lowflyer
Chirping
- Mar 9, 2015
- 55
- 11
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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??
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??