6-7 month old Cockerel is aggressively mating my hens and Dominant hen has become terrified of him.

[RLynn]

Any help and in site is welcome! I have 7 hens and one cockerel. His hormones have been raging lately and he mates my hens non stop. Three of my hens sprint away from him but he still chases them down to mate with him. Six of them have essentially submitted to him. One of my hens that has been top of the pecking order for 2 years has just become deathly terrified of this cockerel. He forces her to mate. Now she won’t leave the coop if he is around. She hides behind me. I had to bring her in because her comb was bleeding. Will this cockerel calm down any? Will my hen eventually submit to him? I’m looking at possibly trying to rehome him if this isn’t fixable because my hens were there first, and the cockerel was originally supposed to be a pullet. I would like for everything to work itself out because ive grown attached to him. They are all our pets so culling is not an option for us. Ive never had a rooster before so this is new territory . Please help!

 

[nuthatched]

Give him away or seperate him for a few months, he's making your girls lives miserable.
Usually cockerels that have been raised by older hens are better behaved but not always, especially when hormones are involved.

 

[SueT]

Re home or invite him to dinner. You’ll all breathe a sigh of relief when he’s gone….

 

[Ridgerunner]

What you describe is not unusual. His hormones are driving him crazy. The mating is not about him trying to fertilize eggs, it's him trying to dominate the hens. The one on bottom is being dominated by the one on top, either willingly or by force. Sounds like yours is mostly by force. Eventually most cockerels mature to the point that they calm down and the flock becomes really peaceful with the hens accepting him as flock master but it can be really hard watching them get to that point. I've never had a pullet or hen injured during that process but violence is sometimes involved so injury or even death is possible.

I've been through this a few times. Sometimes this process is so peaceful you don't really notice it, at a point you realize he has taken over. You are not seeing that. Often many hens accept him but a few, especially the more dominant ones, don't. Even then it is often not very violent, the dominant hen may knock him off when he tries to mate a willing hen to show that she is still the dominant one but no real fighting. Sometimes some of the mature hens beat the crap out of him, chasing him everywhere. Some people call that the hens "schooling" him but I think it has a lot more to do the hens trying to maintain their dominance than setting up a curriculum for him to teach him manners. Sometimes the dominant hen will not accept his dominance when he matures to the point he is brave enough to try to take over. That can get really violent. Most of my cockerels can take over and peace is restored by 7 months, but I had one that didn't stand up to the dominant hen until he was 11 months old. She did not go easily. That was two days of violence but she eventually gave up and they became best buddies. He was the flock master but she was still very much the dominant hen. Neither got hurt so I let them go but it was pretty vicious. Not easy to watch.

In my opinion, part of how it goes depends on the cockerel's personality, but the hens have an important part to play also. I don't know how vicious yours actually is but if there is blood, separate them immediately. I hardly ever have an issue with this, I think one reason is that I have over 3,000 square feet available to them outside and a large coop and two shelters I can use for sleeping. Bad behaviors are often made worse when they are crowded.

This is a question you need to answer for yourself. Why do you want to keep him. What are your goals for having a rooster? The only reason you need a rooster is if you want fertile eggs. Everything else is personal preference. Nothing wrong with personal preferences, I have a few of those myself. But that is a choice, not a need. Your goals, wants, and desires are what is important, not mine. My choices would probably be a lot different from yours. My reasons certainly would.

So, what can you do? One obvious solution is to get rid of that cockerel.

You can let it go as it is. I'd have a place ready to immediately isolate one of them. If the need to isolate comes up, say you see blood, that need can come up really quickly.

You can set up a place and isolate that boy until he further matures. Many roosters can win the flock over by pure personality, even the dominant hen. Often introducing a mature rooster to a flock of mature hens is the easiest integration there is. But occasionally you get a rooster that just does not have the personality to WOW! the girls or you have a hen that just refuses to be dominated by any male or any other hen for that matter.

How will you know when he has matured to that point? The only way I know is to try it. Base your decisions on what you see, not what some stranger over the internet like me tells you that you will see. You are dealing with living animals, I can't tell you what you will see, just some of the different things I've seen. Each chicken has its own personality, each flock has its own dynamics. We keep them in different circumstances, in different climates, different flock make-ups, different management techniques, and with different amounts of room. It should be no surprise we get different results.

 

[SueT]

The best cockerels I’ve had were youngsters raised in/by the flock of hens and rooster. Best behaved young cockerels. Wonderful roosters as adults. Our current rooster is such a gentleman. I wouldn’t keep a crazy one ever again.

 

[Morrigan]

Basically, it comes down to whether you think your hens are being physically injured or whether it is just too much chaos for you to watch or subject your hens to. Unless you have a strong reason for wanting to keep this particular rooster, I would cull him. If you really want to keep him, and you can find a way to physically separate him, that is an option.

I did the separation routine with a young randy cockerel -- I kept him in a large dog crate within the coop for several weeks. He eventually calmed down enough to be integrated, but in retrospect, I wouldn't do it again By and large, the hens never liked him and he was causing excessing feather damage. Upon close inspection, I even round some skin tearing on some hens. After a year and a half separating him on and off to give the hens a break, I finally decided to raise up one of his sons who came from a really steady, good hen. Junior is now 2 and watching how good he is with the hens, and how much they like him, really made clear to me that I won't put up with behavior I don't like in a rooster. There are too many good roosters out there to settle for one you don't like.