Introducing new roosters to the flock

I recently purchased 2 beautiful Black Orp roos to put over my Blue Orp hens. They are all youngsters, ranging from 7-9 weeks, the new roos being the oldest. Anyways, I placed the 2 new roos in an adjacent pen to the other group of Blue Orps for about a week or so to let them get acquainted. I walked into the coop the other morning and saw that the roos had opened the door and were now mixed in with the other birds. No fighting seemed to be occurring, all seemed well, so I left everyone together.

Anyways, as I have been observing the flock, I have noticed the 2 roos seem to be very bonded to each other and stick together. They have not taken on the 'protector' role, but are more like bullies. They eat first and peck any others that try to feed at the same time. They chase any smaller pullets that get too close. They also sleep separate from the other group of birds. So, can I expect these two to eventually bond to the main flock as well? I'd like these roos to look after the girls, especially when they start free ranging.

I have raised up roos and pullets together and have never noticed this type of behaviour before in chicks that were hatched together. The roos have always allowed the hens to eat from the same dish, etc. How long should I give them to adjust? They are absolutely beautiful birds and there have been no major fights other than the little spats here and there. Any advice appreciated, thanks all!

Hawthorne Heritage, sounds to me like things are normal in there. The cockerels are young, they don't have much testosterone going on yet, essentially youngsters. They don't realize what their job is, i.e., what and how an older male behaves. When they get near to the age where they begin to crow, then they will take on the duties that are typical behaviour of roosters. So for now, they will be just little boys, being little boys. There are no females to fight over, so that is why they have melded together so nicely. My take on what is going on, others will chime in. Have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM.

I am still a little new to this, all my birds were new last year and raised together or at least put together while still young. Integrating birds together this year has posed some interesting problems.
I am glad you started this thread. Integrating roosters has been a problem for me and I now have some youngsters that I really want to keep, and I want to do everything possible to make things good for them as adults but they must be housed together.
My only remaining roosters from last year are two very mellow faverolles (a breed characteristic) raised together since chicks. They are best buddies and even when in with the hens remained best buddies.On the other hand I had put some young australorps roos in with them last year and the australorps became more than the favs could handle and in fact became so aggressive I put them all down. They were all raised together too but a different breed with an entirely different disposition.
I was reading in a book lately that breeding for sociable roos should be at least as important as other more visible traits. I think that they like people need to be taught social skills from youth, hence the value of a good senior roo to teach them the ropes. (talked about on Cynthia's thread as well)
The related topic of their aggressiveness toward people I would like to also mention.
I received some advice which has turned out to be invaluable to me which most of you probably already know but for those that don't:
She said whenever a rooster became aggressive toward their owner you should drop whatever you are doing. Catch the rooster, any part you get you hands on just pin him down, pick him up and handle, massage, talk to move him around and whatever you can think of until he submits and settles down. I have found doing this in front of the ladies definitely speeds up the decline of aggressiveness. Maybe they don't like being humiliated in front of the girls.
Anyway this whole topic of rooster behavior is an important one.

I agree. And since roosters are seldom a scare commodity, we can afford to be highly selective. There is no doubt that aggressiveness is under a considerable degree of genetic control. This doesn't mean it's totally genetic, like egg colour, but selection and breeding for good temperament will definitely have results.

While it seems possible to modify aggressiveness in some instances by handling, that doesn't affect the underlying genes, and a mean roo is likely to throw sons who are temperamentally similar.

Years ago we had very handsome Barred Rock roo named Bela. For his first year he was ok, then in his second year he started to go for me. My husband went out, crouched down, looked him sternly in the eye, and said "F**k off. She's mine!" Next day he did it again. After the next morning he crowed no more.

If a roo is mean here, he goes into a pie. Period.

I agree with IPF won't have a mean rooster on the place. The one time that an Andalusion rooster hit me in the face only lived a few seconds longer.

These roos have not shown any sign of aggression towards me or towards any other person for that matter, so that is not a concern for me at the moment though I will keep an eye out for it. I was more just wondering about their interactions with the rest of the flock and whether or not their behaviour will change. As Cynthia posted, I think I will wait until these two start crowing and see what happens.

Pluckylady, was trying to figure out why my text was quoted, and you had not made a reply. But then I noticed that you had changed the title to "how old is it when their testosterone begins to develop, that was where you question was asked. It was kind of weird, and if one didn't look really closely, no one would realize that you had asked a question. I am kind of nosey in this way. I will try to help you. There was nothing wrong with you doing that, it was just very out of the ordinary. If you want to make a reply to the quote, push the quote button and type the text you want to put in below it, maybe you just didn't know how to make text after a post, hope this has helped and you don't think I am being critical, not meant that way, just wanting to help you out.

Your question. Others too will chime in. Different breeds of chickens mature faster than others, so the testoterone develops the same, at different ages.

For example, I think that when the hormone is really beginning to manifest is when the cockerel begins to crow. My recent hatch of buff orpingtons began to crow at the age of 17 weeks old. The buckeyes of the same age are not crowing yet and my records indicate that they didn't begin to crow until about 22 weeks of age. So it just totally depends on the breed of chicken. Hope this helps, have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM.

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reneggaide wrote:And yet, I have some slightly different buckeyes(yes, we figured that one out eh, CynthiaM) that began crowing at 8 weeks??

You have gotta be kiddin!!! Wow, now that is a shocker, maybe the ones that were crowing are gonna be massively good at flock keeping, smiling. My young buckeye cockerels (7 of them) are now 19 weeks old and not crowing, yet, the orpingtons are crowing at 17 weeks. Funny things these birds!! Beautiful days, CynthiaM.

When we are introducing or moving roosters around here we try and do it after dark. Wether we are moving them to winter coops or moving them around as they are growing or getting them into the breed pens. We will take the new birds into his new quarters and place him on the roost beside the others and normally by morning everything is fine. I normally will go out in the morning when the lights come on and just watch just in case. When we are moving birds that have been raised together in with hens we normally only move in one at a time and then give it a few days before introducing the next. I know with my older speckled sussex he will bond very closely with one other rooster during the winter months and if I don't divide them up when moving them in with the girls the speckled sussex reigns terror on any bird that gets to close to his pal.