reintroducing a rooster

[siroiszoo]

Does anyone have suggestions on how to reintroduce a rooster to a flock with an existing rooster with out a blood bath taking place?

I have 14 Australorps & 14 Orps; all 7months old. The flock has one orp roo & one aust roo. I'm going to separate the Orp roo with a few choice orp hens for breeding. So I need to add one roo.

I initially had 2 orp roos and 3 aust roos - all came in the shipment and were raised together. I culled all the roos and put them with older hens because it was way to much on the younger hens having all those young roos attacking them.

 

[lildinkem]

Quote:
I usually make the change at nite. And let them wake up next to each other. Birds aren't the swiftest creature. many know that someone new is here. And they'll assert their dominance, but, let them get use to each other under your supervision, and settle the peckin order. Sometime, when the two are evenly matched is when you have the blood bath fights. But, most of the time they figure it out. I have one pen next to one of my Orp pens that has 6 cockerels and one Roo. The Roo is only a year older, but he runs that pen. He too is an Australorp. Not even the biggest boy in the pen, but he is the man. And that is with 6 boys. When that first introduction was made, Mertly the Australorp took on 3 Golden Comet cockerels at one time, kicked all their butts, at the same time. So, let them settle the order, just watch and don't get too worried. The types of breeds you have will rarely really hurt each other badly..

 

[siroiszoo]

Update: All my roos are now peacefully running with the hens.

I got fed up, caged the three roos for about two weeks in a hen house with no other birds in it. Then I let them out together in the hen house for a couple of days to make sure they were getting along, then I put them in with the hens one night. The next morning when I opened the door, there were a few scuffles but everything is back to normal.

Problem solved.