chickens/rooster intro

[redman2006]

I have a young group of hens. They just went into full production about 6 weeks ago and were hatched in late may or early july. They are Red sexlinked called Red stars out of McMurray hatchery.

I tried to introduce a rooster to them when I moved them to the coop. He was their age and slightly larger. Well, they killed him 2 days later.

These birds are very easy with people, but just flat mean with other birds. I have not had as much trouble with a group of hens or introductions as I have with these girls.

I have another rooster now. he is quite a bit older and mouch larger than the hens. I have kept him in a wire cage in the coop for a week for acclimation. I wonder what else I can do to keep them off of him. All of my previous tricks are not working with this group.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[Tex]

You are already doing what I was going to suggest.

What about letting him out of his cage at night when it is time to roost?



Tex

[Boston_Joe]

I had heard the best time to introduce new birds to the flock was at night. It's as if they wake up and find the new birds and think they've always been there. It worked for me when we were putting together our flock a couple of years ago and were getting adult birds a couple at a time.

[redman2006]

I was going to try to introduce him on Friday night while they are roosting. I tried that with the last one, but it did not go as well as hoped.

When I introduced a bunch of young ones to an older flock a few years ago, I had them penned side by side for a week and there were not even any ruffled feathers.

I have also heard adding bright kids toys or some other new thing might keep them off the new guy, but again, that did not seem to help last time either.

this is a huge white rock, so he should be able to handle himself, but there are 26 hens to gang up on him.

[Gwynmael]

The only other things I might suggest redman: are to make sure the hens are fully settled (asleep) when you put him in to roost with them; and you might need to have some time to spend in the pen when you let them out in the morning to see who starts the pecking on him, most likely one of the top hens, so you can correct it by tapping her on the upper back to get her to drop into a submissive pose.

Yeah, I know that sounds weird (lol) but its what a rooster does to them when he's breeding. We had to do that some to keep the top hens from pecking at #10 as much when she had an injured foot.

[Tex]

Redman, I am betting you don't have any sammich making stuff available for the hens and they are unsure how to act. Put some bread and fixin's in the coop and their female instincts will kick in. They will go make that feller something to eat and quit being so contrary. You can't expect females of any species to be polite if we don't give them the proper tools with which to do so.



Tex

[redman2006]

so what you and Tex are saying is teach the hens their place: to serve the male and behave......?

[redman2006]

Seriously, I will keep an eye on it. I don't need a rooster, but I sure like hearing one.

These hens are already sex starved. They drop into a breeding pose as soon as I walk in. Kind of weird. You would think they would be happy to see a rooster.

[W.Lynn]

If you're the boss, then yeah, you're the boss. They probably wonder why you don't crow or mount them. The tapping and/or just shoving them away from the new guy any time you see them starting to gang up should help. Bird toys and treats too. I wonder what would happen if they had some metal "mirrors" to argue with, instead of the rooster?

[redman2006]

Just an update. The bird has been introduces. There was a heck of a fight for a while. 2 or 3 seemed to really give him a run for his money. He seems to have them all in line for now. Hopefully this does not upset the apple cart too badly. I hate to have all the picking going on and lose birds.

[Dode]

This has been very interesting. I had no idea that hens would gang up on a rooster and kill him. How are things going with the new rooster? Still ok?

[redman2006]

There were several that tried to, he is twice their size. There was a heck of a fight with feathers everywgere. Everyone seems to be ok now.

[Boston_Joe]

I had something similar happen with my ducks. We've 2 drakes and 2 hens. One of the drakes had a respiratory thing going on and we segregated him for a week while we treated it. When we set him back out it was if he never existed until that day and he had lost all of his previous status. The battle for position lasted 3 days. Now they are back to the way they were prior to his separation.

Duck fights are not bloody affairs but man, they look brutal.

[redman2006]

A question. I have had chickens for a long time. I use them primarily as layers, but I like dual purpose type breeds such as barred rocks. Anyway, this time I got sex linked layers through McMurray hatchery. Ordered 24, got 26 all survived. Added a rooter who is doing well.

They are eating far more than any set of hens I have ever had. They are healthy, plump, but not fat, and consuming almost 50% more feed than they should. Typically my birds would eat .25 to .33 lbs per day. These are going through 75 to 100 lbs of feed weekly. Basically, 0.5lbs daily. This seems excessive to me.

We have not been cold. I feed leyena pellets. They do not get to leave the pen due to predators, and I do not have kudzu in the winter to feed them like I do in the summer, but they get a few kitchen scraps, overly mature kale and collards, and so on.

Any thoughts? Should I just measure and call it good? I tried that, and they darned near attack when I go in the coop. this is the first set of birds I have ever had eat like this.

[Tex]

Regardless of what the actual weather has been like, they will eat more come winter. If you are overly concerned though, back them off a little, but be sure to monitor their health. There is a fine line there. You don't want to feed them to the point they aren't laying and they're ready for the pot, but neither do you want to feed them so little they start cannibalizing the weaker birds or start eating eggs.

Do you have a heat lamp in their coop? It may not seem to cold, but their metabolism may be going hard trying to keep warm.

I'm just thinking out loud here.

Ease them off some of the feed and see what happens

Do you feed them in just one spot or feeder?
Can you spread the feed around some?
Are they able to get to a little gravel?



Tex