Overload of Rooster...what can I do?

[egyptchick]

Started with twelve chicks, sex undetermined. Now at 12 weeks the number of females has swiftly declined. one of my females grew a comb and wattles overnight and another has slowly developed over the last few.days. i checked over my remaining "girls" and suspect that two more are males. Out of 12 chicks, it looks like I am down to three females. My hope was at least five.

After the roosters have been culled what are my options of adding to my flock? I would like to add some ready the lays. In fact a local chicken farmer is closing shop and offered me a some. my concern is introducing new stock that might have diseases, etc

 

[SoFluffy]

I think you should add some more hens just in case the roosters fight for who they like as the odds are 9 roosters to 3 hens. Good luck

 

[mallory2013]

I would think that as long as you quaratine the new hens to make sure they don't have any diseases, you should be fine. I've never had to do it, but I've heard integrating is the hardest part of adding new chickens to an existing flock. There are a ton of great threads on here that talk about integrating. Good luck!

 

[EquestrianGal]

I have added new hens a couple of times. I always quarantine for a bit, then let them freerange together for a bit during the day--so there is plenty of room to get away or mingle (but they still return to "their" coops each night). Eventually they become one flock (at least, so far that has worked--but I never force it, I let it happen on its own time).

 

[cmom]

I would suggest quarantining the new birds for about a month before adding them to the existing flock. After quarantine, if possible put them in adjoining runs to let them get used to each other and after a couple more weeks I let them out to free range together. There were some pecking issues but they eventually worked their pecking order out. That is what I did. It worked out well.