Introducing a young rooster to a flock of hens

So this evening I'm picking up a 5 month old rooster from my neighbor. I currently have 13 hens ranging from 1.5 to 3 years old. I've been looking on the internets for information on how to go about introducing the ladies to their new boss and some folks suggest sticking the rooster in with the hens at night and let them wake up together. Some recommend just tossing him in there whenever, let them sort it out. Some say put up some fence in between them so they can see each other but not interact and then remove the fence after a few days. I've done the fence/quarantine thing before when adding young 4 week old chicks to an established flock, but am not sure if it's necessary for a near adult rooster who can fend for himself. Does anyone have any practical experience having done this before and have any suggestions? Many thanks in advance!!

We add various farm rescue roosters to our flock all the time. We keep our hens confined to the run and coop until early afternoon, so they know where to lay their eggs. We let them out the rest of the day to free range. We add the roosters any time , but prefer to confine him with the chickens when they are confined, so he gets a better idea where he belongs, instead of just letting him loose out on the farm. We've never had a problem introducing roosters to hens. They both know what to do. ...We do (very rarely) get a mean rooster. Mean never lasts long.

I have to agree with Jim, in the overall view point it is more about what makes you comfortable in this case, the rooster and hens won't really care that much.

Redhawk

Great! I'm pitchin' him over the fence when I bring him home! I'll report back tonight or tomorrow to let those interested know how it went.

Alright so I brought rooster home this morning and of course nothing went as I had anticipated, which is always my case in life. We named him Drumstick, and in the fenced area he went. All the hens were intrigued, wondering who this stranger is. He crowed a couple times, and that's the last I heard him crow all day. The hen at the bottom of the pecking order I guess decided she needed someone to pick on so why not the new guy. She pecked and chased him for a few seconds, and for the most part Drumstick spent the day by himself away from the ladies. And he likes to fly over the fence, but luckily he's easy to catch so I was able to scoop him up and put him back in, four times. The last time he flew over the fence was at dusk with all the ladies already roosting, so I scooped him up and put him in the coop and closed the door. He eventually walked up the ramp and went inside. Interestingly he showed little interest in the hens, perhaps because of his ride home in the back of my pickup this morning and being displaced and in new surroundings. Maybe tomorrow he'll act more like a rooster.

I would expect it to take the guy about 3 days to establish himself with you hens.
First he has to get over the trama (about a day for a chicken usually) then he has to start getting to know the hens once that's done he will take over or he may be a passive rooster.
Once a week has gone by, you will know if he is the boss or a passive.
Roos that come from a place where they weren't the dominant rooster will take more time to establish themselves as the rooster, this is because they were lower on the rooster pecking order previously.

Redhawk

I thought I would post an update. It's been eleven days now and things have gone surprisingly well, better than I could have hoped for. So interestingly, he was silent until his fourth day here when he finally crowed at daybreak, but just a couple times. And he crowed a few times more the following day and day after that. Now he does a few predawn crows about a half hour before twilight, and crows a lot in the mornings and a little throughout the day. He has really settled in and mingles with the hens and dust bathes with them. The hens, while it took close to a week, have really accepted him as part of the flock. As far as the little hen at the bottom of the pecking order goes, she pecked and chased Drumstick for a solid week, and luckily I was outside and able to witness what I believed to be the turning point. She chased him into a corner and he was forced to turn around and confront her, and he fluffed up his neck feathers and started towards her trying to jump on her and flapping his wings, and she turned and ran, and that was the last I saw of him being chased. Now he's the boss and there appears to be good order in the flock. He's a good boy, seems very gentle, will eat out of my hand and I can even pet him on his back, but just for a second then he's had enough.

I'd like to mention that this all came about after being inspired from reading the In defense of a rooster thread. The information there really gave me some insight on a roosters role aside from just making fertile eggs.

Reading this old thread as my new, young rooster has been with the 8 hens (about the same age) for 3 days and they are still mean to him and he is very submissive.  I hope he 'mans up' pretty soon, hate to see him cowering in a corner while the hens stand around him in a circle.

I have never had a problem merging flocks.  I do take care to introduce our dogs to new livestock.  They are protective of what they see as belonging to the homestead and hostile to outsiders.

Hi Deedles,

You may want to consider  a more gradual approach.  

John F Dean wrote:Hi Deedles,

You may want to consider  a more gradual approach.  

Hey ya'll! Totally agree with John here. Earlier this week someone called to tell us a rooster was roaming around on our vacant lot in NJ and just the day before this we were telling someone we were in the market for a rooster...the big man upstairs must have gotten word, pretty neat. We have 9 hens, 9mos old (a bear took out our previous flock).  So anyway, my husband and I and the neighbor next door tried catching this young fellow. It was quite the scene. The guys had lacrosse goalie sticks and I a blanket! Finally tired him out, luckily just before we were ready to call it the quits. Brought him home and kept him in a separate area of the run for the past 5 days. He was malnourished and very stressed out. The first day paced frantically back and forth, trying to find a way out - those beautiful ladies were driving him crazy, they still do. The second day he confirmed his manhood by giving us a few crows at dawn, still paced. I started singing when putting him up to roost that night and he loved it. He has turned out to be a very gentle little guy, looks like a calico cat. The third day, increase in crows at dawn and actually interested in what was on the ground, saw he was eating feathers so fed him some tuna and corn to increase protein levels in his diet. He has become more alert and calm. Amazing transformation. We are debating on whether to give it another week or add him into the flock at dusk one of these nights. Definitely agree with a gradual entry though-it may make for a happier Roo too. King Louie is getting familiar with his environment, he watches intently when we love up the hens, we pick him up too and spend time working around the coop, hopefully all of this will help him to gain trust and become the perfect MAN for these little ladies! hahaa Will update once we integrate him in. Also, could be a coincidence but since he has come around we are consistently getting 9 eggs a day! Couple of questions though - with no rooster experience:

1. Any idea on what breed this is? We were thinking possibly Americauna mix?
2. Hens are purebred Rhodies, Orps, Blue Cuckoo Marans, Plymouth Rock - your thoughts on breeding them with the King? We will breed orps/marans for meat and sell chicks.
3. King Louie is a little smaller than the hens - guessing he's about 6mos old so may not be full grown - but do you think this could be a problem?
4. Anyone any wisdom for a first timer raising chicks? The hens know everything about it - we know nothing.

Thanks,
Jules on Golden Heart Ridge

Hey there I am new to a rooster (we bought 4 chicks…sexed even) and somehow we ended up with a rooster. All of our girls have spice names because they are dual purpose and I have six older hens that are a year old.  Toby (short for Tabasco.) went into the run with three that are his age about a month and a half ago he started crowing, but would only take advantage of one of the three that he came home with the last two days he’s been chasing the bigger girls who were bullying him for over a month and a half and now they’re all hiding inside the henhouse to avoid his advances. I’m just hoping it will work itself out because the food in the water or outside.