When expanding your flock and adding a roo is it better.....

SophieLain127

Songster
10 Years
Apr 7, 2009
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to add a young baby roo or have one of the hens hatch him and have him grow with the girls or get a full grown male?

We are at some point going to buy land and increase our flock so we were thinking of just waiting till the girls go broody and slip some eggs under them and if some roos keeping one or two.
 
The roo will be from different bloodlines regardless of which method we use. We just want to know which method is best. If we let the hen go broody and hatch eggs we would have to buy them and switch them we will not be keeping any roos (we live in the city). If we buy a chick or an adult it will still be from a diff bloodline.
 
I just added a full grown roo to my flock a few weeks ago. Here's the best advice I can give you. First, if you're going to add any birds, rooster or otherwise to your flock, be sure to quarantine for at least one month prior of adding them to your flock. Hopefully you already know about quarantining.
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Next, introduce the rooster slowly to your all girl flock. Hens have been known to reject a full grown rooster out of hand, and bloodshed is not uncommon. If at all possible, create an adjoining enclosure to your coop where the rooster and girls can see each other but can't actually make direct contact with each other. Once your rooster has cleared the quarantine period, place him in this adjoining enclosure. Watch for any serious signs of aggression on the part of your ladies. If they begin to act obsessively aggressive towards him...i.e. pacing the fence line endlessly, throwing themselves at the fence in a futile attempt to attack him, pecking at him through the fence any time he gets within striking distance, etc, these may all be signs of the hens unwillingness to accept the new rooster. This is especially true if the majority of your flock are exhibiting this behaviour. If this is the case, it could probably be a pretty safe assumption that they will not accept your choice in roosters and serious injury to the roo could occur if he is fully introduced to your flock.

If your girls exhibit this degree of hostility towards an adult rooster, then it will probably be much better for all parties concerned to return the rooster from whence he came, and concentrate your efforts on raising a baby up with your flock. If you are so fortunate as to have a broody in your midst, you could utilize her services, but due to the unpredictable nature of hen broodiness, in conjunction with the availability of fertile eggs, you'd probably be miles ahead of the game with less frustration if you were to incubate the eggs yourself. There are a good number of reputable members here at BYC that offer hatching eggs for sale on a fairly steady basis. Also there are the various hatcheries that offer hatching eggs as well. It all depends on the quality of bird that you want.

Adding a cockerel to your flock is probably the easiest route to successful acceptance by your current flock of hens. He's to young to know what he is yet and they have no clue either. To them, he's just this years addition of younglings to the flock.
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So, which way should you go? It's entirely up to you and how much effort you want to put into it. If you find a rooster that is so beautiful, would bring great genetics to your breeding program or he just pleases your eye to the point of being a must have, then no amount of effort is too much! Just be prepared for the girls having a completely different point of view than you do when it comes to the choice of a perspective mate!

Good luck in either choice you make. Being the proud new owner (or should I say slave) of a Blue Wyandotte roo, all I can say is "Yes! Worth every minute of nervous anticipation!" Griffin has brought a whole new dimension to our flock. We had no idea of what we were missing out on until we made him a part of our little family!
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i had an all girl flock, and just added a young cockerel, and two pullets of the same age, they treated him the same way they treated the pullets, just mild aggression, a little chasing and of course a little pecking... now i am here to tell you, that he is a big cockerel, but he dont know it, yet, he is 22 weeks old and weighs 8 pounds, and is knee high, they push him around like hes is a chick, but not really mean to him, ihave a couple of bullies though, and they have been pretty accepting as well.
 
I agree with SERRIN's advise. I tried to introduce a rooster and the dominant hen became more aggressive not just with him but my bantum hen as well. After 1 month the rooster had a large bald spot on his back from the continual hen pecking. He had to go and the dominant hen also.
 
It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you were adding new bloodlines, then you add hen. That way if you don't like the results, just one hen/offspring to cull. If you are just adding a rooster so you can hatch your own, depends on flock, pen size, breed. I like to add 2/3 grown stock as they fit in well. Rooster will usually take care of his own unless just thrown into mature flock w/no space to get his bearings.
 

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