New Rooster adopted and added to my flock

[kagarris]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for advice on adding a rooster to my flock. I had six hens (no rooster) and a friend of mine ended up with a rooster she had to re-home (she's in city limits) so I volunteered. He's about 15 weeks old. I read somewhere (maybe here) that I needed to keep him in a pen within the pen for a couple of days. I did that. Then I let him out of the pen and he gets along great with the hens. I have a run with a 3-foot fence that my hens have never even considered getting out of. Within an hour he flew out of the run and was wandering around the yard. Fortunately, I formed a relationship with feeding him treats by hand and he was easy to lure in and catch. I put him back into the pen within a pen for tonight. I hate to clip his wings as I think that will cripple him if he needs to protect himself or his flock.

Any advice is greatly appreciated! Will he ever just be happy without flying out of the run? Will he come back at night if he flies out and wanders the yard? What is the best thing for me to do to ensure his safety? The friend who gave him to me has children that will be devastated if something happens to him in the short term.

Thanks in advance!

 

[black_cat]

Do your hens free range at all? It is probably best to have some sort of roofing/netting over the run to prevent against hawk attacks anyway. You could try getting some of those big tall fence posts and some bird netting, then securing it over the run and to the existing fence.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

He should want to stay with the hens as he's coming into maturity. If you clip his wings for now it will train him to stay within the boundary you set and his wings will grow back quickly anyway.

 

[aart]

I have a run with a 3-foot fence that my hens have never even considered getting out of.

Time to change that.
Make fence taller and put a roof on it.

 

[NatJ]

I hate to clip his wings as I think that will cripple him if he needs to protect himself or his flock.

Anything that can kill and eat a hen, can also kill and eat a rooster. If the predator was not quite sure whether chickens are worth the effort, a rooster might make that predator go looking for easier prey. Maybe.

Clipping his wing feathers will hurt his flying ability, but chickens attack and fight on the ground anyway. If he could deter any predators with unclipped wings, he will be able to do it just as well with clipped wings.

Will he ever just be happy without flying out of the run? Will he come back at night if he flies out and wanders the yard?

Yes and yes.

What is the best thing for me to do to ensure his safety?

Covering the run would be a good idea. That would keep him in, and would also help keep predators out. (3 foot fence doesn't stop most cats, large dogs, raccoons, hawks...)

 

[Ridgerunner]

At 15 weeks he is not a rooster, he is an immature cockerel. That will affect how he interacts with the girls. How old are the girls? Are they mature enough to be laying eggs or are they immature pullets? That will also have an effect on how they interact.

I hate to clip his wings as I think that will cripple him if he needs to protect himself or his flock.

Clipping a wing or two might affect his ability to fly into a tree or someplace high if a predator is after him, but it will not affect his ability to fight. A rooster can offer a bit of protection but in my experience that is often greatly exaggerated.

At 15 weeks he will probably go through his last juvenile molt pretty soon. When he does, his wing feathers will fall out and regrow. Consider clipping his wings now as a temporary measure. You can try it and see if you want to clip them again after he molts.

Will he ever just be happy without flying out of the run?

Nobody knows. As he and maybe the girls mature they will almost certainly become one flock. He may decide to stay home with them, he may teach them to go over the fence with him.

Will he come back at night if he flies out and wanders the yard?

Once he considers the coop his home he will want to. I don't know if he does yet or not. Will he know to fly over the 3' fence? Maybe, maybe not. I keep mine in 4' electric netting. I have had some, mainly cockerels trapped against the net in a fight, go vertical to escape and wind up on the wrong side of the fence. They desperately want to return inside to their normal roost when it gets dark but almost none fly back in. Their roost is 5' high so they can easily fly that high.

What is the best thing for me to do to ensure his safety?

I have no idea what your run or other facilities look like so it's hard for me to offer specific advice that may actually apply to you. Knowing what your fence looks like would help with knowing what is reasonable. How big is the run? Photos of both can help. Knowing how old the girls are could help some. My general thoughts are to keep him locked up for a while so he learns where home is. Maybe even leave him locked up until he matures enough to merge with your flock. In general, the better your barriers the better your safety.

 

[Mrs. K]

The hens are going to be out with him soon. They will be in the neighbor's yard soon.
A 3 foot fence is not tall enough for any of them soon.

Mrs K

 

[kagarris]

The hens are two years old. They've been content within the run. Only once did one of them get out and I assume it was an accident. When I checked on them she was trying to get through the fence to her flock. They have a covered run of about 40 sq feet which is completely secured at night by way of an automatic door that closes at dusk. The uncovered area is about 350 sq feet. It is 90% surrounded by shrubs with some large trees making visibility from the air pretty difficult as well. I don't think the other critters know the chickens exist. They are fairly well hidden.

Last night I put them in the covered run and closed the door early on them so that the rooster could get up into the coop to perch with them. This morning he is sitting in the covered run and the door is open, so maybe being in there last night helped?

He grew up with three different hens all the same age. My friend said he was just starting to get dominant with them. He's been handled a lot by her kids and is super friendly. Thank goodness or I may not have been able to catch him and bring him back.

Needless to say, I'll be watching him often today. Thank you for all the replies!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Thanks for answering those questions. At least I have a better idea of what you are facing. That doesn't mean I know what will happen in the future, with living animals you just don't know how they will behave. They are all unique individuals. That's part of what makes chicken TV better than anything on cable, satellite, or antenna.

It's not a case of "can" the chickens get out, it's a case of do they "want" to. Since they are 2 years old and stay in they haven't wanted to up to now. Adding that cockerel will change flock dynamics, short term and long term. I don't know what those changes will be.

Often mature hens don't want an immature chicken around. Mature chickens outrank immature chickens in the pecking order and mature hens are often not shy about enforcing their pecking order rights. This happens whether they are immature cockerels or pullets. I'm using weasel words like "often" because this isn't always true. Sometimes my juveniles mingle quite well with the adults. But usually they stay apart day and at night. My juveniles almost never sleep on the main roosts with the adults. During the day they form a sub-flock and keep their distance.

Chickens are social animals. They like being around other chickens. Since the cockerel has no one else his age he may want to spend time with the hens. They may not allow that so he could get chased away.

At some point he will mature enough to want to take over as flock master. Sometimes that is a very smooth transition. Often it involves the hens beating him up or he winds up chasing them and mating with them by force. It can be hard to watch a cockerel go through puberty. As long as no one gets hurt I just let mine deal with it. But some people get really upset with what they see. It can be hard to watch.

I went through that to perhaps make it easier to understand what you see, whatever that is. He might soon become part of the flock and hang with them. They may ostracize him and keep him out for a while.

I think the way I'd approach it is to see what happens. If he roams over the fence lock him up for a while. This is to give him some time to mature as much as teach him where home is. This could easily be two to three months time. If they do get along well enough during the day I'd make sure to lock him up after dark to train him where a good place to sleep is. That's basically the way I treat mine. If they don't go in on their own at dark I lock them in each night until they get the message. Kind of base your actions on what you see.

Adding a mature rooster to a flock of mature hens is probably about as easy an integration as there is. Adding an immature cockerel to a flock of mature hens can be really challenging. Good luck!

 

[JulieBeth07]

Not to high jack your post , but want to join in with lots of info coming in.
I just added a cockerel to my flock too... this is his 3rd night with us. I'm not sure if he's mature or not (I'm new to this bird raising thing and dove all in) ...he's somewhere between 4/5 months old. He's crowing and larger than my girls (not that I think that equals maturity ). I rehomed him from a friend also. Come to find out he was being attacked by their drake.

I have "2" chicken flocks and a flock of 6 ducks. My older girls (not "old" they're 5 months old, but all laying) are not shy about shifting their weight on the younger (3 months old, not laying) the younger girls have just been accepted enough to get up on the roosting bars.

He's been in the duck pen alone during the day while the girls free range. At night, I put him in a crate in the hen house. (The duck pen is adjacent to the covered run that is attached to the hen house .. if that makes sense) so they can all see him and hear him.

When we first brought him home the girls were eying him, but a duck went after him and he was NOT a fan (and knowing his past now, I know why) and the girls were all over him like white on rice. I feel terrible for him ... like I'm feeding him to the wolves. (Or hens... or mini T-Rexes)

So....I'm thinking I'm going to let him out for a little supervised time with the chickens tomorrow am and see how it goes.

Thanks for posting! It's kinda crazy that we both are doing kinda the same thing! Good luck!!