tiny rooster and bullying hens...any suggestions??

[Hendrika]

Hi there! This year was a hard year for my flock. I lost 3 hens due to predators. So now I have 2 ladies left. They're mixed breed: new hamsphire and rhode island red. They have always lived without a rooster. Recentely I rescued a tiny sebright rooster. I put him in coop adjacent to the ladies for a couple of weeks, so they could see and smell and get used to each other. Then I introduced them to each other.

My girls are really not having it. They bully him and there is no positive interaction. He does seem healthy: he gets to eat and drink, has no bald spots and they do sleep together most of the nights. But it is quite heartbreaking. He is very lonely. The size difference is big. It's been 10 weeks and they're not warming up to each other.

So I'm thinking of adding 2 small/medium sized hens to the flock, hoping that my tiny rooster will be able to at least end up in the middle of the pecking order. I'm curious if any of you have experience with a situation like this? Any other suggestions what might help the rooster to be integrated in the flock? Any thoughts are appreciated!

 

[Trimurtisan]

Hi there. Sorry to heart your little fella is being bullied.

I wouldn't use them sleeping together as a sign of being friendly. I'm pretty sure that is more of a survival instinct than anything else.

Do you know how old the lil roo is? Maybe he is just young and immature. We have a few cockerels here. One of the youngsters is a Marans. He's a decent size, but the hens keep him in check more often than roster does. Same for a Light Brahma cock. Neither of them are small, but they are young.

Have you raised a cockerel before? Is there a chance the "old ladies" don't want some "young punk" hanging around?

Adding to the flock might not be a bad idea. If they don't like him now, they really won't like him when breeding season comes around and his hormones are raging.

 

[chickens really]

Yep...How old is the Cockerel/Rooster?
Sometimes Bantams don't do well with standard size Birds and older Hens may never accept him. He might be keeping his distance and will win the ladies over in time.

 

[ValerieJ]

I feel bad for the little guy. Have you considered getting some Sebright pullets for him? I have never kept the smaller chickens, but have heard some say they have to keep them separate from their larger birds. I think the Sebrights are so beautiful, but my Orpingtons are very large, so I don't dare bring any in to my flock. I know you are building a new coop and run for them all. Is there any way to incorporate two sections to keep the small birds separate form the larger breeds? (And of course give your little Sebright some friends.)

 

[21hens-incharge]

I would not try to keep such a small guy with your big ladies.

The big hens you have are of known dominant breeds. They are not likely to ever tolerate him.

Personally I would set him up with bantam girls in a separate space. No need to risk him or other bantams with your big gals.

 

[Ted_Harrell]

I'm with these folks, I don't think they will ever accept him because of his size and differences. I would get more of his kind with him and build them a coop of their own. and try to find the old ladies a fully grown rooster of their own...

 

[Duckfarmer1]

The idea of building another coop is daunting, I realize this. But, sometimes when we stand back and see what’s going on with the birds we’ve chosen, and invested our time, hearts and money into, it does come down to...rebuilding, or another building. We realized that too, and my husband went our and bought more roofing tin to make sure the color lot would match. .

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined.

How old is he? Interaction between chickens depends a lot on maturity. Mature hens can be pretty brutal to immature pullets until those pullets mature enough to force their way into the pecking order. With mine that's typically when the pullets start to lay, not an age thing. Until then the pullets tend to form their own sub-flock and avoid the adults as much as they can because they don't like getting beat up. What you expect to see when you integrate immature pullets with mature hens is different than if you try to integrate mature hens with mature hens. If you do get more females bear this in mind.

Mature hens can also be quite brutal to an immature cockerel. Until the cockerel hits puberty the hens pretty much treat them as they do pullets. Once the hormones hit the cockerel's behavior changes. He often becomes more aggressive toward the hens, wanting to mate with them to establish dominance. Usually the hens are having none of that until he matures to a point that he starts acting like a good father for their potential children instead of a spoiled brat. I've seen cockerels get to that point at 5 months. I've seen cockerels not get there until they are practically a year old. The hens' personalities has an effect on that too.

There can be a tremendous difference in the behaviors of pullets and cockerels compared to the behaviors of mature hens and rooster. Typically as juveniles things can be pretty unsettled but when they mature they typically settle down a lot. Some seem to never grow up though. Each chicken has its own personality, male or female.

One key word in this is "can", not "will". Sometimes these integrations go so smoothly you wonder what all the concern was about, totally peaceful. Other times it can get pretty violent or even deadly. Usually it is somewhere in between.

My definition of a successful integration is that no one gets hurt. That's it. Seems like you have achieved that. Them sitting around a campfire toasting marshmallows and singing Cum-bah-la as one happy family can come later when they all mature.

All this above assumes he is still immature. If he is actually mature the above mostly doesn't apply.

A mature rooster needs to Wow! the hens with his self-confidence and magnificence. Physical size usually doesn't play that much of a part in it, but in your case it might. That is a huge size difference. It's not that unusual for a bantam hen to be the dominant hen in an all-hen flock. It's not that unusual for a bantam rooster to be the dominant rooster in a mixed flock. But that much of a size difference doesn't help.

If you want to add more females I don't see any reason not to provided you have room. If you are down to two it might be a good thing in case you lose another. The more room you have typically the easier integration is. Many of us integrate chicks and chickens all the time. If you want to keep him and no one is getting hurt I don't see the problem except maybe with your expectations. That may change as he goes through puberty, you never know with living animals. So have a Plan B ready, which means have a place to isolate him ready in case it becomes necessary.

Good luck!

 

[50-45-1]

i think as long as your hens are not beating him up and drawing blood, i would give it more time.
it sounds like your little roo may be young.
given time I'll bet he wins those standoffish girls over.
adding more hens will likely create more integration issues than what you have now.
i have had a free range flock for 50 years+ bantams and standard. the hens follow the rooster of their choice regardless of his size.

 

[Hendrika]

Thank you all for your thoughts! I'm smiling at the notion that the fact that nobody got hurt may not be all that bad . Today, I the rooster was standing relaxed, on one foot, right next to one of the hens who was sitting peacefully in the sand. I haven't seen them that peacefully yet, who knows, maybe its the beginnig of cum-bah-yah and marshmallows However, the roo is adult, probably about 2 years old. My girls are about 3 years old. I think for now i'll just keep an eye on them, while building my new bigger coops.