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I had to eliminate 8 cockrels this past spring...the calm that descended on the rest of the flock was palpable....almost instantaneous...stress all but disappeared....no more squawking, shuffling, pulled feathers....everything calmed down....it was as if the flock breathed a sigh of relief. The hens can now relax and go about their daily activities without having to keep an eye out for the "Bully boys" when I saw that.....the small feeling of guilt I had over sending them to "Freezer Camp" evaporated. Going to do it again this weekend.
 
My oldest boys are just starting to grab the pullets, so we shall see over the next few months how it goes here. I'm hoping to keep them all too, but that often changes as they mature and become worse.
 
Well I spoke too soon. Today three young roosters were removed for bad behavior. They will be butchered. A bantam and two Wyandotte Orpington mixes.

Today was apparently the day to get obnoxious. It will leave me with two young standard rooster and one bantam left to make any decisions on based on their behavior. Hopefully the rest behave.

They certainly aren't needed as I have plenty of adult roosters, but I'm hoping at least one of the standards works out, there's a barred rock and a gold laced Wyandotte.
 
I can not figure out how to put up a new post only to reply so sorry to reply with my problem. Maybe someone can give my advise on my chicken community. It has been in he nineties here in TN for weeks so my chickens have not been laying for a long time I get it it's the heat. But they all have become hateful towards each other. the rooster has become really mean to the hens, he chases all of them and fights them over food, using his Spurs and actually pecking to the point of grabbing feathers. What is going on?
 
With the exception of one, all 13 of my roosters/cockerels are behaving themselves. The one that is acting like a real butthead is skating on thin ice but tonight I had my revenge on him.

My 3 junior cockerels from a Feb. hatch are lovely boys and really well behaved so far. All three of my senior roosters are going through their first molt along with about 8 hens so there isn't a lot of he-ing and she-ing going on at the moment. Because of that they are all running together at the moment and for the most part getting along with the exception of one senior Welsummer rooster who is just over the top with just about everyone.He likes to whack me from behind when my back is turned and has just been ruthless with the young cockerels, including one who out weighs him by a good three pounds. Tonight two of the junior cockerels were being picked on by him during treat time so I figured, what the hey, you know what rolls down hill, right? So I spent about 5 minutes galloping around the pen hot on the troublemakers tail. In the mean time, one of the the smaller cockerels decided that it was safer sleeping in the momentarily empty rooster coop and took refuge there and finally, the trouble maker got tired of this crazy old woman hot on what is left of his tail yelling "I gotta hatchet and I know how to use it!" at him and also took refuge in the rooster coop. Primo, my big Welsummer/Buff O cross boy who is twice the size of the troublemaker was still hanging around outside so I caught him and tossed him in with the other two boys in the rooster pen.

2 against 1 seemed good odds. Hopefully, Mr. Attitude will come out of the rooster pen in the morning with that giant sized ego of his whittled down a size or two.

Sometimes, roosters are just so darned entertaining.
 
There is something satisfying to giving them their own business back, plus it's what a dominant rooster does to those below him. Thank you, I enjoyed that. This old lady can't run them down like I used to, but I still will get my chicken catching net when necessary. All my chickens know what the net means.
 
2 Russo Chicks said:
I can not figure out how to put up a new post only to reply so sorry to reply with my problem. Maybe someone can give my advise on my chicken community. It has been in he nineties here in TN for weeks so my chickens have not been laying for a long time I get it it's the heat. But they all have become hateful towards each other. the rooster has become really mean to the hens, he chases all of them and fights them over food, using his Spurs and actually pecking to the point of grabbing feathers. What is going on?
Click to expand...

For a new post: At the top of the page in the brown boxes click on the down arrow under Forum, then choose a topic (probably Raising Back Yard Chickens for this topic), and then choose a more specific topic (probably Managing Your Flock for this question) and then click Start a New Thread).

When it is too hot here I put a mister beside their run (one of those plastic stand up ones, about $12 at Home Depot and other places). At first our chickens did not like it, but now they happily walk into it and it works well for cooling them off. Also, your rooster might need his spurs trimmed. You can type in trimming spurs (or any other subject into the search box, hit search, and find about any subject you want information on.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your flock.
 
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Wondering what the general con census is, from reading a few posts, I have the impression the topic of conversation is mainly about aggressive roosters. I apologize if I am getting off topic for a second but I am wondering....I have a total of approximately 14 roosters. ~6 RIR's (sweethearts), 5 Buff Orpington's and 2 silkies. Hubby bought 3 dozen chicks this past April and out of the 3 dozen, we have these roosters. I love my roosters! They are well behaved, it's their surge of hormones right now that are getting the best of them. We built a bachelor pad for them and hopefully they will receive their eviction notice this weekend. My question is this, I would like to keep my head rooster in with the hens. He is a RIR and right now very gentlemanly. At the end of the day, I have to rid the coop of the males so the hens can eat. Otherwise, they are all over them. It becomes a free for all. Now that the weather is changing, the roo's aren't so keen on leaving the coop. If they act up I manually boot them out their door and they have to stay in the run until the hens are done. I noticed the head roo yesterday and on other occasions, remain perched not bothering the hens. Is it wise to have him remain or will just his presence cause continued stress for the pullets? I think I know the answer but I would like to have one roo with them for protection when they free range.

Also, one irritating thing that happens and I would like to break them out of this behavior. The roo's will mount a couple of the lower pecking order roo's. Is it just a matter of further subdividing the roo's or do I simply put which ever offending roo at that particular time, in a day of time out?
 

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