Mature hens attacking young rooster.

[Jody]

I picked up an 11 week old Buff Orpington rooster with the idea of mating it with my Buff Rock hens almost the same age. He was a craigslist freebie just 10 minutes down the road, so I thought, sure.. why not.. would be nice to have a roo and someday have fertile eggs for hatching.

Well, I knew I was supposed to keep him separated and was on my way to the barn to see where in there I could keep him for a bit, but the door was closed.. So, I put him on the ground, open the door and then go to pick him back up.. but he runs away, heads right to the mature hens, whom then attacked the crap out of him and the even knocked me over as they caused me to trip as I quickly moved around to avoid stepping on or falling on the rooster whom was trying to get away from the vicious hens...

Anyway, so now these birds had contact.. I had him go to the other side away from the hens and waited for him to calm down before attempting to pick him up as he got pecky with me, but no the young hens come to see him, and he went to attack them.

I don't want him killing or hurting and injuring the little hens, and I don't want the mature hens hurting or killing him, so I'm gonna have to build him his own separate area to live in with his own run, etc.... BUT.. I want to mate him with 2 buff rocks once they reach laying age.. how do I do this without any injuries or death battles?

Or do they only fight upon introduction, and should I let it play out its natural course so they can establish pecking order? The hens never attacked the young pullets when they were introduced.

Also, I noticed one of his ears is bleeding

How do you keep roosters around if these fights happen?

 

[RedfogsFlock]

They will establish pecking order. What we did when introducing our roo to our hens was put him in his own coop inside the coop. This way everyone got to see each other, and know that they were each there. Then when we introduced our roo to our girls we did so at eating time, freeranging time actually. When we did so we let him out about ten minutes before the girls to eat and things. Our roo was 12 weeks old when we introduced him to our 5 month old girls. They are all grown now, and love each other. It will take time.

First though I would tend to his bleeding lobe.

 

[patman75]

Once he gets a little bigger he will be boss of the hens. I introduced a young rooster to my older girls. They chaised him for a while until he matured and then he owned the coop.

Pecking order is just what they do.

 

[kano]

This one at his 5 months of age, and very big, is still very shy with some old hens. (mostly with the more ïmportant ones in the pecking order).

 

[deweb52]

Why would the older hens attack one rooster & not the other. We have a rhode island red rooster & a Wydonette now. The older hens attacked the Rhode Island really bad but never bothered the Wydonette. I felt so sorry for the Rhode Island Roo.

 

[Fergie]

Each flock is hard to predict in how they'll react to a new flock member. I've already read that introducting new flock members slowly is the key to minimizing the pecking order bullying. Have them separately penned nearby so they can see each for a week or so helps. And introducing more than one at a time, also minimizes the flock picking on one new bird. I don't like to introduce new flock members until they are full grown, either.

 

[Lollipop]

I`m gonna tell ya a secret. It`s a maturity thing. Older chickens ain`t never gonna submit to an immature rooster, unless raised with them and then only when they are ready. Just a fact.........Pop

 

[deweb52]

Everyone is getting along fine now. The girls, I guess, wanted to show him who was boss!! LOL!! Today I went to get eggs & I had a white egg along w/7 brown eggs. Humm....I have 6 Black Stars, 4 Red Stars, 1 4mo old Rhode Island Red & 1 4 mo old Gold Lace Wyandotte hens. All are brown egg layers. We do also have a Vantress hen but she's too fat to get up into the boxes. Could it be possible that the 4 mo old hens are starting to lay & produced the white egg?? We had another egg last week that didn't have the shell on the whole egg.

 

[nocluabouttheroo]

I just picked up a new bantam silkey "rooster"?????( supposedly about 3 months old) and tried adding him/(her)??? to our 6 hens -they nearly killed the poor thing! He/she has been rehabing in my garage & fenced in pool area & seems ok, but will I ever be able to put them together? The girls are probably Red Star(?), not sure exactly, but I do know they've turned vicious! I had the new one quarantined w/just some landscape netting but they climbed/clawed their way to attack the newbie

Secondly, is there anyway to find out if the lil "guy" is actually a rooster? He definately does not crow (yet?).
Thanks, any advice would be great.

 

[deweb52]

mine were all getting along the next day. Since then we did butcher the road island red rooster & the vantress who was laying eggs. The girls are all content now w/ just 1 rooster in the house.