HELP! Mean Rooster?!?

[susmith]

I am new to the chicken world. I have 4 hens & 2 roosters. They will be 14 weeks old in 2 days. I have 2 Sultans (total sweethearts), 2 Silkies (1 is a roo) 1 Banty roo & ? Idk what kind of hen. I got them all @ the same time, so they have been raised together. In the past 1-2 weeks the Silkie Roo has became so mean to the Sultans!! They are terrified of him & he's even being mean to Brownie (the idk hen). I have separated the 2 Sultans, they have their own coop & run but Goldie (silkie roo) will taunt them when I let him out to free range. What has happened to him

 

[QueenMisha]

This is a pretty normal part of rooster growing up. They are getting their hormones now. He is clearly the dominant rooster, and as such, he doesn't really care about the other roosters' feelings.

I hate to break it to you, but no matter what, you are going to need to rehome/stew some roosters. Or get a considerably larger number of hens. 4 roosters and 4 hens kept together is going to result in extremely stressed, mostly bald, unhealthy hens who do not lay and spend a lot of time hiding inside the coop. The correct ratio is 8 hens:1 standard rooster or 10 hens:1 bantam rooster. Otherwise you will get fearful hens with a bad rooster burn.

 

[susmith]

Thank you for your input. Glad to know my cocky roo is "normal" I guess

there are actually only 2 Roo's & 4 hens, but still I see the ratio you are talking about. Hopefully he will settle down eventually.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! Misha is so right; many more pullets, or one cockrel max.If either boy shows any signs of taking you on, he's definitely the one to go. I like having roosters, but only nice ones. Lots of space is important, and in general, separating them will make reintroductions harder. If your cockrel is causing injuries, even as a young bird, he needs to go. In a mixed flock, you may have birds that are just too pushy for other flockmates. Mary

 

[susmith]

Thank you. I have done so much reading up on this, mostly from this site, and it's definitely a learning process. I just love all of my flock, I'm hoping things will settle down quickly. Goldie seemed to be ok this morning, hopefully he continues his good behavior.

 

[susmith]

I've been rotating their free range times. Like this morning I let the 4 out. I will go home at noon & put them up & let the two sweet ones out. But whenever I put the 4 up, Goldie (silkie roo) paces non stop, hollering etc. which I think is stressing all the others out! And what is that "scream/screech" thing he is doing??

 

[Folly's place]

A single chicken is a very unhappy bird. He's stressed, and so are everyone else. Right now I have a 16 week old cockrel alone, because of behavioral issues. He's not pleased, but that's life sometimes. Soon he will be elsewhere... Mary

 

[Cockatrice6420]

I have had issues like that before. One rooster wasn't quite right from the shipment. He had to be put down. Another, my big partridge rock, just has to be reminded who not to mess with. I have found that holding the roosters when they misbehave helps a lot. They get to understand that you are in control not him.

 

[susmith]

I sure hope it doesn't come to that. I'm hoping it's just the move into the new coop, maybe testosterone since he is getting older, and just trying to establish his "role" in the flock.

 

[Cockatrice6420]

Another thing to consider other than hands on care... when I say controlling him I mean hold him like an American football and ruffle his feathers a bit. Scratch his comb and wattles. He will likely resist at first but you then teach him that you're in control and it ain't so bad. The next thing is how many hens again? The size of the roo speaks to how many hens he can handle. Ironically larger breeds can handle fewer than bantam breeds