18-week old rooster behavior--normal?

[AnnieOK]

I feel sure this is normal behavior, but I just have to ask.

I have 18 Black Australorps, 17 pullets and the 1 rooster. Hatched out on Feb. 1. He began crowing this past weekend, and it's getting stronger each day. I was so excited to hear him crow!

He's started chasing the girls around and fairly often will make one of them cry out, I'm not always watching when it happens but what I have seen is him pecking or biting the back of their necks. Is he flirting in his awkward adolescent way?

Also, we picked these chicks up the day they were hatched, and have handled them from the beginning. Since moving them out to the coop, and since they've gotten a lot bigger, I have stopped picking them up for a few seconds regularly, to keep them tame. (Though if I need to, I can pick them up.) And he is really big now. Anything I should do now to make sure he doesn't turn aggressive toward me? He has only shown a little bit of it so far, as in when I'm going in my human door in the mornings to open up their chicken door, he has started standing right at the door when I open it. i don't want him to come out that door, as that doesn't lead to the run, so I will bend over and put my hand on his chest to move him back. He pecked me pretty good the other day. Nothing to speak of, and I'm not afraid of a little pecking, I just don't want him to be a mean rooster.

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions, advice appreciated! Thanks!

 

[willowbranchfarm]

When he bites the back of the neck its to hold on to them when he mates with them. Its very normal. Although sometimes they can be a little rough and pull out a couple feathers but its normal.

 

[AnnieOK]

Thanks!

 

[LindaCT]

It's normal behaviour, he will do this when he mounts a girl. If you don't want a mean rooster, pick him up regularly and cuddle him and tell him how cute he is. I even turn my roo over onto his back some times, just to show him that I am the big boss. That is the main thing, if a roo feels that he is the boss he can get super-mean. My roo doesn't like being picked up but once I am holding him he sits quite calmly in my hands. He sleeps in a box in the kitchen because otherwise he would disturb the neighbours too much, so it helps that he is handled every single day.

 

[greenckick]

Thanks for asking this question cause my first roo and hens are about the same age and George started crowing last week. I was hoping to see on here that this is all normal.
I have noticed he is most frisky when they are first let out in the am and later in the evening about 1 hour before they head back into the coop. He has a favorite already but she is faster that he is so he ends up with a beak-ful of wing and she takes off again. I kinda feel bad for him as he is "coming of age" but the girls are not quite there yet.

The next issue is explaining to the kids (4 and 2 years old) why George is jumping on the girls. Ha. This should get interesting.