rooster not joining chickens!?

[badrian]

I have had chickens for a year now and now have a rooster for the past 2 weeks. Everything seems fine - just that when the chickens go out to the garden, he doesn't stay with them but hand about somewhere on his own. Does anyone have an explanation for this? As far as I know they are normally sticking with the chickens, keeping order and watching over them...
Thanks!

 

[Judy]

Two weeks isn't very long. Maybe the hens have not accepted him as part of the flock yet.

 

[badrian]

Hi,
thanks so much for your answer! That might be a possibility, though during the first night together they seemed to sort out some of their new hacking order as one chicken emerged minus many of her feathers. He is also sleeping right amongst them, huddled up on their perch and they seem to be content. But I'll hang in there and wait what's going to happen! One of the reasons I got a rooster is so that he will look after them, keep them together, as some of them have a tendency to individuate when they are out of their enclosure during the day in the garden which is not ideal with the very occasional visits of a fox (but better happy and excited about chicken life than forever locked up in an enclosure!)