Help Rooster People...need advice~

[LittleRedCoop53]

I have a 7 month old Frizzled Silkie Rooster, which i placed in with 4 older wyandotte hens(2yrs), i'm hoping to breed them. The older hens are mean to him and he's afraid of them. He's been with them for over a month and i'm wondering if i've made a mistake by placing them together too soon. Should i separate them and let him mature and get his confidence back? As it is he just crows a lot and hides when they chase him.

I feel sorry for him....

 

[Percheron chick]

I'd just leave things be. They have probably given him the basics to be a very nice and polite rooster when he does grow up.

 

[LittleRedCoop53]

I'd just leave things be. They have probably given him the basics to be a very nice and polite rooster when he does grow up.

I never thought of it that way...they are teaching him... i have another young silkie Roo(same age, 7 months) in with 2 older silkie females, and he's kinda mean to them, he really doesn't know what he's doing, i figured he'll mellow out...maybe i should stick him in back with the big girls... hahaha.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I have a 7 month old Frizzled Silkie Rooster, which i placed in with 4 older wyandotte hens(2yrs), i'm hoping to breed them. The older hens are mean to him and he's afraid of them. He's been with them for over a month and i'm wondering if i've made a mistake by placing them together too soon. Should i separate them and let him mature and get his confidence back? As it is he just crows a lot and hides when they chase him.

I feel sorry for him....

As I have posted before, a cockerel a rooster is not until he is 2 years old. He'll come into his own by and by. The pecking order is never set in stone but it is fluid.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don’t know how big that Frizzled Silkie is compared to the Wyandotte’s. Many Silkies are bantam. Once he hits maturity it won’t matter but it might make a difference now.

Some hens will squat for anything in spurs but many, especially those a bit more mature, expect a rooster to fulfill his duties before they are willing for him to be the father of their children. He needs to dance for them, find them food, break up fights and otherwise maintain peace and calm in his flock, look out for danger, maybe help them find nests, sometimes help out with the babies, just a wide assortment of different things. He has to WOW! them with his brilliance, magnificence, and self-confidence. Not all mature roosters do all of these but practically all eventually manage enough to be accepted as flock master.

An immature cockerel can’t manage these things so many of the hens won’t accept him. They may resist by fighting back or even chasing him down and beating him up. Many times they just run away from him when he tries to mate. Often the dominant hen will attack him if he tries to mate another hen, even if that one is willing.

I’ve had cockerels as young as five months be able to do enough of these things to be accepted by older hens, but that is pretty rare. My current one is seven months old and doing pretty well though there are a couple of the more dominant hens that still haven’t accepted him. They don’t fight him, just run away when he tries to mate. Still it is surprisingly peaceful down there with one that young and some hens over two years old. I have had a cockerel that couldn’t manage all that until he was about a full year old and he never did really WOW!@ them that much. Still, the eggs were fertile and the flock was peaceful.. Each male and female chicken have their own personalities and each flock has its own dynamics. Just changing one key chicken can often make a dramatic change in those flock dynamics.

As long as neither he nor the hens are bleeding, you did not make a mistake by putting him in there. Over time he will mature and gain the self-confidence he needs to be a good flock master. One by one, the hens will start to accept him. There is no set timetable for that to happen though. Each flock is different.

One more thing. The mating ritual is an act of dominance. The one on bottom is accepting the dominance of the one on top, either willingly or by force. The cockerel has to become dominant to be able to fulfill his duties. How can he break up fights if they turn around and beat him up? How can he tell them anything if they won’t listen? If they are the same breed, a five or six month old cockerel is usually bigger and stronger than mature hens. He will often try to force them to mate to establish that dominance. Size is not everything in chicken dominance. The spirit of the chicken counts for more. That’s why you often see bantams dominating full sized chickens in the pecking order. Some mature hens have enough spirit to dominate a year old rooster. But most don’t. When that cockerel starts to try to establish that dominance it can get pretty exciting in the flock. As long as no blood is drawn, it’s OK. They will work it out.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

Great informative post RRunner!!

 

[LittleRedCoop53]

Thank you for taking your time and pointing out some things i need to know this is my first time having two cockerels, let a lone one
My Frizzle silkie is a little smaller than the hens, weight wise..he's very fluffy and looks larger than he really is...they all seem to be doing fine, and he seems to be getting braver everyday.... i'm just glad i didn't mess him up for life and turn him into a cowardly Rooster Thanks again ~

 

[red ravens]

Hello, I'm a little new to all this too. but this summer i added four hens and a Black Australorp rooster, all where 5 mon. old. to my six 2 yr old hens. as the rooster matured the older hens did fight him, sometimes badly. but after a couple weeks i think (he) learned what they wanted and at 7 mon. now he is king, all is calm now little fights to keep order. lol. good luck.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

Well, we just had 5 cockerels hit maturity on this past Friday. Went from nice to nasty. This coming weekend, a trip to freezer camp.

 

[Mrs. K]

Personally, I think you get a better rooster raised in a flock of muli-age birds. I like the dynamics and they learn how to be good roosters. I have not been keeping a scientific count, but people often post that they have never had trouble with roosters, or only very, very rarely. However, if you have read lots of their posts, it mostly comes out that they have multiple age flocks. Some separate the chicks at hatching, and combine the flocks when the chicks are about 4 months old. Others let the hen raise the chicks in the flock. In both cases, the roosters start out much younger than the majority of the flock.

When you read of the nightmares, it very often is an accidental rooster in a flock of chicks. This bird grow faster than his flockmates, and due to his size, begins the bullying and dominance issues. There is no bigger or older bird to thump some manners into him. In his world nothing is bigger or meaner than he is....... very often these rooster attack people too.

It is just a theory of mine, I should keep a count, next summer when a large number of chicks are getting to the 12 -16 week count, I think I will. Or maybe I should conduct a poll.

Mrs K