Rooster Introduction

[Slamoureux]

I lost my roo to a fox a few weeks ago (RIP Lucky ), and am in the process of introducing my new roo (3 month old Speckled Sussex) to my 12 ladies. I have him in a large wire dog kennel in the coop, and most of the hens don’t mind him at all. However, I have 2 that are still attacking him through the bars. He never starts it, but he does respond by pecking back. There has been a little bit of bloodshed, but nothing serious.

My question is, do I wait for this behaviour to stop completely before I let him out to mingle freely, or can I let him out in the yard with them now and let them figure it out (under supervision, of course!)? I know some scuffles are inevitable, I just don’t want any serious injuries!

Thanks!

 

[Gigachad poultry]

I lost my roo to a fox a few weeks ago (RIP Lucky ), and am in the process of introducing my new roo (3 month old Speckled Sussex) to my 12 ladies. I have him in a large wire dog kennel in the coop, and most of the hens don’t mind him at all. However, I have 2 that are still attacking him through the bars. He never starts it, but he does respond by pecking back. There has been a little bit of bloodshed, but nothing serious.

My question is, do I wait for this behaviour to stop completely before I let him out to mingle freely, or can I let him out in the yard with them now and let them figure it out (under supervision, of course!)? I know some scuffles are inevitable, I just don’t want any serious injuries!

Thanks!

Short periods of time where he's with the flock and under supervision should be okay, and when you are 100% sure he's okay with the flock I find that putting him on their roost bars at night works the best.

 

[Gigachad poultry]

He's a very handsome roo by the way!

 

[LaFleche]

Maybe crate the two aggressive hens for a few days to allow him some time with the more relaxed ladies and settle in.

Then add just one of the crated hens to see how it goes. If all is well after a few days, let the other one join the flock as well and supervise closely as he is still very young and could be seriously injured.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[aart]

At 3mo it's gonna take a long time for him to integrate.

 

[Mrs. K]

Personally, I want my older hens to take the top off. He needs to learn a bit of respect. I just put two in my coop and Mrs. Feathers conducted a come to Jesus meeting.

They even quit crowing for a week.

However, I have a huge run with roosts and clutter where birds can retreat and get out of sight.

Mine are roosting with the girls, right in the middle of them, but that did take a couple days.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Unfortunately you don't have a mature rooster, you have an immature cockerel. From reading your post it sounds like your girls are mature. Integrating a mature rooster with a flock of mature hens is often about as easy as it gets. He swaggers in, wows them with his magnificence, mates one or two, and the flock is his. Not all mature roosters have that self-confidence and not all mature hens are that accepting so it doesn't always work that way but it often does. At 3 months your cockerel may not have gotten that far into puberty yet, he may be a long way from confident maturity.

Several different things might happen when you let him loose to mingle. The more room you have the more likely good things will happen.

It is possible he will avoid the hens and they won't go out of their way to harm him. When this happens it isn't that bad.

Often more mature hens will peck a less mature chicken that invades their personal space, whether that immature chicken is male or female. It usually doesn't take long for the younger ones to learn to avoid those mean mature hens. Not all mature hens do that but it is pretty common. One downside is that he is a single. Chickens are flock animals and want to be with other chickens. He may be attracted to be with them but scared to get close because he will be attacked. Singles are often harder to integrate than groups because of this. Single pullets can go through this too.

It is possible that some of the mature hens will go out of their way to attack him whenever they see him. My chicks are raised with the flock and I've never seen this but several people that I trust on here say they have. It's not always cockerels they attack either, it can happen with pullets. Often it is not the ones higher in the pecking order that do this, either, but the ones that are lower. Sometimes they can work through this but sometimes people isolate the ones being attacked or they lock up the aggressors for a while.

The above is before he is that deep into puberty. Once the hormones of puberty are upon him, things can change. It is still possible things can go very smoothly, no real drama. Not likely but it happens. Things are going along and all of a sudden you realize he is the dominant flock master. You did not even notice it as it happened.

More often he reaches a point where he tries to mate the hens. Some may actually submit. But some hens want the potential father of their chicks to behave appropriately. A flock master rooster has certain duties he needs to perform in taking care of his flock. Immature cockerels often cannot measure up to those expectations. So the hens may run away from him if he approaches them. He may let them go, let them go after a short chase, or chase them and force them to mate. Some may fight back and beat the crap out of him, or at least run him away.

One scenario I've seen is when many of the hens will let him mate but the dominant hen will not allow him to mate them in her presence so she knocks him off to show she is still boss. Typically he runs away and she lets him go, but occasionally she may follow to really teach him a lesson. At some point he will mature to the point that he fights back. That can work out with little drama but once with mine to led to two days of pretty intense fighting before she accepted his dominance and they became best of buddies.

I usually don't have a lot of drama with any of these scenarios but there is usually some fighting. It's just not that bad. But any of them can explode into violence with short warning. You need to have a plan where you can isolate one or two on short notice.

My suggestion is when you can be around at least some to observe let him out. See what happens and use your judgment as to whether you need to isolate one or more. Each situation can be different.

 

[Slamoureux]

Thanks so much for your input everyone! I ended up keeping him in the crate in the coop for almost a week, then let him out to free range with the girls under CLOSE supervision. Most of the hens just ignored him, but the more aggressive one decided to fight him. He’s already quite dominant (and almost the same size as the hens), so he fought back. I broke it up when blood was drawn (just scrapes, no drips), and he retreated into the run to sulk. No more big fights after that, just mild scuffles. He roosted with them that night, and no more trouble since! He seems to be quite friendly with people, he follows everyone around the yard to see what they’re doing (and hoping they have tomatoes for him, lol). Fingers crossed he stays that way!

 

[LaFleche]

Sounds as if they start to get along.

Keep an eye on the "following people around wherever they go", as this can turn into stalking. He should keep his attention on his flock of chickens not on the humans.
Always walk confidently and don't walk around him but right at/"through" him if he starts to put himself in your way.