New Roo behaviors - ?

[themenagerie]

I introduced a new roo to my flock yesterday, he's about 9 or 10 weeks old, they're six weeks old. He's definitely a dominant type, spent the day chasing the pullets around the pen and pecking them, but nothing too bad. BUT...he's really aggressive to the other roo. Will this sort itself out over time? I know that people have flocks with more than one roo, and I know there's a certain amount of ugliness when you introduce a new bird, but I feel so bad for the little guy. He tries to stay out of his way, but the new roo seems to be on some sort of "seek and destroy" mission. Last night when I put them in the coop, they didn't want to go in..normally they are fine with it. I checked on them a little later, he had the young roo stuck in a corner and was terrorizing him, all the other chickens were huddled in a corner of the coop, really stressed out. I took the new roo and put him n a cat carrier inside the coop , once I incarcerated him, they relaxed. I feel like I introduced a bully into the school yard. lol

 

[mochicken]

I would put him in a small cage in their coop to let him get used to them first, when I added my 6 week old chicks to my 4 week old chicks the older ones picked on the younger ones so much they stayed in a corner of the coop all day. I ended up putting a fence down the center of the run so they could see eachother all day but could not access eachother, worked like a charm. Within a week or so they didnt seem to mind eachother anymore so I just took the center fence out, there was some food aggression and guarding of the ceremonial waterer lol but for the most part they get along.

There will ALWAYS be a "pecking order" as with humans or any other creatures, someone always has to be the top dog ( or bird) lol and there is not much you can do about that other than keep the number of roosters to hens at 1-8 or more. I have EE roosters that I try to keep separated and no matter what I do the jerks end up at the same place at the same time lol.

 

[sourland]

It's known as the pecking order. Frequently when raised together roosters can co exist. The newly introduced rooster is seeking to dominate the smaller rooster-- in some instances this can lead to the death of one of the roosters. Do you have enough hens and space for two roosters? If not, one should move on.

 

[themenagerie]

Thank you for your replies.
I definitely will have enough hens for 2 roosters. I have 2 Blue Orpington hens , plus 17 6 week old pullets, and 2 more of questionable gender. I know that there's a pecking order to be established, I'm mostly concerned about my younger roo.. since I really like him, and want to keep him. Right now they're in a large coop with a 14' x 14' dog kennel run, when they're a bit bigger, they'll be let out to free range on 7 acres.