Intergrating young rooster into existing flock.

[jbear697]

So the time has come where I need to make a decision on one chook that I incubated. I think that I have two roosters and the dominant one is bashing up my beautiful little guy who I'm unsure is a rooster but I'm assuming that he is due to the fighting. They are now 3 months old (13 weeks) and we haven't had issue till this week. My little one has a crook leg which isn't hurting him but his limp gets worse when the dominant rooster sits on his head. Culling him is out of the question his leg isn't causing pain and I live with a vegan who wouldn't understand also its my favourite chook.
They're both beautiful hand reared chooks that come for cuddles along with their (I'm assuming) sister. Our local auction is in two weeks and I don't really want to take the dominant one yet due to loosing money as he is still not full grown. My thought was to remove our existing rooster (who is also a sexist and attacks only women) and try to integrate the 3 month dominant one into the existing flock. I plan to set up a new flock with my ducks for the other two and some little Barnes I'm incubating next spring.
We have had issue in the past where a few natural hatched chicks were killed in the flock and I'm not sure if it was the rooster or the chooks that killed them. I would like to understand if it is possible to integrate a young new rooster who hasn't had any contact with the existing flock if I remove the older rooster from that flock. or would it be best if I just sent this 3 month dominate rooster off to the auction?

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Send the the rooster who a is sexist and attack’s hens.Introduce the two boys and their sister to flock.FYI chicks should never be kept with the flock unsupervised ,nine times outta ten their going to get killed.Soemtimes it’s not even on purpose their fragile bodies can’t take the abuse as well as they can when their two or so months old.

 

[Mrs. K]

A single bird introduction is very hard, one in which the size difference will be still quite a bit, could be lethal. A lot depends on how big your main flock is and how much space you have there. Do you have hide outs in the run, or roosts? Multiple feeders and water stations.

I think if it were me, the old bad boy would go (is it your wife he attacks?) and I would add all three to the flock in a see - don't touch set up for a while. Try feeding at the fence line. And be observant, some roosters will fight bloody through the fence.

Then after a while as in several weeks, you could add the three into the flock. At that point I would worry about the crippled bird, that is the one that will probably bear the brunt of it.

Space and how you use it, is a big question. Some roosters will do fine with a rooster chick that is raised in the flock, but at 13 weeks, you might be beyond that point of acceptance. Some roosters won't ever let a young male come in.

Mrs K

 

[RWise]

At 3 months, and spring he is not going to be calm. He does not understand whats happening,, I would at least separate him (or any cock under 1 YO) until this stage passes.
I have 3 Roosters (a 7 YO, a 2 YO and a new to me 1YO), 2 in their own private pads, where the flock can still visit. I keep only 1 on the flock, whichever one I want chicks from. This is the new 1 YO, after being in one of the private pads for a while he was swapped in after dark. Next morning I watch closely, one of the GEM pullets really looked him over, and has been at his side since. The older girls stood back and watched him, 2 weeks later they are all following him around, looks like he is going to work out well.
Good luck!