IS MY ROOSTER TO AGRESSIVE???...PLEASE HELP.........

wnthunting

In the Brooder
8 Years
Jun 10, 2011
44
0
32
ny
HELLO... I have 14 hens that are almost a year old.. last fall I was getting 12 to 14 eggs a day from the girls and I had no rooster.. a few months ago my neighbor gave me his 10 year old brama rooster. Who has seemed to get along great with the hens and has been very protective of them . All winter I still continued to get around 10 to 12 eggs a day... now that spring is here, all of the hens have bare backs ,bare butts and some even have bald heads. I am now lucky to get 6 eggs a day. I have also noticed my rooster will not leave the hens alone... he is always breeding them...non stop... every time I look out at the coop he is on a hen.. he jumps on them and bites the back of their head until he is done. is he the reason for the bare hens... or are they molting...is he just to aggressive?? Please help.
 
OMG, at that age, I'm suprised he gets up in the morning! Maybe he never had hens. I don't know. Roosters do look like they're doing it all the time, esp in the spring-hormones. Usually only one or two hens gets too much and gets a bare back. Then you get hen saddles to protect their back. But if you've had enough, lock him up and give the girls a break. I personally like roos that are smaller than my hens so that the hens can beat him up if they want to! A Brahma roo is huge.
 
Check them closely at night...look around their vents and such to see if you can spot some mites. Roos can wear the feathers off the back and neck, but I've never seen one wear it off the butt. Could be you have something else going on....mites can contribute to the feather loss and the egg reduction, if it isn't the roo. Normally a single roo can't wear the feathers off 14 chickens.

New bird...might have brought something new to your flock besides good lovin'. If not mites, I'd get rid of the rooster...too many good roos to put up with one riding your girls to death.
 
In agreement about Brahma roos! I have one who is a twelve-pound behemoth and I refuse to let him anywhere near my petite little girls. I hesitate to even let him have anything to do with the two Brahma hens, either. He's just way too much roo for any of the girls.

My first rooster was Stan the SLW. I let him have constant access to the hens, and he wore them out. No one had back feathers, and half had bald heads. After Stan died of heart failure, I vowed to keep any future roos separate and spare the hens.

So Penrod the Brahma roo enjoys the hens' company with a fence in between, and everyone is content.
 
I wonder if the rooster is 10 months, not 10 years old.... and if so, those are teenage hormones. And I wonder if her hens have ever molted? Cause molt does kind of slow down the eggs, and with a busy young rooster, well things do get to looking pretty rough.

Last summer, I was in the same boat, but the hens seem happy enough, they ate good, and I did get some eggs, a little slower rate. So I waited it out, and all the feathers did grow back, now my roo is older, he has slowed down on his mating, however, I see the nearly year old pullets are looking a little rough, I think they are starting to molt.

The mites might be a problem too. Mrs K
 
Really not the time of year for molting, which is why I thought of mites. You are probably right about that roo....10 mo. old would explain the increased hormones. I just processed a young rooster, maybe 5-6 mo. old, and his testes were almost as big as a human's. A normal, mature roo's look like a chili bean, so these huge nads have got to be driving them mad!
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Thanks for all the info... but I'm sure of my rooster being ten years old....he was my neighbors for 9 years.. :) he's so old his toes are wore down to stubs... but he will still take down any predators that come near the girls. ( crows..geese.. chipmunks) . I will check the girls for mites tonight.. thanks again
 
meanwhile lock him up where he can't molest your girls. I too had a problem roo, heads,backs,exposed and looks like too much activity around the vent, maybe semen? now the hens are growing feathers back and the butts are clean.
everybody is much happier..the roo? no longr with us
in addition, I watched him chase a hen and grab at whatever including tail feathers,I thought he was supposed to protect against predators, not be one.
 
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