will my older rooster get along with the baby rooster?

[Becksdunn]

I was given 2 grown hens and a grown rooster, which i am pretty sure they are just now laying age. I also was given 2 baby chicks which were i am guessing were less then a week old. i have become very attached to the little ones. i feel its getting time to slowly add them with the others. i am pretty sure one is a hen and the other a rooster. will the big one get along with the little one or should i keep them separated from the start? This is my first time having chickens of my own.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

I think you will need more hens, for 2 roosters or else they will fight, like 15 more hens.

 

[Compost King]

it can be a lot of work integrating flocks, especially when Roosters/Cockerels are involved. Be prepared to have multiple coops and pens. The more space you have the easier, the more hiding places you have with food and water accessible, the better. I tend to not try to integrate a flock until the youngest is 8 weeks old. Sometimes it works easily, more often than not I have to intervene and put them in side by side pens with a fence they can see through. Roosters will fight through the fence, unless they start bleeding I let them set their pecking order with a fence in the way so the loser can walk away.

I have had very few problems with free ranging birds with coops that have long and multiple roosting bars when integrating. But sometimes you just get that rooster that is mean no matter what.

It is possible to have too many roosters if they came from the same brooder and accept their pecking order, but Ursuline Chick is right in your situation, you will need more hens.

 

[aart]

More females might help keep the males from fighting....or not.
There are no magic numbers, it's all about the temperaments of the birds whether they will get along or not.
Be ready with separate enclosures or crates...cause when it gets ugly it usually happens fast.

How old are all these birds?
I brood chicks in coop 1 week after hatch behind a wire wall and integrate at 4 weeks old.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Since you are dealing with living animals no one can guarantee how they will behave. We can tell you what we think will probably happen but there are all kinds of exceptions for all behaviors. They each have their own personality and don't all react the same.

The only reason you need a rooster at all is if you want fertile eggs to hatch. Everything else is personal preference. I suggest you keep as few roosters as you can and still achieve your goals. That's not because you are guaranteed problems with more roosters, but that the more roosters you have the more likely you are to have problems. I don't know your goals or why you want two males, but that seems to be your preference. I'll try to work with that.

One huge factor in integration and in keeping multiple males is how much room you have. I'm not talking about that 4 square feet per chicken in the coop with 10 in the run, especially when you have only a handful of chickens. Can they get well away from each other, maybe even out of sight behind a wall or something? The more room you have the more likely it will go well. If they are shoehorned into a tight space your odds of problems go way up. So, in feet of meters, how big is your coop and how big is your run? Photos can help us understand a lot.

I'm not sure how old your oldest three are but I'll assume they are mature adults. Typically a mature flock master male will accept a young chick as his, even if the colors are totally different. He may help take care of them and protect them, or he may pretty much ignore them. It's pretty rare that he will harm them, whether the chicks are male or female. Your two hens are normally a higher danger to the chicks, especially if the chicks invade their personal space. That is where space comes in. The chicks need enough room to avoid the older hens. It is pretty unusual for a mature rooster to harm a chick but not that unusual for a hen to. It is normal for a chicks to form a separate flock and avoid the adults until the chicks mature themselves.

At some point your cockerel will hit puberty. It could be at three months or it could be several months later, they are all different. That's when things change. The cockerel starts trying to mate females who typically resist, usually by running away. The rooster starts seeing him as a rival, not an offspring. With sufficient room, and I'm talking about a lot of room, it does not have to be bloody but the cockerel's interaction with females and with the mature rooster can still be really hard to watch. This can be when people decide their goals really don't require a male or multiple males, it can be that hard to watch, especially people new to chickens.

So what can you do if you wish to keep both males? You can try to integrate the two chicks with the adults. There are a lot of tricks we use, which ones might be appropriate for you will depend a lot on your set-up and room. This might work until the cockerel hits puberty, it might even work past that. But have a Plan B ready, a place to put that cockerel if things go bad quickly.

You can build a separate pen and keep the two young ones by themselves in there. This may be forever, it may be until the pullet matures enough for you to try to integrate her by herself. There are challenges in integrating a single pullet, especially before she has matured enough to start laying. I know I'm repeating myself but how much room you have makes a difference. People mange that all the time but it can get more dramatic than integrating a few at a time. Chickens are social animals and want to be with other chickens. If she is by herself she may invade the adults' personal space to be with them and get herself attacked.

You can leave that cockerel in his own pen forever and ever by himself or with that pullet. They are social animals so he will not have the company if he is by himself, but he will be alive and not fighting the older rooster.

People sometimes keep one rooster with one or two hens and just don't have problems. This is especially true with breeders through the breeding season, they often have breeding pairs or trios. But a big part of that is that they have mature roosters and hens, not immature cockerels and pullets. They are living animals so no guarantees on any of this, but mature roosters and hens usually form a pretty peaceful flock, even if you only have a few. Immature cockerels and pullets are typically really rough as they go through adolescence. If you can somehow get through that phase you should have a few options with that pullet, but with what you have her adolescence may prove dramatic. I wish you luck.

 

[Mrs. K]

I do not recommend keeping roosters the first year. There is a learning curve to caring for chickens, and roosters take experience in my opinion. There are flocks with multiple roosters, but successful flocks where the birds mostly get along, tend to be quite large and have a great deal of space, A GREAT DEAL OF SPACE, more than a backyard.

Given enough space, roosters can be a charming addition to a flock, but they are a crap shoot. Some work out wonderfully, some not too good, and some can be violent. Until a person sees how violent a rooster can be, they often under estimate it.

If this is your first experience with chickens, and you have a backyard set up, I would not keep either rooster. There can be some very ugly behavior, which is multiplied in a small set up.

You certainly can try it, it might work, but my advice to you is to have a way to separate them set up and ready to go in case it does not work, it can go south in an instant.

Mrs K

 

[Becksdunn]

More females might help keep the males from fighting....or not.
There are no magic numbers, it's all about the temperaments of the birds whether they will get along or not.
Be ready with separate enclosures or crates...cause when it gets ugly it usually happens fast.

How old are all these birds?
I brood chicks in coop 1 week after hatch behind a wire wall and integrate at 4 weeks old.

i am not exactly sure how old the 3 older ones are but the two chicks are approx, 8 to 9 weeks.

 

[Becksdunn]

I do not recommend keeping roosters the first year. There is a learning curve to caring for chickens, and roosters take experience in my opinion. There are flocks with multiple roosters, but successful flocks where the birds mostly get along, tend to be quite large and have a great deal of space, A GREAT DEAL OF SPACE, more than a backyard.

Given enough space, roosters can be a charming addition to a flock, but they are a crap shoot. Some work out wonderfully, some not too good, and some can be violent. Until a person sees how violent a rooster can be, they often under estimate it.

If this is your first experience with chickens, and you have a backyard set up, I would not keep either rooster. There can be some very ugly behavior, which is multiplied in a small set up.

You certainly can try it, it might work, but my advice to you is to have a way to separate them set up and ready to go in case it does not work, it can go south in an instant.

Mrs K

 

[Becksdunn]

thanks and thats what i was thinking, see what happens and go from there.

 

[Becksdunn]

Since you are dealing with living animals no one can guarantee how they will behave. We can tell you what we think will probably happen but there are all kinds of exceptions for all behaviors. They each have their own personality and don't all react the same.

The only reason you need a rooster at all is if you want fertile eggs to hatch. Everything else is personal preference. I suggest you keep as few roosters as you can and still achieve your goals. That's not because you are guaranteed problems with more roosters, but that the more roosters you have the more likely you are to have problems. I don't know your goals or why you want two males, but that seems to be your preference. I'll try to work with that.

One huge factor in integration and in keeping multiple males is how much room you have. I'm not talking about that 4 square feet per chicken in the coop with 10 in the run, especially when you have only a handful of chickens. Can they get well away from each other, maybe even out of sight behind a wall or something? The more room you have the more likely it will go well. If they are shoehorned into a tight space your odds of problems go way up. So, in feet of meters, how big is your coop and how big is your run? Photos can help us understand a lot.

I'm not sure how old your oldest three are but I'll assume they are mature adults. Typically a mature flock master male will accept a young chick as his, even if the colors are totally different. He may help take care of them and protect them, or he may pretty much ignore them. It's pretty rare that he will harm them, whether the chicks are male or female. Your two hens are normally a higher danger to the chicks, especially if the chicks invade their personal space. That is where space comes in. The chicks need enough room to avoid the older hens. It is pretty unusual for a mature rooster to harm a chick but not that unusual for a hen to. It is normal for a chicks to form a separate flock and avoid the adults until the chicks mature themselves.

At some point your cockerel will hit puberty. It could be at three months or it could be several months later, they are all different. That's when things change. The cockerel starts trying to mate females who typically resist, usually by running away. The rooster starts seeing him as a rival, not an offspring. With sufficient room, and I'm talking about a lot of room, it does not have to be bloody but the cockerel's interaction with females and with the mature rooster can still be really hard to watch. This can be when people decide their goals really don't require a male or multiple males, it can be that hard to watch, especially people new to chickens.

So what can you do if you wish to keep both males? You can try to integrate the two chicks with the adults. There are a lot of tricks we use, which ones might be appropriate for you will depend a lot on your set-up and room. This might work until the cockerel hits puberty, it might even work past that. But have a Plan B ready, a place to put that cockerel if things go bad quickly.

You can build a separate pen and keep the two young ones by themselves in there. This may be forever, it may be until the pullet matures enough for you to try to integrate her by herself. There are challenges in integrating a single pullet, especially before she has matured enough to start laying. I know I'm repeating myself but how much room you have makes a difference. People mange that all the time but it can get more dramatic than integrating a few at a time. Chickens are social animals and want to be with other chickens. If she is by herself she may invade the adults' personal space to be with them and get herself attacked.

You can leave that cockerel in his own pen forever and ever by himself or with that pullet. They are social animals so he will not have the company if he is by himself, but he will be alive and not fighting the older rooster.

People sometimes keep one rooster with one or two hens and just don't have problems. This is especially true with breeders through the breeding season, they often have breeding pairs or trios. But a big part of that is that they have mature roosters and hens, not immature cockerels and pullets. They are living animals so no guarantees on any of this, but mature roosters and hens usually form a pretty peaceful flock, even if you only have a few. Immature cockerels and pullets are typically really rough as they go through adolescence. If you can somehow get through that phase you should have a few options with that pullet, but with what you have her adolescence may prove dramatic. I wish you luck.

its really not my preference, i would like to have only one rooster, but they were given to me and at the time the chicks were only about a week old so no idea what they were going to be, and i have become attached to the little guys and not wanting to have to find a home for the older one. but i had a feeling that i probably won`t be able to keep both. thanks for the info i need all i can get due to being new to this.