Is my rooster a coward?

[MorwenSeregon]

A hawk tried to get one of my chickens today but my husband scared it away. My question is about my rooster. He’s a 9-month-old Maran. I thought he would try to fight off a hawk but he ran into the woods with the hens. Is this normal? Is he a coward or was he defending the hens by taking them into the woods? Is he too young to protect them? Will he get more protective over time?

 

[MysteryChicken]

A hawk tried to get one of my chickens today but my husband scared it away. My question is about my rooster. He’s a 9-month-old Maran. I thought he would try to fight off a hawk but he ran into the woods with the hens. Is this normal? Is he a coward or was he defending the hens by taking them into the woods? Is he too young to protect them? Will he get more protective over time?

Fight, or flight. He chose to take his ladies to cover, it's an automatic instinctual response to this situation.

 

[nuthatched]

Completely normal. The 'roosters protect the flock ' thing is a bit of a myth. Some will try, and usually die themselves since they aren't equipped to deal with predators effectively.
If the predators takes lingers around too long a particularly territorial roo might try to shoo it away, but 90% he cuts his losses and herds the other hens away.

 

[Red Mangrove]

He's only 9 months old. That's somewhere around the age of a 12 year old boy in human years. Usually roosters don't get full length spurs until 2 years of age

 

[MorwenSeregon]

Thanks everyone! I’m going to look into alternative hawk protection solutions.

 

[orelsi]

I laughed at the thread title!

Sometimes they fight, sometimes not. If the flock is safe I say job well done.

You just wait until he matures fully and grows his spurs. Marans can be big boys. Handsome as well.

 

[theoldchick]

He did the right thing by heading to the protection of trees. You can provide brush piles or Pallet huts for your chickens to hide under. However, if you free range your flock, you will lose some chickens to flighted predators.

 

[fluffycrow]

First off, he is young. He made a very mature decision, however. The male's job is to warn the females in time, so that they can find appropriate cover. It would have been pointless to risk his life for a hawk, especially one that had not caught one of his females

 

[SamLockwood]

It depends on the individual rooster and the nature of the attack. They're prey animals so if they get surprised the first instinct is to get under cover. If they happen to catch sight or sound of a predator before it strikes, then things get more interesting: they'll always sound a warning and may or may not try to drive the predator off depending on the situation and the flock dynamic.

I've seen videos of hawks that fail to get a quick kill on a hen get driven off by roosters. I know from experience a rooster won't bother going after a hawk that manages to get a kill: they won't risk themselves for a dead hen.