Introducing a rooster

[Sphinx]

I bought a chick back in March, hoping for another pullet. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a cockerel, but I'm making the best of things. He was raised with my neighbor's chicks, and was definitely the head of the pecking order there. However, he was picking on one chicken a little bit, so my neighbor got fed up with him.

Foster is still a little smaller than my 7 adult hens (all about 1 year old), but pretty good size. I've set up a chicken tractor next to my main coop, so this is basically how things are set up:

I let everyone out to free range, and the girls immediately come out to attack Foster, all of them attacking him at once. How far do I let this go, and am I doing this right? I'm afraid if I were to stick him in the main coop, he'd be dead within a couple hours.

This is only about 2 days old, so maybe I need to be patient.

I'd love some opinions and feedback on how to transition this.

 

[bryan99705]

Sounds like a good plan. I introduced a young roo to 6 adult hens this spring while everyone was locked down learning the coop. Everything was fine for a couple days the I found the rooster beat up and bloody by the hens on day 3. Since then, he's the boss, it a very good protector, the hens are happy and they follow his orders. Guess he just needed to learn not to be too bossy cause 6 vs 1 hurts

 

[akcharlie1960]

Maybe if you changed his name they wouldn't give him so much grief.

 

[equinelyn]

 

[Sphinx]

Well, his name WAS Sue. Unlike the song, it hasn't seemed to make him tough around these girls. He was kind of a bully with his nestmates though.

I've thought about putting just one hen in his tractor. What do you think of that?

 

[triplepurpose]

Introducing one new chicken to a flock is always sketchy, IMO. Since you said he's younger and in particular SMALLER than all the hens, and probably disoriented by his new surroundings, I suspect he was immediately flung to the bottom of the pecking order because of it. They probably arent' attacking him so much as just putting him in his place, chicken style. He's probably utterly confused and his confidence is shaken, since he was the big cheese where he came from. Once he gets bigger and more mature he will most likely grow some cojones and come to outrank the hens and eventually step into his natural role as head of the flock. Just make sure they don't actually hurt him or traumatize him too much in the meantime--it's kind of a judgment call, depending on how it progresses.

I once had a young cockerel who was being a total bully with his mates. I stuck him in another pen together with my biggest, toughest, highest ranking old hen, a huge, fat RIR. That put him in his place pretty quick! There was little actual fighting between them, but she definitely made it clear that she wasn't going to take any crap from him. An uneasy truce was brokered, and until it came time to slaughter that cockerel he gave no more trouble...

Anyway, good luck!

 

[essig]

I agree with sky the chicken man. Sometimes it works out well and sometimes you make rooster a la king. I have a former pullet named Marmalade that once his gender became know was re homed to our place. He's worked out really well, and we kept his pullet name. So far, he's been my 2nd favorite rooster.

 

[equinelyn]

Do you have any updates? How is he doing with your gals?