What age do you introduce your chicks to flock?

[doughouse]

He was re-homed to me and told he was friendly. He got worse with time. Lesson learned-no true need for a roo!

I hear ya: we once had to rehome a rooster. He was sweet and docile to the point of being skittish, but our hen/rooster ratio was off and we knew someone with a flock of hens who wanted a rooster. They checked in with us a few months later to let us know they had to eat him: once he became the Alpha Roo he turned into a complete monster, both to the humans and to the hens. Sorry to hear you've had a similar experience: at least your roo is good to your girls!

 

[SmallTimeChicks]

I hear ya: we once had to rehome a rooster. He was sweet and docile to the point of being skittish, but our hen/rooster ratio was off and we knew someone with a flock of hens who wanted a rooster. They checked in with us a few months later to let us know they had to eat him: once he became the Alpha Roo he turned into a complete monster, both to the humans and to the hens. Sorry to hear you've had a similar experience: at least your roo is good to your girls!

Glad to hear that the friend who gifted him wasn’t simply trying to get rid of her mean roo! Thanks!

 

[10cheeps]

I've tried and tried these same steps with my little 13 week silkies and my 5 months old older hens. I've tried multiple times within the last month - month and a half. No luck. My girls are just way too brutal. I've had small areas for the silkies to escape to and my girls wait for them to pop back out and go right for their faces as soon as they do. They all have free ranged fine together quite a few times and no problems. As of now I have 1 coop and my older birds like going to my neighbors (who are the kind of people that have that I'm better attitude and are completely rude) so I have to keep them in a run and the silkies free range bc they stay close to home. The silkies were penned in a small pen right beside the older birds their whole lives until they got too big for my little brooder pen and when they free range they're always walking around the older birds run but they still get picked on horribly. Last time I tried to introduce I sat for 2 hrs with them and it was like my hens turned into psycho cannibals and they wanted to eat them! I do have 2 other little babies getting close to 1 month and my silkies are perfect with them with no pecking or anything so I'm thinking about just making a separate coop for the silkies and the 2 littles and leaving the older ones..

Sorry so long but any ideas on what to do?

Im confused as to how you're complaining about your neighbor. If it's property, he can do what he wants with it.. including not having other people's animals have unlimited access to it.

And you have to do research. Silkies are some of the friendliest chickens and most likely to be bullied. They may need a separate run altogether.