Daughters SLW rooster is becoming aggressive

Crazytookers

In the Brooder
Nov 15, 2020
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Our 5 month old Silver laced Wyandotte chickens have old recently started to grow their saddle feathers 🤦‍♀️. This breed takes forever lol.
Anyway out of the two boys we have, one of them is already showing signs of being aggressive. Our ladies egg production have slowed by a third and I’ve noticed missing feathers around their necks. One particular hen has missing feathers, scabs, and what looks like bruises on her left side just under her wing. The hens also don’t seem happy either.
I have not seen any aggressive behaviour from the other rooster yet.
I have tried giving him away with no luck whatsoever.
My 11 yr old daughter who hand raised them is struggling with the idea of culling him.
I am hoping to get some advice or maybe reassurance that it’s ok to cull for the sake of the hens. I am allowing her to read the comments when she returns from school.
 
Photo of the boys
 

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Your birds are miserable, with this cockerel being a jerk. Blunt, but true. There's always some drama with adolescent cockerels coming up in age, but injuries are unacceptable.
These pullets (are they all pullets?) deserve to have nice lives!
Having cockerels raised in a flock including adult hens and roosters sometimes works out better, because the boys learn respect, and have humbling experiences when they step out of line. Your boy thinks he's all too important, and lacks restraint, if he's causing his flockmates injuries and stress.
He'd be gone here!
Nice roosters are wonderful, jerks, no. And always manage for peace in the flock!
Mary
 
Your birds are miserable, with this cockerel being a jerk. Blunt, but true. There's always some drama with adolescent cockerels coming up in age, but injuries are unacceptable.
These pullets (are they all pullets?) deserve to have nice lives!
Having cockerels raised in a flock including adult hens and roosters sometimes works out better, because the boys learn respect, and have humbling experiences when they step out of line. Your boy thinks he's all too important, and lacks restraint, if he's causing his flockmates injuries and stress.
He'd be gone here!
Nice roosters are wonderful, jerks, no. And always manage for peace in the flock!
Mary
Yes all the others chickens are hens except these two.
I agree, he is being a total jerk. At first I was hoping because he is so young and hormonal that he will settle down. But it only seems to be escalating 😢
It’s my daughter who is struggling with the idea of culling him. This is her first time dealing with a situation like this. But it is going to be an important life lesson to learn.
 
I got 6 chicks last spring. Three pullets, and three straight run. Of course I ended up with three cockerels. (Never buying straight run again.)

When they were four months old, male hormones came into play. Two of the cockerels were horrible. They were harassing the pullets, who weren't even laying yet. It got so bad that they girls wouldn't come off the roost, let alone go out in the run. When I had to go in and hand feed them, and hold up bowls of water for them to be able to get a drink, I knew that those two guys had to go.

No one wanted them. Not even to become dinner. I had to cull them myself. It was HARD. I cried. HARD. It wasn't their fault they were born male. But I couldn't have them making my pullets starve themselves to death because they were afraid to come off the roost.

After those two were gone, there was peace in my flock. They were out in the run an hour after the second one was gone.

Yes, it was hard to cull them. I couldn't bring myself to process them for dinner. I buried them in my garden, and I often thank them for their contribution to the soil.
 

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