Rooster question

[moodybubbles]

Hi

My Easter Egger pullers are nearing age to start laying. I let them out if their run daily for a few hours in the late afternoon/early evening to eat bugs. I leave the coop and run open for water access and so they can go back in when they want. I got a Easter Egger rooster 10 days ago (4-6 months old) and left all chickens in the coop and run so he would know where home is. I decided to let them roam again about a week after I got him. I opened the door, the girls run me over trying to get out after the bugs but he stayed in. 20 min later he was still not leaving so I shut the door to keep him in because if he wasn't going with the others to leave, he wouldn't come in with them either.

When will he be a part of the flock and come and go with the girls? Am I right that if he doesn't go out with them then he won't come in when they do? I lure them back in with table scraps, watermelon rinds, things like that so I can close the run door and not watch my dogs so closely after they run around a couple of hours.

 

[carolinasculpture]

Hi! I added a younger roo, raised from 3 days old, to my year old hens, along with two pullets. The pullets adjusted to the rest of the flock and were pretty integrated by the end of the summer (slowly introduced starting around the middle of May). The roo really became part of the flock around the time puberty set in! I thought he'd never "be tha man", but it did happen! Hope this helps! And, I think he would come in sometime before dark, even if he didn't come with the hens.
Good luck!

 

[moodybubbles]

Thanks! I have to keep close watch on the dogs so I like to have them in the run by 6 so I can eat dinner in peace but I could try leaving the door open for him one day. He stayed in three by himself. He seems to be an outcast right now. He sleeps with them but doesn't lounge with them through the day. He is off to the side, alone. They are huddled together in a corner even though it is 100 degrees out. They have done that all summer though even without the rooster.