Introduction of new birds with a rooster

[Drex Chick]

My rooster is not very gentle with his ladies and I plan on culling him after the 10 week newbies are old enough to do them all at once, my question is do I need to worry about him hurting the new girls that are only 10 weeks when I integrate them into my flock? Should I cull him first since that’s the plan in the long term? This is my first year adding new chicks, need some guidance and expertise on the matter, and can’t seem to find any information on the situation I find myself worrying about.

 

[Chickassan]

Not gentle? Is he a rough mater or is he just mean?
Either way he wont be your problem his ladies will be when you introduce new birds.
Now if he tries to mount non laying 10 week olds then he is definitely going to be a problem and you'll need to seperate him.

 

[aart]

He Chases the hens grabs them by the head feathers/comb and holds them down till he gets his way, then afterwards he will “dance” for them. He attacks me and my kids as well, he is good eyes in the sky for hawks otherwise he would have been gone a long time ago!

Not worth the trouble IMO.

 

[orrpeople]

This is certainly no fun and I can see why your worried. A couple thoughts come to mind:

Your safety (especially your kids') is my first concern. Do you have a separate space to just confine the roo while hens are getting used to the new girls? Hens can be really rough on newbies too.

If I were in your place, I would put rooster boy in a chicken tractor or fence him off until it's dispatch day. I just can't do the mean guys - too many opportunities for really having someone get hurt.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Hi @Drex Chick I am from MO too. How many chicks do you have and how many hens in your older flock?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Most of us use what we call the "see-don't-touch" method of integrating. If there is any way of separating the young ones from the older flock by means of a fence for a couple of weeks, that's ideal. So they can see, hear and smell each other but can't actually contact each other. Then one day just take the fence down or open a gate between them and they'll mingle and hardly notice the difference, as they'll already be so used to each other. Can you arrange something like that?

 

[Sadness Child]

I did this and my rooster helped integrate 2 pullets in with 2 1 year old hens, eventually we culled him because he was attacking us

 

[Drex Chick]

Not gentle? Is he a rough mater or is he just mean?
Either way he wont be your problem his ladies will be when you introduce new birds.
Now if he tries to mount non laying 10 week olds then he is definitely going to be a problem and you'll need to seperate him.

He is both and that is definitely my fear!

Most of us use what we call the "see-don't-touch" method of integrating. If there is any way of separating the young ones from the older flock by means of a fence for a couple of weeks, that's ideal. So they can see, hear and smell each other but can't actually contact each other. Then one day just take the fence down or open a gate between them and they'll mingle and hardly notice the difference, as they'll already be so used to each other. Can you arrange something like that?

I have been doing that for 3 weeks now, I’m on the verge of letting them out together, my main concern is that he will roughly mount my 10 week pullets and hurt them. He Chases the hens grabs them by the head feathers/comb and holds them down till he gets his way, then afterwards he will “dance” for them. He attacks me and my kids as well, he is good eyes in the sky for hawks otherwise he would have been gone a long time ago!

Hi @Drex Chick I am from MO too. How many chicks do you have and how many hens in your older flock?

I have 8 hens and the one rooster, we are adding 22 new pullets and roos, with the intention to cull the mean roo and only keep one of the new ones to be the main man and sending the rest to freezer camp.