Rooster showed up with wild turkey hen flock, now what do I do?

[MaGlockner]

That is tight for an integration. He needs to be able to run away and get away when he is attacked and to avoid them when he gets away. You don't have enough room for that.


OK but realize when he is not in your possession you are not in control. You can find the Massachusetts thread in the "Where am I? Where are you" section of this forum and chat with your neighbors. Maybe an ad on Craigslist. Chat with the people at the feed store, they may have a bulletin board where you can hang an ad. Or put an ad in the Buy, Sell, Trade section, just mention your location in the thread title.

I don't care about control. I care about him finding the best home where he can thrive. Not sure I can provide that. My friends at the feed store are trying to find him a home.

 

[centrarchid]

Game stag = male fighting chicken not yet fully mature, cockerel

 

[Mrs. K]

Do you have what I call clutter in the run? A picture would really help us help you.

But many people have a wide open rectangle, whereas a every chicken can see every other chicken 100% of the time. If you add a lot of stuff, ladders, roosts, platforms where a bird can get on top or underneath. If you set up mini walls, where a bird can step behind. If you set up feed dishes in these corners, where a bird eating at one dish, cannot see a bird eating at another dish, it makes use of the third dimension of space, the vertical, it makes it much more interesting to your birds. And it helps birds get along.

What I would do, is re-arrange the clutter if you have it, or add quite a bit if you don't. Then I would let the girls out of the set up, and lock the rooster into the set up and feed along fence. Then, let the girls in, very close to dark, where the urge to roost is about as strong as the urge to fight. If you can set up a roost, away from where the girls roost in the coop, and lower that will be helpful, I have an old saw horse set up in mine.

This is my go to for integration, it lets the new bird get comfortable in the set up, without being chased and harassed. It seems to let the older birds see the new one in the set up and the sky does not fall.

What I think will happen, is he will roost lower for about 2 weeks, and then they will all fall in love with him.

Mrs K

oh, I missed the part where you want him to move on.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't care about control. I care about him finding the best home where he can thrive.

That's exactly what I mean. Once someone else has him you cannot control if they keep him or eat him. That become their decision. You can try to put preconditions on it but that just makes it harder tp find him a home. Not all people are honest.

 

[ColtHandorf]

He looks like a game stag.

Looks like a poor, hatchery-quality Golden-laced Wyandotte cockerel to me.

I think the girls just need to get used to him. Putting some new things in the run can definitely help. Hang a head of cabbage, throw some hay bales in there, rake up some leaf piles and add those, throw some hen scratch, add a couple of roosts where they can hop up to get away from one another like a sawhorse, make an A-frame out of plywood or aluminum. All of those things will give the girls (and him) something to do. The girls that aren't as dominant are just ensuring their place in the pecking order. Multiple feeding and watering stations will also help during the introduction process.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

If he was a game stag he would have beat the you-know-what out of the hens. He is a GLW cockerel about 5 months old.

 

[red horse ranch]

here he is. he looks pretty grown up to me, but what do I know?

He may still be a little immature but the hens should accept him once he has been around a while. I think GLW's mature a little slower than some other breeds.
You have some pretty rough winters in Massachusetts so he needs shelter if you plan to keep him until the hens accept him. He is a beauty and a GLW can be one of the best roosters you will ever have.

 

[ColtHandorf]

If he was a game stag he would have beat the you-know-what out of the hens. He is a GLW cockerel about 5 months old.

Not necessarily.

 

[RubelliteRose]

You don't have a lot of room, but if you change your mind and decide to keep him, you can make a small pen in the corner of your run for integration. We kept our newest chicks in the pen during the day and then placed them in a dog crate in the coop at night. It made integration MUCH easier.

 

[MaGlockner]

You don't have a lot of room, but if you change your mind and decide to keep him, you can make a small pen in the corner of your run for integration. We kept our newest chicks in the pen during the day and then placed them in a dog crate in the coop at night. It made integration MUCH easier.View attachment 2937541

i put the ladies in the coop a tad early, then i coaxed little man into the run. I then put the wire dog crate in the run with a tree branch strategically placed if he wants to roost during the day. He's now cuddled up in the NE corner of the run on the large tree branch... there is a wind break (clear heavy plastic shower curtains) so he's safe from the wind, but it's supposed to get down to 22 tonight. I thought about trying to figure out a way to let him into the coop and boarding off half of it, but I can't do that tonight and a crate is too big for my 6x4 coop.