Wandering roo

[Athiena14]

My new rooster has been accepted into the flock now, but does not want to roost with them. The first night I managed to catch him and put him in with the rest. Today a huge storm hit and the others went into the garage but he was no where to be seen. After the storm passed he was back. While herding everyone into the new roost tonight he took off into the woods and is very smart for a chicken that has been only in a coop most of his life... I could not catch him. How do I stop this behavior

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

ummm…… I would lock him in the coop for a couple days, but if that doesn't work then he'll do it unless he is in a run.

 

[Athiena14]

ummm…… I would lock him in the coop for a couple days, but if that doesn't work then he'll do it unless he is in a run.

Okay, which would suck because I do free range minus the nightz

 

[aart]

My new rooster has been accepted into the flock now, but does not want to roost with them. The first night I managed to catch him and put him in with the rest. Today a huge storm hit and the others went into the garage but he was no where to be seen. After the storm passed he was back. While herding everyone into the new roost tonight he took off into the woods and is very smart for a chicken that has been only in a coop most of his life... I could not catch him. How do I stop this behavior

How long have you had this bird....and how old is he?
What are the numbers, ages, and genders of the rest of your flock?
What is the 'new roost'?
How big is your coop, in feet by feet?
Dimensions and pics would help immensely.

 

[Athiena14]

I had 2 hens and 2 roos. I just got in 2 more hens to try and keep squabbling down. The new roost is part of a barn. It's about 8 feet long by 5 feet wide. 6 foot high

 

[Athiena14]

He is about 4 months the others are about 6 to 7 months

 

[Criticalicious]

4 hens and 2 roos are terrible odds. I wonder if the older rooster is chasing off the younger one? If he had a bad experience with the coop, he may not want to go back in.

 

[Athiena14]

They haven't chased him off. I spend half the day watching them. They did the whole pecking order thing and only time I see him chased off is when the older male is trying to breed the girls

 

[Athiena14]

My two roos eating together. As far as I saw he picked a nesting box the night I managed to get him in and stayed there the entire night

 

[Ridgerunner]

It is purely a maturity thing. He is an immature cockerel, immature compared to the others. He is afraid to roost with them, it is highly likely they are fairly brutal toward him when they are settling down for the night so he is looking for a safer place to sleep. This has nothing to do with whether he is integrated or how well they get along during the day when they have a ton of room. He is afraid to sleep with them, which is totally normal.

If you can keep locking him in there with them at night. He'll eventually get that message. He will probably sleep in the nest until the matures enough to sleep on the roosts with the others. That used to be pretty common with mine when I was integrating juveniles until I built a juvenile roost, higher than the nests, lower than the main roosts, and horizontally separated from the main roosts to give them a safer place to go that was not my nests. Your coop sounds like it is big enough to do something like that. Since he is in the habit of sleeping in that nest you might have to move him to that lower roost after dark a few times to get him used to sleeping there instead of the nest.