I think my Cochin bantam wants to mate with me! ugh!!

lowflyer

Chirping
Mar 9, 2015
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I have three Cochin bantam roosters, a Polish Crested bantam rooster, and three Buff Orpington roosters that I recently separated from the main flock due to their unrelenting gang mating of the somewhat unwilling hens. They are all about 4-5 months old, give or take.

I have been rotating them into the pen at night, so the foxes don't eat them, after the girls are safely closed up in the coop. During the day, the boys free-range, or more accurately, patrol the outside perimeter of the pen watching the girls enjoy their peaceful dust baths and forage in the weeds inside the pen. They don't go far.

One of the little bantams decided I was his personal human, from the time he was a few weeks old. He has this funny little low, murmuring croon when he "talks" to me. He follows me everywhere, pestering me for attention and fluttering up into my arms to be held or onto my shoulder. But after I separated him and his colleagues from physical contact with the hens (although they can see each other through the fence wire) he has started acting oddly.

He always did flutter and cheep at me, around my ankles, begging for treats and attention. But now he does this funny little foot stamping, hopping little "dance" at my feet, then turns around and around a few times, then starts up the "tap dance in place" again. Normally I could just scoop him up and carry him around, and he's happy as can be. However, if he is doing that "dance" he will grab my hand and bite hard, holding on with his beak, not letting go unless I flick him upside the head.

I was reading in another thread on here, about the "mating dance", and it sounded ickily like what he's doing!

Since he doesn't have access to the hens anymore, and he was a VERY humpy little guy....is he trying to make out with me?? When he was in with the hens, he didn't try to show them the sexy moves first, he was a totally ferociously horny little hooligan with them. No "dance", no foreplay, no nicety. Just chase, pounce, grab the back of her neck, and start going at it...whether or not someone else was already "in the saddle" so to speak!

I thought his waggly little dance was cute, with those adorable feathered legs hopping and bouncing and stepping in place, and was mystified at why he suddenly started biting and hanging on to my hand when I'd try to pick him up.

But after reading the descriptions of mating behaviors on here...

I really hope he doesn't think I'm his chick.

What do you all think? Frustrated horny rooster trying to seduce me? ugh!! Or is there another explanation for this?

Most importantly, short of giving him access to the hens again, or becoming a "Cornish Game Hen" since he's a pet, how can I "redirect" him??
 
If it has tires or testosterone, eventually it's going to be trouble!

Meanwhile...what can I do to convince him not to get too excited to see me?

He doesn't do it every time, though he follows me everywhere he can. I can pick him up and he just snuggles right into my arms, or rides on my shoulder. Except when he's doing the funny stamping feathery feet dance, turning around in a circle. Then I know he'll bite my hand and hold on tight while flapping his wings.

I've been ignoring him when he does it, tried walking away from him, giving him a little swat on the head when he's biting me, and yelling "NO!!" at him when he starts bouncing back and forth on his feet.

I can't imagine what I'm doing that "inspires" him, but I need to figure out to how to convince him once and for all, that we are "just friends".

UGH.

barnie.gif
 
I hope not. He has been very affectionate, especially with me, since he was a tiny chick. He thinks I am his own "pet human".

He only started this less than a week ago, when I separated the cockerels from the hens, to keep them from badgering the hens to death.
 
I don't try to make 'pets' out of my cockrels. I walk around the flock, and walk 'through' the birds, so they learn to get out of my way. Nobody jumps at me, or flies on me. Never! If I want to hold a bird, fine, but it's my decision, not theirs. He shouldn't think that you are another chicken, because you definitely aren't. The 'friendly' boys often develop into human aggressive roosters, in my experience. Mary
 
My cochin/silkie cross roo used to do that to me too! He had definitely decided I was his human, and was really affectionate all the time. When he hit raging hormone age, though, he would race across the yard to me, and either try to pounce directly (if he could reach my hand) or do the mating dance trying to convince me to put my hand in reach! After that, he'd calm down and be his normal affectionate self. I should note that he did have access to hens at the time, but the senior roos didn't allow him much.

He calmed down as he got to be older and more established. He's my best roo now- always protecting the girls and yelling for them every time he finds food. And he's still extremely friendly and non-aggressive with people.
 
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I hope he does calm down once he's out of the "adolescent" stage. It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he's sweet and cooing to me in his funny, low "talk" most of the time.

He was constantly on the hens, and getting sandwiched by one or more of the big Buff Orpingtons. He'd grab a Golden Comet and start humping away, and the big boys would come running and just pile on, squashing him and the unfortunate hen!

The bantams were intended as pets, but was really hoping for less than 5 out of 6 being cockerels though.

I really hope he doesn't turn out mean, though. All my five remaining bantams are very friendly and affectionate, especially in comparison to my standard sized chickens,
 
I've found the bantams I've had have been generally a lot friendlier than the standards. I have had two aggressive bantam roos- one a frizzled cochin, and one a silkie, of all things. In both cases they had been pretty standoffish from the time they were chicks, then got really aggressive when they hit puberty. The only other aggression I've seen was the one mentioned above, and really that was more...amorous. And he's fine now- fantastic roo for the hens, and never aggressive towards humans.
 
After losing another bantam roo, this time to what was probably a raccoon, to keep them safe I've been putting the three remaining bantam cockerels in the coop with the hens again, much to the hens' disgust.

I brought some stale bread to feed for a treat, and gave my humpy little buddy a piece while I hand fed the others bits of the bread. Next thing I know, he's at my feet "tidbitting"...picking it up and dropping it, and making this sound I had never heard before, a loud, insistent repetitive call. That must be the "look at the food I found just for you" call.

He only did the stamping his feet dance once, so maybe he's gotten some of it out of his system (poor hens!).

I didn't pick him up at all, hopefully giving him no attention whatsoever when he gets amorous will help cool his jets.
 

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