Raising babies with an older cockerel

[MarlaMac]

I have six 30-day old Blue Australorps. They spent the 1st 2 weeks of life in our coop extension in full view of the rest of the flock. 14 hens, 1 rooster and a single hatch that has turned out to be a cockerel. All Black Australorps.

When this young single hatch was about 4 weeks old, mom was done and he spent his time sitting next to the extension where the babies were. I successfully integrated him with these babies before I was sure he was a boy.

Now, they are there own little flock. He cares for them, teaches them and keeps them in line. They are completely integrated with the big chickens now. The cockerel is still weary of a couple of the big girls and will run from them, but otherwise everyone gets along.

This little guy now believes these are his girls. He is about 4.5 weeks older than the babies.

My question is how long can I keep them with these girls? I know that around 14-16 weeks he will start wanting to begin his manly duties, but the girls will be way too young.

I do not plan on keeping him, but want him to be old enough to hold his own ground when he goes to a new flock. I also don't want him hurting my girls b/c they are too young to mate.

I have another rooster and I really don't want to manage two roosters.

Any thoughts?

Thank you.

 

[Debbie292d]

That's really hard to say for sure. When roosters hormones start coming in, some wind up pretty aggressive.

We've had mixed chicks with a rooster in the recent past, and he didn't try anything until they grew to nearly the same size as an adult hen. They were months from laying eggs though (silkies) so his trying to breed them was of no use.

I would just observe his behavior around them daily to see if he's starting to do dances around them or starts showing any signs of being aggressive. He could kill one attempting to breed them, so if you even get an inkling his hormones are hitting, I'd get him out of there.