Raising pullets with rooster?

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Love his tail!

 

[Ridgerunner]

How old will the pullets be when they go to that coop? Will they be confined to a run or will they free range? What are your thoughts about how you would introduce them and get them to use that coop if they are not locked in that coop/run? How big is the run?

I have never introduced pullets only, whether baby chicks or teenagers, to a single rooster. I regularly let broody hens raise chicks (male and female) with the a flock that consists of a mature rooster, mature hens, and immature chicks of various ages. I regularly integrate 5 week old brooder-raised chicks (male and female) into this flock. The cockerels are raised to butcher age, usually around 23 weeks, usually staying with the flock until then. Not always depending on behaviors but usually. The pullets are typically butchered around 8 months after I have evaluated them and decided which I want to keep as replacement hens. I used to keep as many as three roosters when they free-ranged but after some dog attacks I confined them to electric netting and went down to one mature rooster at a time. Got to be flexible. I never had a mature roster that did not have some hens. Typically my mature roosters leave the pullets alone until they start to lay, but typically the pullets and cockerels stay away from the mature hens until then. They usually form a sub-flock of their own avoid adults.

I've never had a mature rooster attack young chicks. Some people have but I haven't. I don't have them confined to a small coop/run either. I think space can make a difference, the more space the better. I have had mature roosters help a broody hen take care of her chicks. Not all my mature roosters help but a few have. I have never seen a mature rooster adopt chicks and raise them himself but others on here I trust say they have. My point is that no one can guarantee what will happen. It just works that way with living animals, each one is unique and each flock has its own dynamics.

I don't know enough about your unique situation to give specific suggestions. How old they will be, how many, how much room they will have, what the weather will be, or how you will manage them. In general I suggest you handle it like a standard chick integration. House them across wire for a while so they get used to each other, provide as much room as you can when you let them together, and provide separate feed and water stations. A safe haven/panic room might be a good idea or may be totally unnecessary. Observe, be flexible, and have a plan B ready if needed.

The only reason you need a rooster is if you want fertile eggs. The only reason you need a specific rooster is if you want him to fertilize the eggs. Everything else is personal preference. Nothing wrong with personal preference, that can be pretty powerful. I don't know how much influence you have in this since you are volunteering and don't own the farm. When I have to make decisions like this I try to choose for the benefit of the flock as a whole as opposed to making a decision for one individual.

Good luck!

 

[Biddybot]

Depends on the rooster's personality whether he'd be okay with the youngsters. Some of them have strong paternal instincts and will adopt and take charge of chicklets and even fairly young chicks, although I've never had one willing to brood chicks and keep them warm. (I did have a guinea fowl rooster who'd brood chicks or keets, rather, but guineas are different in many ways.)

The old dude rooster, Henry, who's in with my brown-egg-layers now, I let him start interacting with the little wanna-be layers back when they were about six weeks old and well enough feathered not to need heat anymore and be out in their eventual permanent pen. He took an interest in them right away, first through the run wire and then when they first began timidly foraging just outside their run, and would tidbit for them if I provided a tasty bowl of krums or something else. It eventually expanded to him calling them when he found something good to eat in the yard, a bug or some grass or whatever, at which point they were following him and he became a reliable guardian and I started letting him live with his new little flock full time. He was also very good about not trying to mate with them--a well-socialized rooster shouldn't be trying to mate with anything that's still got a peeping chick voice, which is what a 'chicklet' is to me--until they were mature enough, but then he WAS already 6 at the time, so maybe not as driven to breed as some. As for the other adult roosters I had on hand when I first got those chicks...no way! All they saw was jailbait, no paternal instincts at all to inhibit THEIR drives. Like I wrote, you need to know the rooster and some WOULD work out as temporary chicklet dads until the pullets became mature enough to become his harem. But most roosters...not a good idea to put them and very young pullets together...the pullets would suffer and might well be injured. Luckily, you can tell pretty easily and quickly who the good 'dad' roosters are and who aren't, just by how they respond to any new chicklets at first meeting. It's evidence of the care-taking and protective instincts you'd be looking for and want to see come out...not the breeding instincts!

I should mention that this particular rooster who worked out for me given a similar situation to your own was raised by a broody hen and grew up as part of a big mixed flock from day one, which really aids in developing normal, well-socialized adults, whether roosters or hens. But instincts are pretty tenacious when it comes to chickens. Every one of them deserves to be given a try.

Good luck with your own guy and hope things work out one way or another...

 

[Mrs. K]

regularly let broody hens raise chicks (male and female) with the a flock that consists of a mature rooster, mature hens, and immature chicks of various ages. I regularly integrate 5 week old brooder-raised chicks (male and female) into this flock.

I wonder if the fact that birds come and go on a regular basis has an influence on the flocks reaction verses a flock that nothing has been added to it for years. My own flock is pretty tolerant when adding either new birds or chicks.

As for the volunteer, as a person whose livelihood depends on livestock, my viewpoint may be different than a person that is volunteering. This might not be your call to make.

Mrs K

 

[Ridgerunner]

I wonder if the fact that birds come and go on a regular basis has an influence on the flocks reaction verses a flock that nothing has been added to it for years. My own flock is pretty tolerant when adding either new birds or chicks.

Interesting question but I have no idea. My flock is in constant turnover, I almost always have immature chickens in there and none get over three years old so come and go would apply to mine. But I raise the chicks with the flock from hatch, have lots of room, and select which chickens get to breed by behaviors as part of my criteria. I let my chickens be chickens and don't freak out over a peck here and there. I don't try to micromanage mine but let them work things out as much as possible instead of trying to force them to follow a calendar or certain behaviors. As a specific example, my juveniles sleep wherever they want as long as it is not in a nest and in the coop where it is safer from predators. I don't force them to go to the roosts with the adults before they want to. If they want to sleep on the coop floor instead of on the juvenile roost that's fine with me. If the young ones want to avoid the adults at any time I give them as much room as I can so they can do that.

I don't know how much affect, if any, that any of these things have on my being able to integrate chicks. For biosecurity reasons I only integrate really young chicks that I hatch or get from a hatchery so my experience with integrating older birds comes from my childhood when Dad did it a couple of times. That was a long time ago.

 

[centrarchid]

I see what my be complications when all the older birds represent one cohort. To get around that problem, I make so the recruits can roost up, but not in the same location as their elders. Otherwise I delay combining recruits with older birds until yong birds are essentially mature. They all get to interact during free-range time prior so that may help when young birds moved in with adults. There is still the option of jumbling things up for adults so they are not on their own home turf which can be done by moving things around and exchanging hens between pens.