Hormone-raging Rooster

[Chick-Inn-Coop]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a first time chicken keeper and have 10 chickens in my flock, all 13 weeks old. I purchased all hens, but with sexing accuracy not being 100%, I got a male - so 9 pullets & a cockerel.

The cockerel has been fine with people entering the coop, isn't fearful but not aggressive either. My issue is how he's treating the girls - I caught him mating with one already, and well before this, he's consistently charging them, plucking feathers for no apparent reason, and seems to always send them squawking in another direction.
Question #1 - am i correct to assume this behaviour isn't OK? I feel for the poor ladies.

I live in a rural area, with plenty of young cockerels to go around. Assuming I need to take action on this guy, my options are:
1) cull him
2) give him to a neighbour (with a mature flock) to keep for a few months until the pullets are ready for this behaviour
3) try to find him a new home, but as mentioned there are constantly free roosters being given away in our community and he'll likely end up back at #1.

So given this, Question #2 - what should i do with this guy? If he wasn't such a jerk i'd be keeping him but i feel for the pullets.

 

[Lobo123]

It's a shame you don't have mature hens or rooster to keep him in check. It's perfectly understandable to see this behaviour and simply shake your head.

Males sexually mature much faster and are ready to mate way before females are. When he plucks feathers, is it usually around the neck/head area? If so, he is trying to mount the hens. The hens don't realize this and simply take it as an attack.

Eventually, your cockerel will learn to properly mount the hens. You pullets are also young. I assume they haven't laid yet. Once they began laying, they'll instinctively know how to squat for the rooster. Everything will smooth out over time. Until then, you could separate the rooster until he matures further/hens began laying. Giving the cockerel away temporarily to a mature flock doesn't sound like a bad idea, but take into consideration any disease that could be transmitted within the flock and their setup.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Usually roos need an older hen to make them understand this behavior isn't right. He shouldn't be traumatizing your hens. I would separate him and either get rid of him or make sure he gets manners before he returns

 

[MarkJr]

My cockerel was this way too. Three weeks later he’s giving gifts, calling for good treats/food and generally a respectful roo.

I think they’ll work it out.

 

[Chick-Inn-Coop]

Correct, the hens are not laying yet. I think we're still 6-10 weeks away from our first egg.
He plucks feathers from wherever he can grab, it seems. Sometimes they'll be randomly walking around/foraging and he'll pluck a butt feather.

@Something Cool what age did he start to mature a bit?

 

[MarkJr]

14-15 weeks he had his head on straight. 11-12 weeks I was contemplating dumplings. They’re 19 weeks now, haven’t heard cross words from pullets, but plenty of mounting.

 

[aart]

If he's too aggressive you may want to get rid of him,
especially if you have no intention of hatching chicks.
If girls have plenty of space to get away from his advances,
and can get to eat and drink when they want, might just let them work it out.
Some folks keep cockerels separate, 24/7 or for most the day, until they girls are laying.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

We just came out on the other side of this as well. We have a flock that's all the same age. At 13-14 weeks, the cockerel started giving the pullets a bad time when they were in the coop together.

Our tipping point was when he caused a couple consecutive injuries, including taking off a small piece of the head hen's comb. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, but we weren't waiting for him to do anything worse. Before culling, we decided to throw a Hail Mary and built a sweet, 4x4' cabin in the back of the chicken yard that afternoon.

He was worst in the coop, so I let him keep foraging with the flock in the daytime but put him in his cabin alone at night. It's weird, but he loves it, and we're glad we still have him. He alerted us to a hawk and a daytime raccoon hanging out near their yard last week.

After moving him to the cabin at night, his behavior improved within a few days. The pullets started approaching him again in another week or so. Now that they're getting close to laying, it's easy to forget we ever had rooster problems. I didn't expect it to resolve this well.

I've also read a bunch about rooster behavior to adjust my own actions. Everyone says to do things a little differently, but overall, kindness and calmness have been key. I like to sneak treats into his cabin for him to share with the pullets. Today I even put a nesting box in the cabin because he keeps walking the ladies in there for tours. It's seriously gratifying to see the flock together again.

Anyway, I feel your pain, as we also came close to culling for the good of the flock. We're glad we checked around for other options first. Best of luck whatever path you choose.

[Edits for clarity!]

 

[Chick-Inn-Coop]

So an update - Rooster Annie has been in his own cabin for almost 3 weeks now. The flock is all currently 16 weeks old. We let the rooster out for 1 day last weekend, and he went back to his harassing ways, and the hens all hid inside the coop, didn't eat much for the entire day - so in the evening he went back in his cabin and still is today.
a question for anyone who may have input: how long do i give them to work it out? is 1 day enough?

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Ours was actually worst at 16 weeks (slow-growing breed) but when the pullets did start laying at 20 weeks, he began to calm down even faster.

He's escorting pullets to nesting boxes and dressing up the chips for them. It's adorable. Less adorably, he still chases pullets in the mornings and evenings unless I put treats down--then he usually runs over and tidbits. If not, I just put him back in his cabin for the evening. The bird works hard all day. I swear he doesn't eat half the time until he's back in on his own.

Took some work to get here but very glad to have him. As the rest of the pullets start laying in the next few weeks, we'll see if he turns gentle enough to transition into sleeping in the coop with them again. I've tried to let him roost in there twice in the past few weeks, but they're still not digging it.