Young cockerel and hens

[Lacuna]

Hiya, We are here in month 4 of small holding living and loving the life. Horses are slowly moving their way through the woods and I now have a lovely flock of 8 young hens free ranging all over. They are mostly cream legbar with a coupe of buff sussex and mostly pretty friendly.

I had a chance to adopt a cocker of the same breed from a local rescue and he is currently settling in in his own run. I want to introduce them all but have quite an age discrepancy as the girls are 13 weeks and he is only 5weeks and looks very tiny next to them. Any poultry type people able to give me a good idea of when best to introduce them properly? I was thinking in about 2-3 weeks once he has had a change to get a bit bigger

 

[I'm Dun]

I am happy to put chicks in from 5 weeks with appropriate panic rooms for them, but I wouldnt put a single male chick in. Hens are horrid to young cockerels. I'd keep him out of the flock till he is full sized.

 

[mini_b]

Hens can be quite nasty so I too would also keep him separate until he’s same size as hens or bigger.

 

[Lacuna]

They have been trying to bully him through the wire so I'm quite happy to keep them separate for now. Its going to make him a bit tame as well with daily handling