What do I do with a scared rooster?

[Huppstead]

We have never had a rooster before. We probably should have researched the topic a bit more. He is only 10 weeks old. I guess I was under the impression that they are pretty "tough". Well he is not. I feel bad because he is so young. The hens do not like him at all. We let the hens out of the cage. So he has only been with them for about an hour with us right there. He is even scared of us! When my son goes to feed him he runs to a corner and stays there. Literally for hours. He will not even look at you.

Can you give me some advice on what we should do? How old should a rooster be before he can take care of himself? Is it normal for him to be that scared? He was around people before we took him but he was in a large pen with a lot of chickens.

 

[centrarchid]

Show a picture of the rooster as he appears now.

 

[Huppstead]

 

[Huppstead]

My husband and son are putting up a fence today. They were going to be outside all day so they opened the gate to let him out if he wanted to. He thought maybe if they weren't blocked off in a fence they might get to know each other better. Well he ran away. LOL! I went out to get the picture and he was gone. My son found him waaaay up behind the house. We put him back in the coop. That is what he did.

I keep telling him he gets all the ladies and he's not going to be for dinner but its not working.

 

[centrarchid]

Only thing image indicates that says rooster is the apparent size of feet. If a rooster it is simply too immature. If hens are adults, then your rooster will need to be a good 8 months old before he acts the part. Overall he does not look very he.

 

[deathfromabove]

He is still young, give him some time say two to three weeks there with the hens but seperated so they can see each other. Remember you just got him he needs time to acclimatize to his new home and a new flock.

 

[aart]

You are integrating a single new bird into the flock, which can be difficult.
You can't expect an immature rooster to move right in and take charge...10 weeks is still a baby IMO.

Read up on integration:

Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.
See if any of them, or the links provided at the bottom, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens into flock.

Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock