is my rooster a bully?

[my3jsons]

Is my rooster a bully or is this normal behavior? I have seen him do this twice now. They are about 14 weeks old and he seems to be coming into his own, voice and all. But he runs over randomly to a hen that wasn't doing anything, grabs her by the neck and pins her to the ground. There is lots of noise and feathers flying everywhere. He didn't try to get on them. Is he just trying to figure it out? Please tell me.

 

[katdam]

i'm having the same prob. mine wants everyone to stay in the coop..attacks the hen for no reason..she runs from him in terror.. hopefully someone will help...i was thinking about getting rid of him, but we'll see what everyonw has to say on here! mine are 14 wks also.

 

[SallyF]

It's relatively normal behavior; he's just practicing for the main event. There is an aspect of bullying to it, though. Heirloom breed roosters didn't used to do it that way. I have read that in our breeding for meat, breeding for laying, etc., we haven't bred for manners!

 

[thespinningcottage]

Our BCM rooster became a "gentleman" around 24 weeks old. Before that, he did as you describe in an effort to establish his dominance. At that time it didn't have anything to do with mating.

 

[Duchessk75]

I'm having the same problem with my 17 week old BR's. I have 3 roo's and 23 pullets. The roo's are being absolutely horrible to the girls. If one jumps on a pullet, the other two rush over and before you know it, the poor girl is getting pulled at and plucked by all three of them. I had to put a free rooster ad on craiglist. I can't wait until the roo's get over there adolecent behavior, cause they are getting out of hand and hurting the girls. It sucks too, cause I really enjoy listening to them crowing.