Young rooster and older hen behaviors

[donnaleedreams]

New member here.

We just acquire a young rooster (who we bought as a hen! Now I know why he never seemed to assimilate with the flock so well.) I like him and would like to keep him, but we have a rooster already. They basically seem to get along, but at night when they all go into the hen house to roost, no one will let the newer rooster on the roosting bars. It's the hens that usually peck at him, not the other rooster! So he sleeps in the nesting boxes and makes a total mess by morning.

We have ten hens and the two roosters. Any suggestions for why the hens won't let him roost with them, so that we can understand the problem and break this cycle to keep the nesting boxes a little cleaner?

Thanks.
donna

 

[Ridgerunner]

He is still an adolescent. Many mature hens expect a rooster to dance for them, find them food, warn of danger, keep peace and order in the flock, and all that before they will accept him as a potential father of their children. A mature hen also outranks an immature cockerel and will often let him know it.

He is sleeping in the nest box because they beat him up when he tries to go to the roosts. The nest is the safest place to go. You might try putting up a separate roost just for him, lower than the man roosts and separated horizontally, but higher than the nests. You will probably have to move him to this new roost a few nights after the coop is dark for him to get the message.

Good luck. This can be frustrating but eventually he will grow up. He may or may not then have problems with the older rooster instead of the hens.