10 pulleys as I got them June 30, RTLay...a few older hens but they aren’t the bullies. Also have a bff orp roo who was no problem with the new guy either

 

[DobieLover]

Also have a bff orp roo who was no problem with the new guy either

He may be a very big problem when junior starts jumping his girls...
I had to remove a junior rooster from my flock when he would not stop fighting with my senior rooster. The senior kept kicking his butt but he wouldn't stop. One day, junior jumped senior when he was napping and bloodied him up but good. Senior still kicked his butt. Two days later after I released junior from isolation, he jumped a hen, senior went to run him off and they started fighting again.
Sometimes the boys can work things out.
Sometimes they can't and will fight until someone dies or is very seriously injured. Be prepared for either outcome.

 

[Nancy Asselin]

Yes, that will be my next issue lol
I was hoping that putting junior in before he was mature would help that situation but the pilots interfered. Hopefully I can keep them both

 

[Ridgerunner]

It sounds like you may have a fair amount of room. The more room the better. I find the less room you have the harder this gets. And you have a lot going on. A mature rooster and hens, immature pullets probably getting ready to lay, and a cockerel getting ready for puberty. In my set-up the mature rooster and hens would hang in one flock, with the pullets in a different sub-flock. They might mingle some during the day but not that much. At night they'd probably not share main roosts. I'd not have a single younger cockerel like that but often have some younger cockerels and pullets in the flock too. They form their own sub-flock and avoid the others. Lots of room inside and out really helps then avoid each other.

You'll just have to wait and see what happens between that cockerel and the rooster. Their interaction will change as he matures. Typically my roosters ignore cockerels unless the cockerel starts bothering what he considers his hens. Until they start to lay the pullets are usually not considered his hens and he doesn't get involved in the interactions between cockerels and pullets. Typically until the cockerel matures enough to challenge the rooster for flock dominance it's not that bad. More the rooster chasing and the cockerel running away when the cockerel bothers his hens. I think raising the cockerel with the flock improves your chances of them working it out without either getting seriously injured but that doesn't mean it will be easy or that they will work it out. Again, the more room the better.

Introducing a single younger chicken is harder. Chickens are social animals and want to be with other chickens. That cockerel is probably trying to hang with the pullets and they want nothing to do with him. When he invades their personal space they run him off. Sometimes he may run away but the pullets may get pretty serious about teaching him to stay away. I may be totally wrong on this but it's what I'd expect.

I don't know what will happen when the hormones of puberty hit him like a ton of bricks. It may go really smoothly, it sometimes does, especially with a lot of room. Sometimes it gets really rough between a cockerel and pullets. Time will tell. Another potential wrinkle is that by then the rooster may consider those pullets his hens.

I like the approach of pairing him with a pullet to give him a companion. I have no idea what will happen when you let them out but I like the approach. The only thing I can really suggest is to keep trying and base what you do on what you see. I try to be patient and not force them to be together in smaller spaces. Night is when I'd be most concerned with mine because I have a lot of room outside.

You just have so much going on, including those pullets and the cockerel probably going through a change in maturity level soon. Good luck and let us know how it goes. Hopefully it won't be too interesting for you.