New chickens with existing

[neilautomotive]

Have had 1 older roo and 5 hens for 1 year. 1 hen went broody so we let her hatch her eggs in a different pen. Poulets are now 10 weeks old and mom started laying again. One of the new ones is a roo for sure. We've been letting g the old flock out with the new to rosm and the mom has rejoined the old flock. Will the younger ones be OK now and can I move them in with the rest. I'm worried about the older rooster attacking the young one

 

[DobieLover]

Welcome to BYC.
Mom should have been in the flock with the chicks from the beginning and she would have integrated them.
I would let the pullets/cockerel(s) join the now as long as they've seen them all this time.
The senior rooster isn't going to bother the cockerel until he hits sexual maturity and starts going after the older hens and the pullets. Then he will run him off. That's it. If the cockerel stays in the flock and reaches full size, one day he will likely challenge the senior rooster for dominance. THAT is when things can get ugly.

 

[neilautomotive]

Mom has been with the chicks the whole time. I've let them all out together with the older flick slowly each week. Today mom when back with the older flick and seems not interested to go back with pullets. The pullets can be around the others but seems to wander back to their own pen... possibly scared. While the mom is staying with the old flock

 

[Ridgerunner]

I misread your first post due to an unfortunate typo. Thanks for the clarification.

That's about what I sometimes do, house them separately but let the hen and chicks roam with the flock during the day. She takes them back to a shelter at night instead of to the main coop. Sometimes the hen will move them into the main coop on her own schedule. Sometimes she weans them and leaves them to sleep on their own.

How much room do you have in the main coop? With mine the pullet chicks don't sleep on the roosts with the adults until about the time they start to lay. That's when they have matured enough to be accepted into the flock. Until then they form a separate sub-flock, avoiding the adults outside during the day and also avoiding the roosts at night. Do you have enough room in your coop for them to sleep separately? I personally do not care where mine sleep as long as it is not the nests and is predator safe.

I can't give you a timeline to expect with your cockerels, they mature at such different rates. They may join the others on the roosts at a fairly young age before the pullets or after the pullets, though most of the time they are about the same time.

My cockerels grow up with the flock every year, including with a mature rooster. Typically the mature rooster does not bother a cockerel unless that cockerel tries to mate his hens. Then the rooster runs him off. As long as the cockerel runs that's usually the end of it until the next time. I have enough room for this to usually work, not sure how much room you actually have. Every few years though the rooster will not stop chasing the cockerel but will try to kill him. The cockerel may fight back. It is not always going to be easy, sometimes there is real danger. Most years I butcher either the mature rooster or the cockerel before it gets this bad. Some years it never gets that bad, even if I'm slow to butcher.

None of us can tell you what will happen with your flock. It may be pretty peaceful, there may be fights to the death. My suggestion is to keep as few boys as you can and still meet your goals. That's not because problems are guaranteed if you keep more than one but the chances of having problems go up a lot with each boy.

Good luck!