Rural Gardening: rooster trouble, 1 by sewincircle

sewincircle wrote:
I have a problem with a roo . He is my top dog roo. I love him a lot. He loves people and has a good disposition with the children. My problem is integrating new chickens. They are not old enough to breed with so he hates them and tries to kill them. I only have one area to keep my chickens so I had to pull him out to solitary confinment. (The tractor) I started my flock this summer. I made the mistake of hatching them in three waves. I did not realize the whole pecking order thing. Crash course I guess. My eldest is a rooster (problem child) and a hen. Then I have 3 more hens. (Having gotten rid of 4 roos in that batch) And the I have 5 hens and a roo in the third batch. The last batch was born in August so they are still young. I just added them to the hen house and it was disasterous for the newbies. Duke keeps jumping on the little girls and ripping their feathers out. They were so stressed they would not move in the yard. Hence, solitary confinment. I really want Duke in the mix. His old girls love him. They are all stressed out. My hen wont lay either. Having hind sight I now know not to mix all ages but does anyone have any suggestions about creating a symbiotic home with this motley crew?