Young cockrell being hen pecked

[Lucindahart]

Hi Guys

I am after a bit of advise for a friend.

He reciently introduced a young cockrell to his hens. he followed bhy advise and introduced him at night - when he and the hens all snuggled together. During the day he kept them seperate - but so they could all see each other. they all seemed fine so after a week he introduced them all together.

The girls hen pecked him mercylessley. Since then he has spend approx 4 weeks trying to introduce them - and the girls are having none of it.

If anyone has any advise I can pass on to him it would be great - as he has tried all my tricks - and his hens are bullies!

 

[Lucindahart]

Anyone there??? Help!!!

 

[Lucindahart]

anyone there????? help!!!

 

[teach1rusl]

I don't have a rooster yet, but am getting one, so I asked about how to introduce him. It sounds like your friend did everything right. What's the age difference between them? Based on what others have told me (not personal experience yet), once he becomes a little more mature (especially when hormones hit), he'll start taking up for himself and putting the hens in their place. Hopefully someone with experience will respond soon.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Just in case you have not seen it, I'll post a link to this article. I think it is great.

Buff Hooligan’s Adding to your flock
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-adding-to-your-flock

You did not mention ages but it sounds like your friend is introducing one rather immature bird to a flock of existing hens. Once he becomes mature enough, he should be able to dominate them by his spirit and maturity. Until he can dominante them, they will treat him like any other young chicken being added to the flock. They will make sure he stays at the bottom of the pecking order as long as they can. I think hens are even more vicious to young roosters than pullets in these situations. A rooster dominates hens by mating with them. Once he reaches that level of maturity, some hens will submit easily but some are very likely to resist. They want to remain dominant themselves. It could get rough when he decides to dominate.

I don't know how bad the pecking actually is. To some people, the normal pecking to establish the pecking order can appear to be very severe and dangerous when it is really not. Don't get me wrong. Chickens do sometimes die from pecking order issues. I'm just saying I am not there looking at it and I don't know how bad or dangerous it really is.

I'm sure you understand that establishing a pecking order is necessary so they can exist as a flock. Once the pecking order is established, the flock should exist fairly peacefully. But establishing the pecking order can be pretty violent. Nature does not want weaklings or sick birds adding their genes to the flock.

I'm not sure how much putting a new bird in after dark helps. When they wake up, they don't know who deserves the prime roosting area. They don't know who gets to go out the pop door first or who gets all the perks of being higher on the pecking order. It may be that while they are still groggy and confused while waking up it does help. I really don't know. I kinda feel it is possible the pecking order issues are pretty well sorted out by the time the human gets there to observe and that they were not especially violent to start with. I'm not saying don't try it, but I'm suggesting you need a back-up plan.

What I would recommend to your friend is, if possible, house the cockerell next to the hens to allow them to get to know him and give him a chance to mature some. Throw some treats on the ground so they are eating next to each other but cannot get to each other. Then when he decides to try to integrate them, observe. If there is one or two particularly aggressive hens, remove them from the mix for a couple of days. Give him a chance to integrate with the others. After he has done that, then reintroduce the aggressive hens. Or, when he wants to try to integrate, take a few of the less aggressive hens and put them in with the cockerell. Just a few at a time. It helps to give them as much room as possible and to try to integrate them on neutral ground or his ground, not the territory the hens feel possessive about.

Good luck to you and your friend!!!

 

[Lucindahart]

Thanks Guys

Have forwarded all of that on to him.

Fingers Crossed Neville the Cockrell will soon master his hens!