All I want is information on Rooster behavior

[CKfarm22]

My rooster is humping the back of the hens - is this abuse. His favorite (and she likes him) has a big red bald patch on her back, has had it for months. The rooster waits outside the coop every morning jumping each hen when it exits. Tonight I saw him mounting the back of another hen humping away.
Is this Abuse/bullying?
Is this normal?
I isolated him one day and the hens went into mourning. Unfortunately that day the rooster was attacked by a hawk and the resulting chaos from the hawk and the sound of a shotgun blast upset the flock and I let the rooster out. No I didn't shot at the hawk, I just made noise.

I need to know if I should keep this rooster, as I am raising chickens that will need to join the flock before winter, and I think this behavior may injure the young hens.

It’s normal technically. The bald spot is from him mounting the hen too much.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
He is doing what cockerels do. He sounds young, inexperienced and clumsy and you don't have enough pullets/hens for him. He will be better with experience and he needs more girls to spread the love.
You can rehome him if you don't want to deal with him.
You can try to keep him and give him more girls and put saddles on the backs of the girls that are bare.
You can give him a pedicure and smooth over his nails.

 

[LaFleche]

From your posts I get the impression that you do not like the cockerel breeding the hens/pullets, although this is quite normal and not a pretty sight to see for inexperienced chicken keepers.

There a many options to go about this:

Hens do not need a cockerel/rooster to lay eggs and many people her on BYC keep their flocks hens only and they do just fine.
Some prefer a bantam rooster as they will not be as hard on standard size hens as normal size roosters would be.

What breeds are your chickens? The rooster to hen ratio often depends on the breed as well:
A young Leghorn rooster would need at least ten+ hens to not bare their backs immediately, a Silkie could do fine with just four.

 

[Grammy60]

Hello and welcome to BYC We are happy you have joined our community.

 

[N F C]

Hello, good info from @DobieLover and @LaFleche, hope that helps.

 

[sourland]

Good morning, and welcome to BYC.

How many hens do you have?
Is he the only rooster?

Roosters mate hens...it's what they do.

Separate him until he matures and the other hens are added to the flock. Reintroduce him and if things don't improve get rid of him.

 

[Chickassan]

Sometimes things in nature aren't graceful.
But then it has to be quite the feat romancing multiple ladies first thing in the morning hands free.
I'd consider that a heck of a feat, not abuse.
Sometimes you've got to wipe your thoughts of what constitutes unsavory behavior in human society especially with chickens if not you're in for some real unsettling times.

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us

 

[HKG]

If you get more hens that should help

 

[cmom]

I can't add anything that the others haven't already posted. Good luck and have fun...