inexperienced rooster hurting hens?

[BarnwoodCoop]

We recently rescued a buff orphington rooster, around a year old, who had never had any girls for himself and was left in quite bad conditions before we got him, (hatch of all boys, and then they gave him up to a breeder who kept around 50 birds, mix of hens and roos, in quite a small dirty area+ he was bleeding in the box we brought him home in.) so it was quite clear to us that he had gotten used to fighting.

wasnt expecting him to fly at me with a flurry of claws and beak pecks! took a chunk out of me.. we’ve never had an aggressive rooster before, they’ve all been timid and kept to themselves, but his issue with us isn’t what i’m asking about.

he’s very inexperienced with hens, stupidly so. after quarantine and health checks we let him meet up with our 2 biggest hens, and they took quite a shining to him.
problem is- he has no freaking idea how to mount them !!
at the moment he does his little dance and then just grabs hold of their necks, not feathers but their actual necks and doesn’t let go!! how do we help him? these 2 girls are very close to my heart as they’ve been with us the longest time and id hate for him to hurt them.
we were planning on getting orphington pullets in a few days, and we aren’t too sure if pairing him up with also mildly inexperienced hens is still a good idea or if its a bad one.
i dont really know what the right thing to do is, all i know is that i would certainly prefer my 2 girls dont get hurt by him.

extra context: we have 3 other roosters that were part of a hatch last year. our last buff rooster tolerated them because they were hatchlings, and also his fav girls chicks. now they’re grown up and he’s been gone a while, we had no idea how to go about introducing them. we’ve probably botched it half to hell if i’m honest. its pretty obvious he wants to protect these 2 girls weve given him, but he’s too afraid to stand up to the other roos, so he decided to attack us instead lol.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

How much work and risk do you want to put into this rooster? I have to be honest, I have some real mixed feelings about your rescue boy, especially as he is willing to attack a human. A rooster has to understand that is NEVER an option. NEVER excuse it as "protecting" the flock. Good flock protectors know humans are not a threat. My sweet boys will let me pick them up when I need to, and yet are excellent look outs for hawks and predators.

Definitely do NOT put him in with your younger pullets. The worse combination you can have is an aggressive hormonal teen rooster with inexperienced and insecure pullets. I have seen the pullets abused that way. If the matrons can't safely teach him within a couple of days, I suspect this guy needs major behavioral revision or simply the stew pot.

I have found over the years, that a large extent of rooster behavior is genetically driven. They either hatch nicely tempered, or they don't. Now, you *can* have a moderately nicely tempered bird improve with proper handling....or greatly worsen with improper handling. I suspect your boy is moderate to aggressive temperament who has obviously had terrible social conditions.

He is also a young rooster with raging hormones. In my flock, my teen boys are taught by the older hens from chickhood how to respect them (Nothing's funnier than to see a matron, usually joined by another, dress down a hormonal teen roo who suddenly gets an "idea"). My roosters have had to learn how to dance, flutter, and treat the hens to get any attention. The mounting is clumsy at first, but I've not had one not figure it out in a few days...but I have a healthy flock with healthy socialization. I also cull any rooster that is aggressively rough with hens as a young roo...if he slams them down, flogs them to surrender, is too rough. Clumsy is to be expected. Overly aggressive is back to temperament, in my opinion.

I must admit a big red flag to me is his willingness to attack you. That's not something easily trained out of a rooster. You don't want to constantly be watching your back.

My recommendation, honestly, is the stew pot...but being kind, I would put him into a bachelor pad where he can mature and learn social interaction with humans. Then if he calms down, place him into a group of mature hens and see how he handles it. If he goes back to aggressive clumsiness, then I would vote him out of the coop to freezer camp.

My 2 cents.
LofMc

 

[BarnwoodCoop]

How much work and risk do you want to put into this rooster? I have to be honest, I have some real mixed feelings about your rescue boy, especially as he is willing to attack a human. A rooster has to understand that is NEVER an option. NEVER excuse it as "protecting" the flock. Good flock protectors know humans are not a threat. My sweet boys will let me pick them up when I need to, and yet are excellent look outs for hawks and predators.

Definitely do NOT put him in with your younger pullets. The worse combination you can have is an aggressive hormonal teen rooster with inexperienced and insecure pullets. I have seen the pullets abused that way. If the matrons can't safely teach him within a couple of days, I suspect this guy needs major behavioral revision or simply the stew pot.

I have found over the years, that a large extent of rooster behavior is genetically driven. They either hatch nicely tempered, or they don't. Now, you *can* have a moderately nicely tempered bird improve with proper handling....or greatly worsen with improper handling. I suspect your boy is moderate to aggressive temperament who has obviously had terrible social conditions.

He is also a young rooster with raging hormones. In my flock, my teen boys are taught by the older hens from chickhood how to respect them (Nothing's funnier than to see a matron, usually joined by another, dress down a hormonal teen roo who suddenly gets an "idea"). My roosters have had to learn how to dance, flutter, and treat the hens to get any attention. The mounting is clumsy at first, but I've not had one not figure it out in a few days...but I have a healthy flock with healthy socialization. I also cull any rooster that is aggressively rough with hens as a young roo...if he slams them down, flogs them to surrender, is too rough. Clumsy is to be expected. Overly aggressive is back to temperament, in my opinion.

I must admit a big red flag to me is his willingness to attack you. That's not something easily trained out of a rooster. You don't want to constantly be watching your back.

My recommendation, honestly, is the stew pot...but being kind, I would put him into a bachelor pad where he can mature and learn social interaction with humans. Then if he calms down, place him into a group of mature hens and see how he handles it. If he goes back to aggressive clumsiness, then I would vote him out of the coop to freezer camp.

My 2 cents.
LofMc

Thank you for replying! this situation is a weird one. i know it sounds kinda silly considering his behavior today but he genuinely WAS very mild mannered and sweet a few days ago, before we gave him these girls. i’m not too sure what to do honestly, the breeder who gave him to us did that because he was too mild mannered with the other roos in there, i dont know if he can be ‘tamed’ but i dont think he’s evil. he’s cool, i love him but my main concern and top priority is always the hens. we’ve probably bitten off more than we can chew this this dude, but we‘ll see if our girls can whip him into shape safely, within a few days.
everything you’ve said about the matriarch thing is what we’ve had with our 3 boys, they had 2 main rooster role models in their lives and she certainly keeps them in check!!
again, thank you for replying, everything you’ve said makes perfect sense and i agree with fully!!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Well...he may deserve a chance if he was mild mannered. Put him in with a bunch of matrons, and if they can't whip him into shape in a few days (week at most), as long as they are safe, then it would be time for him to head down the road.

I would definitely address the human attacking. If he is mild mannered a simple charge his way and swat with a broom may be enough. One of my sweet roos one time came up behind me and flogged me (softly) with his wings. Startled, not knowing what was hitting me, I turned and automatically lashed out with my foot. I fortuitously place a firm boot on his backside with my kick out. He turned running screaming like a little girl to hide behind the coop. He NEVER ever tried to flog me again.

So a good firm reaction to a mild roo is often enough to thwart. However, if he turns and attacks further...then for me that's the stew pot.

LofMc