How To Raise A Rooster

[newbie32]

Hi all just having a few rooster issues so I'm pleased to find this thread

I have a young 5 month d silver laced orpington rooster. He's such a handsome bird and he crows so well. He's fearful and friendly with all humans and takes a good few pecks from the set hens, but I have 2 broodies that have just returned to the flick with their chicks and he's intent on killing one of them! She's at the bottom of the pecking order and is also harassed by the head hen but he's not pecking her he's going for her throat! Not sure what to do!? Or why he would go for just one hen like this? thanks for any help

Hmmm has he mated with her before? I would think if you isolated just the two of them then he would only have her to mate with and would NOT want to kill her. I have heard others say to isolate the dominant hen from the flock in order to reestablish the pecking order. Any one else have a suggestion?

 

[nettifer]

i havea problem at the moment

i have 34 chickens 7 of who are roos elvis rir is the boss then chunk who is 7mths old 1 of 3 i hatched but his siblings got killed with a dog

so he is a loner but has been free ranging with the flock since 14wks old, then i have bowie, foxy,coal,curly & 1 eyed lincoln ( got an eye infection and his eye burst) they are 6mths old , i hatched them and 7 hens but they have all been with the others free ranging since 14wks old, this last week bowie has took it upon himself to be top of the young uns and he has started a vendetta against chunk

poor chunk has done nothing! but he is getting ganged up against and tonight they made his comb bleed, ive decided to give bowie to a friend of a friend for his 6 hens , so he will have his own flock, but what do i do with chunk?

he was the 2nd roo in the flock and elvis has allways chased him but he used to tell the young un off !will they continue to attack him ? or will i need to re home him as well

ive put bowie in a pen tonight as he is going on monday , just so i can see how they treat chunk without him !

 

[nettifer]

well i had to get rid of a roo last year that i got, he had not been handled by them or me wouldnt eat out of your hand and would stay away from us, but he reached maturity and bang! he was vicious

we did everything but he would charge at the grandkids and nothing we did would stop him, so we gave him away! but the roos i have now i can pick up and so can the kids they are so gentle with humans and weve handled them except elvis who was a year old when we got him, but the others we incy hatched and weve handled them all, so far at 6mth old they are soo sweet and they are treading and crowing !

 

[ShinShien]

Okay, if roosters flogging you means you're beneath them, it must mean Toby thinks I'm boss *he trips over himself to get out of my way* and my dad is beneath him *he charges at Dad*.

 

[QuoVadis]

I think probably a lot of people already said stuff like this, but this is my philosophy, and as of yet it hasn't proved me wrong. Hold all your chicks a lot as babies, cuddle them, pet them, etc. But once they hit the 4-6 week old stage you'll start to be able to tell the roos from the hens, stop holding and paying attention to the roos, unless they seek you out for attention. All the nasty roos I've ever had were ones who even once they got the little independent, "I'm all that" juvenile rooster attitude were still held even thought they didn't want it. But I think if you have an exceptionally people oriented rooster, and they initiate contact in friendly way I think it is ok to hold them, etc. But usually I've found they just get an attitude once they hit puberty and stop want to be cuddled. If that case is better to completely ignore them from that point on.

 

[KelsiNS]

My boys are all 14 weeks old now, still cuddled. Had to dust for mites and let me say: they are so used to being scooped up and smooched randomely throughout the day that th the exception of fluffing their feathers (thereby sharing the sevin dust with me), the whole 41 chicken debacle was entirely uneventful. We also have avian pox cycling through several, and having my boys volunteer to walk right up to be petted made the pox inspection 10000% less stressfull for us all.


When i mentioned the advice of rushing or moving roos for respect, my papaw summarized it like this, "Good for you. You overpowered a three pound bird. Arent you proud?"

 

[newbie32]

i havea problem at the moment

i have 34 chickens 7 of who are roos elvis rir is the boss then chunk who is 7mths old 1 of 3 i hatched but his siblings got killed with a dog

so he is a loner but has been free ranging with the flock since 14wks old, then i have bowie, foxy,coal,curly & 1 eyed lincoln ( got an eye infection and his eye burst) they are 6mths old , i hatched them and 7 hens but they have all been with the others free ranging since 14wks old, this last week bowie has took it upon himself to be top of the young uns and he has started a vendetta against chunk

poor chunk has done nothing! but he is getting ganged up against and tonight they made his comb bleed, ive decided to give bowie to a friend of a friend for his 6 hens , so he will have his own flock, but what do i do with chunk?

he was the 2nd roo in the flock and elvis has allways chased him but he used to tell the young un off !will they continue to attack him ? or will i need to re home him as well

ive put bowie in a pen tonight as he is going on monday , just so i can see how they treat chunk without him !

I think Chunk should be isolated until his comb heals. Chickens can turn into cannibals. Sounds like Bowie wanted to step up in the pecking order and chose the second in command to do it. Roosters don't keep their stations forever. Your roo to hen ratio might cause more problems in the future. 7:34 is large!!!! Could you lower that to 4:34? That might be a little more reasonable. These are just my opinions-take it or leave it-but I would hate for something really nasty to happen to one of them when they decide to challenge the pecking order. Any rooster that is HUMAN aggressive is dinner-PERIOD!

If they continue to attack him after a few days or draw blood again-assuming you gave him time to heal-then I would remove him.

 

[chynasparks]

My rooster has started to hurt the 3 girls. This just started last Thursday. They are all 6 months. Last Friday I found the girls with scabs on their faces combs and waddles. It happened within that 24 hour period. This week I began supervised free ranging. Hawks are still in the area but I decided this is best for them. My idea of carrying them to the whoop run just isn't going to cut it anymore. It's just too traumatic for them,trying to catch and carry them, especially Bill. I watch Bill chase down one of the girls and grab her by the face and neck. Ive read that this is part of mating. I hope that's all it is. I'm worried about more severe injuries and hope they don't happen. He's shown no aggression to me at all. He doesn't have spurs yet but nubs are growing. Will this get worse?

 

[newbie32]

Roosters can be a little rough with mating. But they can also just be mean. Could it be that the females don't respect him as alpha and therefor he is trying to assert his dominance? Watch their behavior with him. Observe if he is trying to mount or not.

I think there is a limit to what a rooster should be able to do in order to mate or show dominance. It is ultimately up to you to set the boundaries.

Does anyone have any suggestions to give chynasparks?

 

[Jakoda]

I am no expert, but have a flock of 14,,7 hens that are a year old, 2 hens and a coronation sussex roo who are now 5 months old, and 3 hens/1 roo that are 4 months old.

Snowy, the Coronations sussex Roo, is huge, and I mean HUGE, I know I've posted before about him, he's rather a weenie,,the older girls keep him in line and take no 'stuff' from him, they give him a peck and he's 'gone' He's friendly with me, eats out of my hand, I don' t pick him up because frankly he's to darn heavy , He comes running when he sees me , follows me around..

He tends to be fine with the 2 hens he was raised with (before integration),,and tends to ignore the younger bunch...He has tho been exhibiting maybe some jealousy?? I'll have one of the older hens in my lap, he will peck at my pants, 'sniveling' (best way to describe the noise he makes!), and eyeball the hen in my lap,,when I set her on the ground, he will sometimes give the hen a good peck..Usually the hen will let him have it, and he takes off,,IF he doesn't, I will intervene, as in push him off with my foot, or my hand,...he knows he better back off and he does..

So as I see it, I agree with newbie above, it's up to you on how much you think your hens should put up with..Personally, and it's just me, that type of roughness/nastiness wouldn't fly here.
Now whether you can correct it, is anyones guess, because as I read more about roos, the more I am finding, they are either nasty, or are they aren't..Not much in between..

Now mine are still young, but the minute either of them starts chasing down my girls and doing some real physical harm is unfortunately, going to be the time I rehome him..(I just don't have the guts to do him in
Diane