Integrating young uns with flock that has a rooster

[hazelville]

We got a rooster last year to help control the vicious pecking and it seems to be working. We now have 8 young ones that are about 8 and 10 weeks old, 4 of each; Americauna's and Cuckoo Marans. They are in a brooding box because the weather has been so lousy lately (PDX). Yesterday I had them out in the yard in a tractor for the first time, near the coop but not in it but on the grass. I want to start integrating them and heard that you just put the rooster in with them in the tractor and you should be good but I'm afraid he may be too rough with them. Do I have to worry about the rooster? How many times should I put him in there before letting them out into the general population?

We had issues with them pecking each other really bad so we got the rooster and though it seems the pecking is down there are still a lot of feathers around and a couple have some raw necks. We have a total of 11 layers and one rooster and 8 new ones coming in.

What is recommended?

Thanks for your help!

 

[BooBear]

Never heard of tossing the rooster in with new ones.
Roosters can be territorial and hurt new chickens they do not recognize.
I use an integration pen and place the new birds in it for about a week or 2. Most will tell you 2 weeks.
This allows everyone to get acquainted safely. At the end of this period let them out together and watch how they behave.

There will be pecking and chasing as the older group lets the new ones know their place.
If anything more serious accures reseperate for a bit longer and try again.

I am on my 3rd integration and all is good so far. It helps for the new ones to be close in size body wise to the members of the exsisting flock.

 

[BooBear]

Forgot, my integration pen is inside the coop to where everyone can see each other.

 

[hazelville]

Thanks. I have a tractor I can move in there but it's still too cold to put them out there all night. Maybe I will try moving the tractor in there and have them down there during the day for a couple weeks...

Thanks for the tips, Anyone else have experience with a rooster and integration?

 

[kano]

If they know each other, through a wire cloth (like mine), roosters are better than hens, in that matter. They are very aloof with the youngs. Hens tend to behave very tyrant. I put them together when the chicks are about 2 months.

 

[hazelville]

So would you put the rooster in the tractor with them? This would be in the chicken yard...

 

[giefdog]

I had 5, 1 1/2 red sexlinks and 20 turkens and 5 Ameracuanas, I tried the place them in the pen in a pen in the coop for 2 wks so they could see each other, then I let 5 turkens out and the older birds beat them up if they tried to drink or eat so I seperated them again then a friend said get a roo so I did and now the older hens leave the young birds alone and they were only 12 wks old then now the roo rules

 

[schellie69]

Quote:
No leave the rooster with his hens he will hurt the little ones. Just put them in a pen inside your pen let them see each other for a while then let them free range together but keep them apart when not free ranging when the little ones are about the same size as the big ones take the other pen out and let all of them be together should work it is what I did last time and it worked. I got my rooster to stop the pecking also I did put them on a higher protein to help them grow feathers also game bird 22% with egg shells on the side for calcium worked great.

 

[donrae]

Well, my experience is different. I put my 8 week old pullets in with my laying flock, including three roosters. I put a chain link gate in front of the door so the big girls could get out but the babies would stay in for a while, get to think of the coop as home. One of my roos, the big ee, has a bum leg and won't fly onto the top of the gate and out of the coop, so he's been in the coop with the babies. Nada, zip, nothing. He just hangs out with them, when I let them out for supervised free range he goes and does his thing, then back in with the littles. None of the other roos have given them any problems, either. The hens are harder on them than the roos, but even that's nothing more than a "get away from my food" peck. I've not seen the roos even do that. I think they know littles aren't a threat? Maybe I'm just really lucky?

 

[Snegurochka]

With my last batch of pullets I made a little wire pen under the nest boxes and kept them in there for a month or more. Almost every day I took them out and put them under a strawberry cage (sort of like a tractor) next to the run so the others could see them. When I did integrate them, the rooster was never aggressive to them.

But the hen before that I integrated by herself, and it literally took months (all winter long) of her living in a wire cage in the coop before the rooster would accept her (in fact, it was only after she had begun to lay in the early spring). I don't know why he had such issues with that particular hen. You can never know how your rooster is going to react, so I suggest being very cautious, and when you do feel ready to integrate, watch them very closely all day long. My roo appeared to be getting along with my new hen, so I left them alone for a few hours. She ended up being blinded in one eye. I'm not trying to scare you--that's the only time I've ever had trouble integrating new birds--but you should just be aware that something could go wrong.