Increasingly Aggressive Rooster

[JoeInPA]

I have 5 chickens, 4 pullets and 1 rooster. They are now at 25-30 weeks of age and pretty much full grown. Still none laying eggs. The rooster has always been sort of at the top of the pecking order but mostly stays to himself. He's never been aggressive towards me or any other humans. But he is now getting to be a bit of bully to the other chickens. Its seems like he's worse in the morning but it getting worse throughout the day.

In the morning he won't let certain birds out of the coop and he has to be the first one to the feeder and won't let the others get to the feeder for a few minutes. Then occasionally he'll chase other birds around and occasionally give them a hard peck. Usually once a day or so I throw some scratch grains in the run as a treat and three of my hens usually come running as soon as I open the gate. I usually let them eat some out my hand. But recently he won't let one or all of them approach me. Then if I throw a few handfuls of grain into the run, he hogs it all and chases the others away if they try to eat it.

I really like how beautiful he is and he's not aggressive towards people, and I love his crowing (though my neighbors probably don't) but I'm wondering if he may need to go. This is my first year with chickens and I dont know enough about chicken behavior. What do you guys think?


This picture is a couple months old, he's a bit bigger now.

 

[sourland]

I'd add another feeder some distance away from the first. He's at his teen aged hormonal stage, and not certain about how to handle things. Sometimes removing such a cockerel from the flock until he and the pullets mature helps. I'd monitor closely to make sure that the aggressiveness does not escalate.

 

[bobbi-j]

What you have is a cockerel who is coming into sexual maturity. His little chicken brain isn't quite sure how to handle the influx of hormones. Your pullets are likely to mature more slowly than him, so they're going to be resistant to his "attentions" for a while. He is beautiful and gets bonus points for not being aggressive to people (yet - I'd still keep an eye on him). One thing you could do is separate him for a few months until your pullets are laying. Another thing to consider would be making sure they have enough room and hiding places to get away from him when they need to. Sourland's suggestion of a second feeder is an excellent idea.

 

[Folly's place]

All good ideas already. Cockerels are easier to raise when they have adult hens and a rooster to squelch their little egos a bit, and demonstrate proper behavior. Cockerels like yours, who haven't got adults to manage them, may do fine, but can be too pushy for a while.
So far he's not human aggressive, and hasn't injured anyone, so give him more time, and give the pullets extra feeders and out-of-sight places to avoid him.
Mary

 

[bobbi-j]

I didn’t see anything concerning there. As Aart said, it’s just the morning Randy run. If you could make their run a little bigger, they could get farther away from him. (I’m more concerned about the chicken wire and open top on the run..)

 

[JoeInPA]

A second feeder sounds like a good idea. I'm monitoring him closely. Heres a few pictures of him today.

 

[aart]

As long as no blood is drawn, and none are being pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, I'd let them work it out.
More feed/water stations and some out of sight 'hiding' places might help.

 

[JoeInPA]

As long as no blood is drawn, and none are being pinned down and beaten unmercilessly, I'd let them work it out.
More feed/water stations and some out of sight 'hiding' places might help.

Definitely no blood being drawn, he'd have been gone already if I was at that point. I have 84 square feet in the run divided into two sections, so there is plenty of space for them to get away from each other. And they can also go in and out of the coop as they please during the day so long as the rooster isn't playing gatekeeper. Hopefully the hens start laying soon and that will alleviate some of the tension.

I also have some coop and run expansion plans for this spring. I have some preliminary drawings made up, I'll start a separate thread on them.

 

[JoeInPA]

Just an update. I was out of town for a few days so I wasn't really able to keep a close eye on them, but I've been back now, and observing the chickens. In the morning the rooster is still a little jumpy, I think he's trying to mate and the girls aren't having it. When one gets close to him, he'll kind of jump at them and try to grab them, but they run away before he's able to. He seems to calm down later in the day.

The two feeders definitely seem to be helping as far as everything else. The chickens are sort of able to escape each other and still eat. The girls aren't laying eggs yet but the days are getting longer so hopefully that isn't far off.

 

[aart]

Yep the worst happened right after I let them out of the coop.

The morning Randy Run......see it about every day here.