New black astralorp rooster & introduction to flock.

Welsh Ducky

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Yesterday my friends had to give away their 4 month old astralorp rooster, and I decided to take him in as I recently lost one of my favorite hens. I have a flock of 5 RedStar/GoldenCommet/RedSexLink hens, and I’m hoping the roo won’t get bullied or bullly. I made him a quarantine pen inside the coop and out in the yard that I plan on keeeping him in for a week or two, to allow the hens to get used to him. Today two hens came separately and pecked his crown through the wire and drew blood. I took outside his pen today (just carrying him) and let him meet the flock. (Not too close, I didn’t want him getting pecked again) three of my hens are aggressive towards him, one of them a little less so. The other two hens didn’t seemed bother by him at all. I’m hoping once he finally moves into the flock there will be no, or very little fighting. What is the best way to move him into the flock and cause the least amount of bloodshed? Thanks.
 
He’s a very sweet rooster and loves to cuddle, so I really hope this works
 

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Your main problem is that he is not a rooster, if he were you probably would not have a problem. He is an immature cockerel and the older mature hens won't accept him. That sometimes happens with immature cockerels and mature hens.

Another issue is that he is a single chicken. Chickens are social animals and really like to be with other chickens. Typically if they have the room immature chickens form a sub-flock an stay well away from the adults. Most of the time when they can do that the older chickens won't bother them unless they try to get too close. But since he is alone he may want to be near them. That can make it a little complicated.

At some point that cockerel will mature enough that he can win over the hens. I've had cockerels be able to do that at 5 months, I had one that took until 11 months to win over the last hen. The attitude of the hens makes a difference too. I can't tell you when he will have matured enough as that can really vary.

My suggestion is to keep him in that isolation pen for at least another month. Then when you can observe, turn him loose and see what happens. If you are lucky he will immediately mate with a hen or two and take over. But be prepared to lock him back up if necessary and try again later.

Good luck!
 
I made him a quarantine pen inside the coop and out in the yard that I plan on keeeping him in for a week or two,
That is a look but don't touch set up... completely irrelevant to quarantine.

After you've had him there long enough you are comfortable... put him on roost after dark so they all wake up together. Plenty of visual barriers to run around and extra feeders and waterer can be helpful. :fl
 
He is a bit young, but generally speaking the single rooster is the easiest introduction. If one or two of the girls are real mean, you can lock them up where you have the rooster, and let the rooster work with getting to know the other girls.

More than likely he is going to breed them, to some this looks quite violent, and gives a whole new meaning to a hen with ruffled feathers. That is normal, and a part of having a rooster.

Good luck
 
:) Thank you both. I used to have male and female ducks who’ve had ducklings...so. I’m actually hoping in the future we can get some chicks from him. Thank you for the advise, I appreciate it. I’ll keep you updated. :)
 
He's immature and they are telling him they run the show. Not saying this is what you should do, but if it were me and he'd already been exposed to them (as in not quarantined) I'd just cut him loose and let them teach him a thing or two. Don't let them hurt him, but being put in his place by adult hens can go a long way towards teaching a cockerel some manners. Introduce them when you have a day off and can hang out with them, maybe have a couple of beers and just make sure nobody actually hurts him. Odds are they will peck at him. He'll run and they will settle things. Hens on top and him submissive. They'll work it out. If there is blood or he is getting pummeled relentlessly then put him back in his cage, but odds are they will work it out.
 
Ok, thank you. Did do a bit of that today. After a quarrel with a hen he just went off and ate bugs by himself. If I do this again and he gets a bad peck, what should I do for it?
 

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