I'll also ask how old is he? There is a difference in expected behaviors between an immature cockerel and a mature rooster.
I'll also ask how much room do you have, in the coop and in the run? Was the run accessible? Often behavioral problems are due to lack of space.
Was he only chasing one chick (the Delaware) or was it pretty much all of them at random? Sometimes a chicken will take an instant dislike to one specific chicken and be fine with all the others.
What you did isn't that far off from the way I do it. My brooder is in the coop so the chicks basically grow up with the flock from Day 1, not starting at 4 weeks. I generally leave the brooder door open at five weeks, not six. I would have expected two weeks to be enough for you. I've never had a mature flock master rooster bother a chick, but others say they have. Maybe I've just been lucky. Occasionally a hen will be a bit of a problem, a juvenile cockerel can also be, but it's never been the adult rooster. I've never lost a chick doing it my way to another adult. I've lost them to siblings, once when they were two weeks old, the other when cockerels were about 15 weeks old, but never to an adult. Both times pecking to the head and neck areas.
I have the climate and enough room that the adults pretty much stay out of the coop all day, except when hens come to the coop to lay eggs or when they are going to bed. Usually when I open that brooder door the chicks stay in the coop for the next couple of days before they venture outside. After they start going outside they pretty much spend all day every day outside themselves, but usually far away from the adults. By far away I mean thirty or forty feet, not five or ten.
I'm going through all this to say I don't see that you did anything that different to what I would have done. I don't know how mature he is or how much room you have, that may make a difference. I wasn't there watching so I don't know which chicken it was, assuming it was a chicken and not a rat or something like that. To me it sounds like it probably was another chicken.
If it was a mature rooster I did the wring the neck thing when I was a kid on the farm. I'd heard about it so I tried it. I swung the chicken in about two full circles to get the speed up and then snapped my wrist. The head came off in my hand, I didn't expect that. After that I went back to the ax and stump method. My curiosity was satisfied.
I'll also ask how much room do you have, in the coop and in the run? Was the run accessible? Often behavioral problems are due to lack of space.
Was he only chasing one chick (the Delaware) or was it pretty much all of them at random? Sometimes a chicken will take an instant dislike to one specific chicken and be fine with all the others.
What you did isn't that far off from the way I do it. My brooder is in the coop so the chicks basically grow up with the flock from Day 1, not starting at 4 weeks. I generally leave the brooder door open at five weeks, not six. I would have expected two weeks to be enough for you. I've never had a mature flock master rooster bother a chick, but others say they have. Maybe I've just been lucky. Occasionally a hen will be a bit of a problem, a juvenile cockerel can also be, but it's never been the adult rooster. I've never lost a chick doing it my way to another adult. I've lost them to siblings, once when they were two weeks old, the other when cockerels were about 15 weeks old, but never to an adult. Both times pecking to the head and neck areas.
I have the climate and enough room that the adults pretty much stay out of the coop all day, except when hens come to the coop to lay eggs or when they are going to bed. Usually when I open that brooder door the chicks stay in the coop for the next couple of days before they venture outside. After they start going outside they pretty much spend all day every day outside themselves, but usually far away from the adults. By far away I mean thirty or forty feet, not five or ten.
I'm going through all this to say I don't see that you did anything that different to what I would have done. I don't know how mature he is or how much room you have, that may make a difference. I wasn't there watching so I don't know which chicken it was, assuming it was a chicken and not a rat or something like that. To me it sounds like it probably was another chicken.
If it was a mature rooster I did the wring the neck thing when I was a kid on the farm. I'd heard about it so I tried it. I swung the chicken in about two full circles to get the speed up and then snapped my wrist. The head came off in my hand, I didn't expect that. After that I went back to the ax and stump method. My curiosity was satisfied.
