New Rooster

[DaveK88]

A friend of mine got 12 straight run chicks and turns out 3 of them ended up being cockerels. So i took one of them from her. I have him quarantined away from my four hens. He is about 8 to 10 weeks old and my hens are just over a year old. My question is once I have introduced him to the hens will they accept him being so much younger and smaller than they are or do I need to keep him away from them until he gets bigger? Thanks for any input you can give.

 

[chicmom]

It would be a good idea to keep him away from the adult hens until he gets bigger.....They will probably peck the crap out of him.

What you can do is, keep him in the coop/run in a separate area or even a large dog cage, so they can see him, but not hurt him. Then they'll get used to him. Eventually, when he's grown a bit larger, you can let them free range together. That way, he can run away from them if they attack, until he's large enough to show them who's boss.

 

[moetrout]

It would be a good idea to keep him away from the adult hens until he gets bigger.....They will probably peck the crap out of him.

What you can do is, keep him in the coop/run in a separate area or even a large dog cage, so they can see him, but not hurt him. Then they'll get used to him. Eventually, when he's grown a bit larger, you can let them free range together. That way, he can run away from them if they attack, until he's large enough to show them who's boss.

Follow this advice! My 3 month old FBCM was scalped and almost killed by my 8 hens. This was after they had been living in pens next to each other for about 3 weeks.

 

[Lollipop]

Ditto.........Pop

 

[RedDrgn]

As has been well pointed out, intros can be tough, so its best to do so with birds all of a similar size so they have a chance to hold their own. Once they're all adults in size and sort out the pecking order, they won't know nor care what actual their ages are.