@supersymmetry and @Kassaundra thank you so much for your responses, and great questions supersymmetry.
The aim for my main flock is harmonious egg production: most of my hens and pullets are naked neck over isa browns (they came from a sideline project from one of the main production egg layer hatcheries). About 20% are naked neck barnyard mixes. I'm not so interested in meat production, eggs are my main focus.
My project flock is showgirls, as far as I can research there are no showgirls in CR. Hence my interest in keeping my white feathered, fibro cockerel. My silkies are small so this project involves learning AI. @Kassaundra I am so inspired by your birdsMy silkies are housed away from the other birds.
My hens (currently only 4) and cockerel free range about ¾ acre daily, the area includes orchard, forest and open grass. At night they have a henhouse, but they're only in there from dusk til dawn. They have about 16 foot of roost space.
The little 'uns, 20 of them, are housed in a 200 square foot run, the coop is open to the run (the run is very secure and it's hot here). Of the 20 I believe 8 or 9 are roos and I won't be keeping them (unless my cockerel can't cool it).
Maybe part of the problem is that the run used to belong to the hens and cockerel, I moved them out about 3 months ago, and their new henhouse is close, about 30 feet away. The cockerel is down there every day pacing around looking in and essentially studying the younger birds.
Thank you for your observations and suggestions, I'll wait a bit longer until I let them all out together, the cockerel and the hens can be in their henhouse for part of the day while the younger ones get to roam a little further.
Thanks again, I so appreciate this thread and all the awesome, knowledgeable and generous souls that frequent it
And @jarvis those are some pretty birds, I love the black tailed white!
Ancel
I agree your rooster is still young, and like the idea of isolating him. personally I would do a month or more, less stress for the younger birds and they would get to explore free range without so much interference plus they can get used to the older hens without his nonsense.
However. his behavior is rather extreme. when I first read your post about him I wondered if he had some game blood in him. They can get a bit 'obsessed' and do fight 'harder' than the average chicken.
Aggression IS genetic. but it is also variable, not a black/white or a single gene thing. environment plays a part-example a rooster with mild genetics for aggression might never attack people(I know yours doesn't just throwing an example) if raised by experienced poultry person or by a mother hen in a mixed flock.. yet this very same bird if raised like a pet can become obnoxious about attacking people.
another great example of genetics are the game chickens. Bred to kill each other with no training at all yet very handleable. even a kid could carry one of those roosters around. They even have a term for birds that do attack people- manfighters... most consider them undesirable because they need to handle the birds often and that would make it difficult... this is what I was reminded of by your rooster being good with you guys yet not so great with the little ones.
How you want to deal or the level you want to tolerate is completely up to you and it is perfectly OK if you want to tolerate it or not.
p.s. for the showgirl project I highly recommend getting the best silkies possible. Getting to the black skin, naked neck, silky feathering is easy. Getting to good type is much harder and takes many generations(it is fine if this is not your goal though, just many people here see pictures of the showgirls and want to make theirs from scratch.. what most don't realize is those are many many many generations away from the first crosses.....). Using good silkies will cut down on the numbers of generations by a lot.
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