Rooster introduction and other questions!?

[Tiltom]

I’ve never had issues turning a rooster out with hens. I’ve turned them loose at 2 in the afternoon and tossed them in at dark both and never had issue.

I believe you will have rooster issues. Two roosters raised together maybe, but you’re literally creating an environment that says ‘I am her to steal your ladies’. It could very well get ugly.

So do I just keep one rooster? How would I separate them? They have their coop then they have about 2 1/2 acres of free range land fenced in. I really like my rooster now, he's super chill and does his job. I thought you had to have 1 too per 7-10 chickens that's why I got this one.

 

[Tiltom]

I would not keep him in a crate for a month? I wonder if you miss understood that direction. Usually they are kept separate for a month for quarantine, however if it is in the coop, that is not quarantine.

I would not attempt this, if you want multiple roosters to work together in a flock, IMO a cockerel raised up in the flock, so that there is a father/son relationship, so to speak, tends to work a wee bit better than most other situations.

Brothers or brother relationships sometimes work, sometimes work for a while, and sometimes never work.

Introducing a strange rooster to an established flock is asking for a cock-fight. How violent depends on the amount of space you have, the hormone level of the birds, and a lot of luck. This needs to be your main worry. Roosters and hens generally figure it out. As Ridgerunner says, it might work, but I would want a way to get a hold of each rooster to separate it AT HAND.

Good luck,

Mrs K

Oh boy, ok. Maybe I did misunderstand that. I want to let him out this week and at the same time am a little worried. They seem a lot better together than my little bantam rooster, they didn't get along at all. We ended up gifting him to a family member that needed a rooster, so that's one issue gone. But I do wonder how this will go. Can I get bigger chickens that he won't hurt trying to mate with them or was this just a huge mistake on my part? NEWBIE

 

[Tiltom]

At that age he is still a cockerel. I don't know how mature he actually is. A few of mine have behaved like a mature rooster by that age but most don't. There are different ramifications to that. The hens may not accept him as a fitting father of their potential chicks. His hormones may be out of control so he may get pretty physical with them. His mating technique may be under developed. The mature hens may bully him. Introducing cockerels to mature hens has a lot of potential problems. Sometimes it works out but there are certain risks. Brahma's are know to often be slow to mature, both physically and emotionally.


The way I'd approach this is to open the pop door so they can all get outside and then open his door. But do this when you can observe. With mine the adults all usually immediately go outside. I'd expect him to hang inside by himself for a while before he eventually went outside. It could be a few minutes, it could be hours.

Base what you do on what you see. It's possible things could go pretty smoothly, about anything can happen with living animals. What I would expect to see is that your mature rooster establishes dominance over him. That could be vicious fighting but I'd expect it to pretty quickly become chasing and running away. I would not expect that cockerel to stand up to a mature rooster regardless of size. In the wild a mature rooster usually runs cockerels out of the flock about the time they start bothering his hens. Those cockerels live on the outskirts of the flock until they can claim their own territory and start attracting their own hens. Or mature enough to go back and run the mature rooster out of his flock and take over.

If that cockerel has enough room to run away and get away he might be OK. Eventually the two may reach an accommodation on how to share and take care of the flock. That can look a lot of different ways. They may eventually stick together as buddies or you may need a separate coop for each rooster and their harems. It's also possible it will be a fight to the death, either now or when that cockerel matures enough to stand up to the other rooster.


When chickens mate the hen squats. This gets her body onto the ground so the rooster's weight goes into the ground through her body instead of just through her legs. As long as the hen squats and the rooster's technique isn't too rough this generally allows a larger rooster to safely mate a smaller hen. Plenty of people have flocks with a large fowl rooster and bantam hens without problems. But the more difference in the weights the more the risk if something isn't quite right. Will he hurt them by mounting them? Probably not but there will be a risk, either now or when he gets bigger.


With a flock that size you generally get a few hens that always stick around the rooster but some of the others can form their own clique and go off on their own. That can still happen if you have two roosters. I personally don't put that much faith in a rooster providing a lot of protection to his flock from ground based predators. He often serves as an early warning system, especially from flying predators. He may even attack a hawk on the ground that has a hen down. But my roosters are much more likely to try to lead his flock to safety instead of fighting a rear guard action. Still, many people have different opinions about that so good luck.


Not sure why you think he will get that big. If you got him from a breeder that is possible. if you got him from a hatchery he probably won't get that big but Brahma's can be big boys.

My main advice is to go by what you see, not what a stranger like me over the internet tells you will happen or will likely happen. Each chicken has its own personality and each flock has its own dynamics. Those can widely differ.

Thank you for all of your replies. I appreciate it all. I did get him from a breeder and that's what she said, so I'm going off of that alone since I'm a newbie to all of this. I am always home, so I will make sure to watch them and hopefully make sure they can get along. I believe the breeder either removed Gunny's "hook/claw" bc it's very rounded and just not really there, not sure if these grow back, so I'm just hoping they don't kill each other and can get along inside when they're all in there. Thank you for your help!

 

[Yardmom]

The spurs being short might simply be that he is young. I have two coop set ups and have had cockerals transfer themselves from one to another. It will depend on the personality of the roo that wins the dominance battles of weather you can have one flock or need to have two. You will need to let the roos work it out. They will need space (larger than the coop)and places to hide. They will fight. (More than once most likely) The action of the victor hopefully will be to ignore the looser when he retreats. If this happens there is hope of one flock. If neither roo will give in, or the winner will not allow the looser to retreat you will need to step in and build a space for separate flocks. Watching them fight or deciding when to step in is never easy.

 

[HumbleAmerican]

So do I just keep one rooster? How would I separate them? They have their coop then they have about 2 1/2 acres of free range land fenced in. I really like my rooster now, he's super chill and does his job. I thought you had to have 1 too per 7-10 chickens that's why I got this one.

Are you concerned with 100% fertility? I’m betting my my roosters could have covered 12-15 no problem. More if I only needed 90% fertile.