Cockerels bullying pullet 😟

[OzarkChooks]

I have a salmon faverolle pullet that is 10 months old. She has never been picked on before and she has never been on the bottom of the pecking order. I used to have a 10 month old cockerel who kept the younger cockerels in check. He wouldn't let them mate any of the pullets. Now he is gone and there are two maturing cockerels having a field day. One of them, a 4 month old, is non stop attacking this poor faverolle. He seeks her out constantly and just attacks her, shaking her around by the head. It's awful. The other cockerel, 6 months old, doesn't do anything to stop this. In fact, sometimes the 6 month old will mount her while the 4 month old is just grabbing and shaking her head! She spends all her time hiding now and I don't know what I should do. The cockerels don't do this to any of the other pullets, just her. The other pullets don't attack her either. Why are they doing this only to her? How can I prevent this?

 

[sourland]

Separate the cockerels from the flock until they and the pullets mature. They are doing this because she is the easiest to get. Allowing them to continue may very well result in her death.

 

[OzarkChooks]

Separate the cockerels from the flock until they and the pullets mature. They are doing this because she is the easiest to get. Allowing them to continue may very well result in her death.

Oh no. She is one of our favorites. We put all the pullets in a covered run but left the two cockerels out. I guess we will have to build a separate pen for them. Is this just normal young cockerel behavior? I can only compare them to our last one but he was pretty gentle with the girls.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Yeah they can be rough, especially when younger so separate until they mature a bit.

 

[ElizaMay]

Normal for horomone-crazed cockerels, the gentle respectful bird would be more the exception when testosterone levels rise.
They will find the female that is timid or submiss8ve and shd will be the constant target because they are driven to vent their urges somewhere. The 4 month old - like most very young cockerels - doesn't know how to mate yet but is driven to do *something*, so pulling on head and neck feathers of females is very common. Then the older cockerel is stimulated by her struggles and the tag-teaming ensues.
As mentioned, the cockerels should be separated into their own area. You could segregate them with fencing so they can see the girls but not touch.
As you have discovered, it often takes an older male to set the example in not only how to mate properly (yeah, it doesn't involve just hauling a gal around by her hair), but to defend the hens from the nut-jobs that are young cockerels.

 

[OzarkChooks]

Normal for horomone-crazed cockerels, the gentle respectful bird would be more the exception when testosterone levels rise.
They will find the female that is timid or submiss8ve and shd will be the constant target because they are driven to vent their urges somewhere. The 4 month old - like most very young cockerels - doesn't know how to mate yet but is driven to do *something*, so pulling on head and neck feathers of females is very common. Then the older cockerel is stimulated by her struggles and the tag-teaming ensues.
As mentioned, the cockerels should be separated into their own area. You could segregate them with fencing so they can see the girls but not touch.
As you have discovered, it often takes an older male to set the example in not only how to mate properly (yeah, it doesn't involve just hauling a gal around by her hair), but to defend the hens from the nut-jobs that are young cockerels.

They are separated now. I can now only hope one of them matures into a well behaved rooster

 

[ElizaMay]

My two did. I had a rapey hamburg bantam and a larger blue Orpington who were harassing their hatchmate pullets. They were all 5 months old when I pulled the boys out, and started them into one stall. But then the larger Orp started trying to breed the bantam cockrtel (who objected strenuously and vociferously as you might imagine) - desperate times indeed.
So I gave the Orp the stall, and the hamburg got a large dog-cage with a perch.
8 weeks later when my mature rooster passed away, I tried them in with the flock of hens and POL pullets, and they have both become well-behaved young boys. The Orp tidbits, calls, and mates gently, the bantam has his own 2 mature bantam hens, and occasionally they allow him to mate.
So it resolved.

 

[adstowe]

If you have the means to separate them until they're mature absolutely do it. If you don't, then get rid of them. I don't know what your goals are with them, but unless you're planning on breeding they're not really needed anyway. If you simply want to have a rooster you can always find a well behaved and mature one on Craigslist (or similar) for free or next to nothing.