rooster adoption?

[Sassafras]

I was perusing the local animal shelter website and they have a pretty Ameracauna (probably EE) rooster. I have a lot of room and I think they are beautiful. Also I would like one to keep watch when free ranging (or maybe I just want an excuse to have one

)I have 7 week old pullets. How long would I need to wait to introduce a rooster?

 

[gritsar]

A good rooster is a wonderful creature to have. To keep your young pullets safe from his romantic advances, they would be need to be about the same size and ready to be mated. Could you go ahead and adopt him and just keep him seperate until then? One rooster wouldn't require much in the way of housing.

 

[midget_farms]

The standard quaranteen period is 30 days.

Since you dont know the background of the rooster and the cleanliness of where it came from I wouldn't depart from that by much. You are looking to see if he gets sick in that time period. If he does you dont want him anywhere near your flock. If not - he's probably safe.

Try to determine the age of the roo - By age I mean young or old - look at his spurs - if they are over an inch then he is probably older. This is good. Young roosters are very rough on the hens. Older ones know how to treat a lady if you know what I mean.

If he is young - keep him seperated for sure until they are the same size - or full size anyway.

 

[Sassafras]

The SPCA where he is does regular testing and parasite control and is very clean. I went to see him today. He is respectful of people and they are going to hold him a few weeks for me.

I can make some quarters for him by then. His spurs have been trimmed so I don't know exactly how old he is. A pic is below if you have any comments.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Handsome dude.

Good luck.

 

[mlward]

Hmmm, I wasn't aware I should keep younger birds separate from a rooster. I guess I just figured they knew somehow who was old enough for "activity".

I have a buff brahma bantam rooster who is almost 1 year and very sweet. About a month ago, I added our 8 GLW's that were 5 weeks old. They had their own enclosed area in the coop to escape from the bigger ones, but could come & go. Within a week or two, they had blended in nicely with the flock. I haven't seen the roo pay any attention to them at all. Is that unusual? I mean, if chicks are hatched with a broody and grow up with the flock, what stops the roo from bothering them?

 

[harmona1]

That's awesome. And he's beautiful! Good luck with him!!

Quote:

 

[teach1rusl]

If they're in the same pen, I'd be more concerned over your bantam roo than how he'd treat the chicks. Either way, if you adopt him I'd do it right before the weekend so that you can spend a LOT of time observing - whether it's the possibility of chick troubles or rooster troubles.