dancing rooster

[AZ CHICK]

My 16 week old rooster has started lifting one wing and dancing around when me and my daughter talk to him . What does this mean?

 

[Fred's Hens]

It means he doing his mating dance for you and your daughter. This is an uncomfortable situation. He needs to not do that. You need to be very, very careful with this guy. Your daughter should also be very, very careful.

A young cockerel is being flooded with hormones and he is now trying to mate anything he can. He should NOT be dancing for you. Young children and roosters are a bad, bad combination. Children can be injured. We have literally thousands of threads where a young cockerel goes over the top and must be sent to freezer camp. If a young cockerel did that around me, I'd boot his behind across the yard and dominate him. If he so much as blinked in the future, he'd be floating in noodles.

Mating is more than reproduction, but also involves dominance. Keep a sharp eye on him. He must not see himself as dominant to you.

 

[chfite]

Do you have any hens of the same or similar age?

In the vein of dominance, I would back him up by walking straight through him. This would establish dominance. You didn't say how old your daughter is. She needs to take a dominant role as well.

Humans should dominate the rooster, otherwise he may take it upon himself to dominate the humans. Watch when a rooster dominates and mounts a hen to decide if you want the be the object of his attention.

Chris

 

[donrae]

What they said. It's great for him to do this with his hens, it's a courting behavior and encourages them to squat for him to mount easier. But he's not mating you or your daughter, and he needs to quit trying. I agree, when he drops that wing walk strongly toward him and make him yield to you. Do that every time you're around him, just for good measure. Submissive animals always yield to dominant animals.

 

[AZ CHICK]

Thanks for the advice. My daughter is 12. We have 8 hens the same age. He tries to mount them but they won't let him yet. He did the dance to my son and my son just pushed him away. He hasn't danced for us again....yet.