Introducing 3 mnth chicks to flock and rooster

[JessicaPoff]

Our baby chicks are about 3 months now. They are getting to be a good size. I am wondering when they can start staying outside permanently? Also I have been slowly introducing the chicks to the big girls who are still kinda being aggressive to them. I know it is a slow process but I am hoping soon they will take up to the chicks. What are ways to make this process go by easier and faster?
The last main question I have is we do have one full grown rooster who honestly I can do without. Do we need him or can we kill him off. He not only is becoming a butt with me, he attacks the girls in an aggressive manner. Some of my girls have bald spots on their head thanks to him. Also I don't know how he is going to take to the chicks. Right now he seems really mean when we hold them up to him on the other side of the fence. And when I close him out from the girls and the chicks, O BOY!. You can hear and see the aggression coming out in him. Should we kill him, or try to introduce him too. If so how?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I am wondering when they can start staying outside permanently?

I don't know your location so no idea on your weather but I've had 5-1/2 week old chicks stay outside with no heat when the overnight low was in the mid 20's Fahrenheit. Odds are yours could handle your weather a long time ago.

I have been slowly introducing the chicks to the big girls. What are ways to make this process go by easier and faster?

What do your facilities look like? What do you have to work with? There are some generic things you can do. House them across wire for a while so they get to know each other, give them as much room as you can and improve the quality of what room you have by adding clutter (things they can hide under, behind, or over), and multiple far apart feed and water stations. It's hard to give specific suggestions without knowing what you have.

The last main question I have is we do have one full grown rooster who honestly I can do without.

The only reason you need a rooster is if you want fertile eggs. Anything else is personal preference. Nothing wrong with personal preferences, I have a few myself. But those are choices, not needs.

You say he is fully grown but it sounds like he is acting like an immature brat. You can get a lot of different opinions on this but as far as I'm concerned there are way too many good roosters out there to put up with a bad one. Especially when you may not need one to start with.

 

[aart]

Curious how old are your older birds?

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/

 

[Blue Raptor]

Our baby chicks are about 3 months now. They are getting to be a good size. I am wondering when they can start staying outside permanently? Also I have been slowly introducing the chicks to the big girls who are still kinda being aggressive to them. I know it is a slow process but I am hoping soon they will take up to the chicks. What are ways to make this process go by easier and faster?
The last main question I have is we do have one full grown rooster who honestly I can do without. Do we need him or can we kill him off. He not only is becoming a butt with me, he attacks the girls in an aggressive manner. Some of my girls have bald spots on their head thanks to him. Also I don't know how he is going to take to the chicks. Right now he seems really mean when we hold them up to him on the other side of the fence. And when I close him out from the girls and the chicks, O BOY!. You can hear and see the aggression coming out in him. Should we kill him, or try to introduce him too. If so how

its always hard to introduce new chicks into a flock with a rooster. The chickens will warm up, but the rooster may pick on some of them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

its always hard to introduce new chicks into a flock with a rooster. The chickens will warm up, but the rooster may pick on some of them.

Could you please tell us your experiences with this. We all have different experiences, you are not the only person on the forum that says they have had problems with roosters and chicks. I'm mostly curious about how old the chicks were when they were introduced to the rooster, how much room you have, and what that picking on them looked like. Was he the dominant rooster?

I have three different coops/shelters the chickens can sleep in, over 3,000 square feet outside for them to roam, and weather they can pretty much all be outside all day every day. Not many people on here have that. My brooder is in the coop and broody hens raise some of the chicks with the flock so basically my chicks grow up with thee flock.

When my brooder-raised chicks are five weeks old I open the brooder door. That's my integration. I've never lost one or had one injured by an adult flock member doing it that way. I've never seen the dominant rooster even look like he is going to threaten the chicks. Occasionally a mature hen or immature cockerel or pullet may threaten a chick when the chick invades their personal space and some chasing away may happen, but the chicks very quickly learn to not invade their personal space.

Jessica doesn't have a broody hen so I'll try to be brief. My broody hens teach the others to leave her chicks alone until she weans them, then they are on their own just like the brooder-raised chicks. I have seen my dominant rooster help Mama with her chicks a few times when she needed it but usually he ignores the chicks and the hen.

My theory is that if the rooster sees the chicks when they are still reasonably young he assumes they are his progeny. His bloodline. He is a lot more likely to protect them than kill them off. Three months may be a bit old for this. I think having a lot of room helps too.

@JessicaPoff all this assumes you have a normal rooster. From your post above I'm not sure you do. Same as Aart I'm curious as to how old he and the others are. If he is still an immature cockerel that might explain some of his behaviors. Immature teenage bratty cockerels don't always behave like a mature rooster. I still would not trust him with those chicks.

 

[Blue Raptor]

When my brooder-raised chicks are five weeks old I open the brooder door. That's my integration. I've never lost one or had one injured by an adult flock member doing it that way. I've never seen the dominant rooster even look like he is going to threaten the chicks. Occasionally a mature hen or immature cockerel or pullet may threaten a chick when the chick invades their personal space and some chasing away may happen, but the chicks very quickly learn to not invade their personal space.

We’ve had a broody before, and Rocky (roo) didn’t mind having them around unless they got too close, otherwise, he invited them into the flock. As for chickens we’ve tried to hack into the flock, it doesn’t work as beautifully. Rocky still resents some of them, but he still lets them be most of the time. We just introduced 15 new birds to our flock, and I think because of the overwhelming numbers ( to a flock of 10) he just let them take over. But for some reason he likes the others, but dislikes the feather-footed marans that were with the group, and he chose them to pick on.

Poor Griffin (before).
Rocky’s kinda fickle about who he messes with, so I’m not sure how things all work out I the end.

 

[JessicaPoff]

Hey Everyone. I am sorry I have not updated and will do on my actual post. We killed the Rooster that night I made this post. He just got so ugly and mean that he had one of our best laying hens down, ripping her feathers out and tore her comb. She was busted up pretty good. So we tried separating the females by leaving them in the coop and him in the runner by himself. He went absolutely berserk. He was trying to dig his way out of the runner. He was flying up where we keep netting at the top and grabbing hold and hanging upside down. He was scratching the side of the coop and making all sorts of racket. He just had to go. He also had attacked me again that day when I went in to give them fresh water, he came charging at me. I was just done. So we took care of him.
But it has been about a week now and our hens are adjusting I guess you can say with him not being there. However we have introduced the chicks who are now currently over 3 months. However they are just not adjusting well at all. I have no way of actually separating them and I was hoping by now things would go smoother but it isn't. The hens are just too mean to the little ones. They are big bullies especially our hen who was attacked by the rooster. She is the worst of all. The LOs will be hoovered over in the corner together, won't come out from that corner, and the hens will purposely go over there and freak them out. They peck them, hold them down and for the life of them will not let the LOs in the coop at all. So for now the LOs have to stay outside in the runner at night which I do not like. I don't know what else to do.

 

[rosemarythyme]

A photo(s) of your set up would help here, as well as specific details.: how many adults, how many chicks? What is the size of the run? Size of coop?

It sounds like you're lacking in hiding spaces. Do you have any?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know what else to do.

I don't know what to suggest. We don't know what you have to work with. How big is your coop, how big is your run, and what do they look like? How many chickens of what age? I don't think climate is an issue in this, the chicks are old enough.

My chicks tend to avoid the adults day and night until they are old enough to join the pecking order. For my pullets that's usually about the time they start to lay eggs. What you describe sounds like a lack of room could be at least part of the problem. But I don't know that. I don't know what you have to work with. Is there room in the coop so the chicks can sleep away form the adults? Is there room in the run where the chicks can avoid the adults. It's not just a case of square feet, there are some tricks you can use to improve the quality of what space you have. That's why it would really help to know what the coop and run look like, not just size. Photos could be valuable.

Without specific information to work with we can't do any better than Aart's generic suggestions.