Will my rooster be ok with an 8 week old Cockerel?

[Mrs. K]

I have had the best luck with a father/son, whereas the son is raised up in the flock. So I would suggest getting him in there when you add the pullets. The older rooster for the most part should just ignore all of the youngsters. I have had much better luck with father/son, or older/young roosters than with roosters the same age.

But roosters are a crap shoot, and often times work, then don't work.

Mrs K

 

[aart]

Better to integrate early, IMO.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/
The cockerel won't be any 'threat' until he gets older....then who knows how it might go.

 

[cmom]

I have had the best luck with a father/son, whereas the son is raised up in the flock. So I would suggest getting him in there when you add the pullets. The older rooster for the most part should just ignore all of the youngsters. I have had much better luck with father/son, or older/young roosters than with roosters the same age.

But roosters are a crap shoot, and often times work, then don't work.

Mrs K

I agree. Usually there will be a time when the youngster gets a little older where he may try to dominate the older male or vice versa. They will never get along as a father taking his son under his wing. I hatch a lot of chicks out every years and around half will be males. In my experiences, when one male wants to breed a female the others will too. When my males are still young enough I put them in bachelor coops and pens. As long as there are no females they are ok. Once in awhile the other males might gang up on a certain male and beat on him. I have had some males kill another male but that only happened once. Once I had some males gang up on a male but I removed the one being picked on before they killed him. For the most part they all get along as long as there are no females in the mix.