Overagressive mating rooster, where do you draw that line?

I have a EE rooster, he's about 10mos old and 14 hens all of mating/laying age. He's always been middle ground aggressive-wise. He was ok till about 4mos when he started showing aggression toward my kids (no I don't allow them in the yard with him) every time he saw one of them. Flogging at the fence, biting. He's only moved to flog me if I go to pick up or pet one of the girls and they protest. When I'm in the pen with him or they are free ranging he ignores me and dh. However, even with 14 hens he's tearing up their backs and the wings on one girl as I noticed the other day. I've got saddles on half of them now. I purposely doubled the # of hens to try to make it easier on all. Is this normal for a roo with this many hens or is he over mating them? When I let them out to range for an hour he'll do his best to mate all of them, some more than once. I've read over and over that by this age he should be calming down but it seems to only be ramping up. If I'm on the outside of the fence where he knows I can't "get" him, he repeatedly crows over and over and if I move too fast near the fence he flogs. He's been my only rooster experience, so I need some advice from the seasoned members please. Is this dude going to calm down or is he looking at a cold and frosty future?

In my opinion, cold and frosty. I'm not that concerned about the hens backs (he could still grow out of that) but don't tolerate a human aggressive rooster. I don't know how old your kids are but he could get out. It's not worth the chance when there are plenty of other roosters around that are not human aggressive.

Ridgerunner said:

In my opinion, cold and frosty. I'm not that concerned about the hens backs (he could still grow out of that) but don't tolerate a human aggressive rooster. I don't know how old your kids are but he could get out. It's not worth the chance when there are plenty of other roosters around that are not human aggressive.

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Ditto on the aggressive roo. Another thought, if you're noticing just one gen in particular is being worn out, it's likely she is his "favorite". This past year I had 60+ birds (2 roos, all the rest hens). My dominant roo had one girl he LOVED, and wore her back and head feathers off. My other roo took the left overs, which if I were a rooster would seem like the better end of the deal. But....chickens are strange. Find yourself a gentleman, and watch her feathers grow back. I got rid of most of my birds, and now only have 5 hens and 1 roo, and even with that ratio, they all have their feathers where they're supposed to. Good luck.
Nikki

lol, any people aggressive roo, I draw the line ... right across his neck!

My old roo hardly ruffles the hens feathers, but the young boys made a mess of the girls over the summer last year. Thought their feathers would never grow back. The youngsters are now at freezer camp.

Cull him. He may settle down with the hens, but he won't settle down with your or your kids. Roosters are easy to come by.

Aggressive roosters make the very best soup and dumplings, or chicken pot pie. Heck, even Chicken A La King.

That behaviour is just not acceptable.

Even if you were able to "train" him not to attack you he'll still attack everyone else, the literally can't be trusted. Good luck

I'm not tolerant at all of overly aggressive roosters. Even if they are aggressive with just the hens, they get the Green Mile walk. My girls work too dang hard for me to be abused in return.

Ok that's what I was afraid of. He's been around a long time, so it's going to be tough. I'd rather have a roo that won't be trying to protect the flock from us though.

Indigosands said:

Ok that's what I was afraid of. He's been around a long time, so it's going to be tough. I'd rather have a roo that won't be trying to protect the flock from us though.

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There are too many great roosters to accept the behaviour of this one. I'm sorry it has to come to this. I have plenty of nice EE boys that won't find homes and will have to be processed. I will keep the very nicest one for breeding, as temperament is very important to me.