I think my flock is scared of my rooster?

[bkint]

I have 10 chickens. I believe I have 5 rooster’s and 5 hens. (not a great ratio at all I know) 1 is a runt i refused to let die. He’s smaller than everyone and has a deformed foot. One claw is splayed in a weird angle. He hobbles a bit but gets around fine and can roost. The 2 largest roosters are mellow. Their combs arnt fully grown yet but they have long tail feathers and they used to crow. 1 also dosnt have its comb fully grown and i havnt heard it crow yet but it looks like a rooster based off of tail feathers, also mellow. The final rooster is the meanest. He’s bigger than the runt but smaller then the 2 larger roosters. His comb is large and came in very early. All the chickens are the same age and none of my hens have laid an egg yet i got them early may 2022.
The mean rooster picks on just about everyone it seems. Only recently have i noticed that my chickens avoid this mean rooster it seems. On hot days they will stay in coop while the mean one parades the outside area (approx. 128sq ft) The 2 larger ones used to crow, maybe it was just one of them (hard to tell because they are basically identical) They all gather on the highest perch at night and sleep together even the mean one. They seem to get along only when its bedtime, otherwise they avoid the mean one.
I planned on letting a brooding hen sit on eggs and hatch as many as possible hoping to get my hen/rooster ratio corrected.
My question is should i be concerned about this mean roosters behavior? No ones been bloodied. One of the large roosters had a cracked/bloody beak but i think it was just a growth spurt because it seemed to heal up in a few days. Worst thing ive seen is a clump of approx. 5feathers which im assuming the mean rooster ripped out of someone. I’ve been picking this mean rooster up at times when he tests me. Bit me a few times drew blood but i just walk toward him dont show fear and pick him up and pet him. Do i need to cull this rooster? Is the pecking order just still being established? Has anyone had this problem before?. The coop itself is 64sq ft. and about 6ft tall. with multiple areas the chickens can enter/exit to get to outside enclosure. Let me know if you need more info/ thanks for your time i really appreciate it .

 

[DobieLover]

You have entirely too many boys. And if the "mean" cockerel has bitten you multiple times and is challenging you, he should be the first on the cut list. You need to get it down to just one cockerel.

 

[SourRoses]

Believe your chickens when they tell you someone is a bully.
And if a rooster harms you? Just no.
Chickens have to live with people. We dragged them out of the jungle and spread them around the globe so they're stuck with us... the only ones we perpetuate should be smart enough to get along with us and with each other. Full stop.

 

[NatJ]

I would probably start culling males, beginning with the mean one.

But if you don't want to cull them, you could build some more pens and split them into three groups:
--females with no males or maybe with 1 male
--mean male by himself (but put his pen where he can see others, so he's not too lonely.)
--other males, as long as they continue to get along

That would keep the males from harassing the females, and would keep the mean male from bothering any of the others.

 

[NatJ]

I planned on letting a brooding hen sit on eggs and hatch as many as possible hoping to get my hen/rooster ratio corrected.

Any chicks that get hatched will probably have equal numbers of males and females.
So that won't help at all, unless you butcher some males, sell/rehome some males, or house the males separately.

 

[3KillerBs]

I planned on letting a brooding hen sit on eggs and hatch as many as possible hoping to get my hen/rooster ratio corrected.

Is what im trying to do really that illogical/impossible?

If you're not willing to cull excess males then no amount of hatching will ever correct your ratios because over time chicks will hatch out 50-50.

Figure out what you actually WANT in a cockerel and start weeding down the ones who don't match what you want.

I personally have absolutely ZERO tolerance for a human-aggressive cockerel/rooster. I have a broomstick and a crockpot.

After that, I'm breeding to improve my birds. The ones who meet my criteria stay, at least for a trial. The ones who don't get their chance to sell on Craigslist before they go to the freezer.

It's a hard fact of chicken-keeping that if we want to hatch we have to have a plan for the males. If you can't bear to eat them yourself then give them away free on Craigslist and don't ask questions about the buyer's plans.

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

I would probably start culling males, beginning with the mean one.

But if you don't want to cull them, you could build some more pens and split them into three groups:
--females with no males or maybe with 1 male
--mean male by himself (but put his pen where he can see others, so he's not too lonely.)
--other males, as long as they continue to get along

That would keep the males from harassing the females, and would keep the mean male from bothering any of the others.

Sounds like a lot of work. I'd cull and bring in the Sonny's Sweet Bar-be-que sauce.

 

[NatJ]

It's called "cockfighting" for a reason. *Sometimes* a pair of roosters will get along together, though without enough hens the girls can be in for a VERY rough ride.

It's less likely for them to get along than for them to fight. @Mrs. K has good advice about roosters.

For any of the commercially available breeds, the normal breeding pattern for a hatchery flock is multiple roosters with a large number of hens. They must not kill each other or prevent mating, or that would not be the common practice. (That's where the commonly-quoted 1:10 ratio comes from. 10% roosters is typically enough to be sure all eggs are fertile.)

But that can be a very different situation than having a small number of roosters, and few hens, in a backyard coop.

In this case, yes I think most or all of the roosters should be removed from the females, for the sake of the hens' wellbeing. Butchering, rehoming, or another pen would all work as ways to remove them from the females.

 

[bkint]

Believe your chickens when they tell you someone is a bully.
And if a rooster harms you? Just no.
Chickens have to live with people. We dragged them out of the jungle and spread them around the globe so they're stuck with us... the only ones we perpetuate should be smart enough to get along with us and with each other. Full stop.

They definitely act like he’s the bully. This is my first time raising chickens so i expected to get bit/ scratched a bit. I raised them from about 1week old. (They were hatched by a kindergarten class.)
When i free range them (about 3-5 hours a day when im in my machine shop) they seem to get along better but i think its just because they have more room to run away from him. Ive scanned the forums and deduced that you can try to “train” a disobedient rooster but usually to no avail. I doubt i’ll build another enclosure just because this rooster is an asshole. Thank you for replying to me it is very helpful.

 

[3KillerBs]

Thanks for the reply. Should I worry about the other roosters coming into the role of being top of the pecking order? Ive heard sometimes a sudden death will freak everyone out. Do i run the risk of my mellow roosters turning into aggressors? Or is there a chance I could have several roosters get along with each-other even with a piss poor hen ratio?

It's called "cockfighting" for a reason. *Sometimes* a pair of roosters will get along together, though without enough hens the girls can be in for a VERY rough ride.

It's less likely for them to get along than for them to fight. @Mrs. K has good advice about roosters.