When is it safe to let my 7 week old pullets out wiith my rooster?

[wconstantine]

I tried yesterday and he made a pass at them (trying to mate). Just curious when they are safe to withstand his weight. I don't want him to hurt them by accident.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

A general rule of thumb is when they are near to the same size as the older chickens. It does depend on the breed though, with rooster weights. A large rooster can injure a tiny bantam hen.

 

[farmin4fun]

Hello,

I have a couple questions before I can really give you a good answer. First, how old and how big is your rooster and how big are your young chickens? What breed would also be helpful. Second, do you have any mature hens of laying age in with your rooster as well? Third, how big is your chicken coop and run?

I have integrated young chickens with mature chickens many times. Roosters will generally leave younger chickens alone if they have mature hens to keep them occupied. Reason being is that a mature hen will generally squat and allow the rooster to mate easily, where a young hen will just run away, forcing the roo to chase her down. This is where space becomes an issue. If you have plenty of space for your young hens to get away from him, that is a good thing.

If your rooster doesn't have any mature hens around then, I would try integrating them for a couple days and see how things go. Just remember, there will probably be a little chaos at first as the roo establishes dominance, but if you have a good roo he will probably settle down and hopefully leave your young hens alone. If not, you may have to separate them until they get older.

 

[wconstantine]

Hello,

I have a couple questions before I can really give you a good answer. First, how old and how big is your rooster and how big are your young chickens? What breed would also be helpful. Second, do you have any mature hens of laying age in with your rooster as well? Third, how big is your chicken coop and run?

I have integrated young chickens with mature chickens many times. Roosters will generally leave younger chickens alone if they have mature hens to keep them occupied. Reason being is that a mature hen will generally squat and allow the rooster to mate easily, where a young hen will just run away, forcing the roo to chase her down. This is where space becomes an issue. If you have plenty of space for your young hens to get away from him, that is a good thing.

If your rooster doesn't have any mature hens around then, I would try integrating them for a couple days and see how things go. Just remember, there will probably be a little chaos at first as the roo establishes dominance, but if you have a good roo he will probably settle down and hopefully leave your young hens alone. If not, you may have to separate them until they get older.

I'll answer the best I can. The breed of the young chickens is really unknown as we got them from Tractor Supply - all sexed as pullets though. I think we have some Goldens, A Jersey Giant, and I'm not sure of the rest. I will post some pics. Our Rooster is a Partridge Cochin - I'm guessing about a year old. We just rescued him from our plumber who had him in an enclosure with only roosters and he didn't do so well. He is healing from a lot of beatings ... We have had him since Saturday (mid-day). We have 7 mature Hens, 2 Rhode Islands, a Leghorn (I think), a Swissauben (sp), a Buff, and either a Jersey Giant or Austrolorp, and a Silver Laced Wyndott all going into their second year. He has mated (by force not submission) with all but one of the RIR hens who I refer to as the HHIC (Head Hen in Charge) - she crows and jumps on the other's backs even tried to jump on our poor Roo.

 

[wconstantine]

A general rule of thumb is when they are near to the same size as the older chickens. It does depend on the breed though, with rooster weights. A large rooster can injure a tiny bantam hen.

Thanks ... they are more the size of my Swissauben (sp) ... but no where near the size of the Roo which is a young (I'm guessing at age) Partridge Cochin. I know yesterday, we had them free range with the other flock and he made a pass. They can fly good so he didn't catch them. But if he did one of his sneak attacks like he does to the other hens ... he could have.

 

[farmin4fun]

To be honest I don't think you'll know unless you just throw them in together for a couple days and see what happens. My best guess is that he will focus on the other hens and leave the little ones alone. I've integrated older and younger flocks together many times and they just operate like different cliques in high school. The older chickens flock together and the younger group sticks together. You may get some occasional squabbling, but if you have plenty of room for the little ones to run away it's usually just fine.