Is this normal rooster behavior

[moMoney_moChickens]

I have a ~2yo rooster. Not aggressive towards humans, in fact just the opposite. He also has 5 hens (3 laying 2 bound for the soup pot soon). We recently raised 9 orpington day olds (best guess is 6 girls and 3 boys), at 7 weeks we put the in the coop with the mature chickens.

During the day, the rooster couldn't care less about the babies, the babies do their own thing, the adults do theirs (they free range in my back yard) and never really mingle much. At night when I feed them it's a completely different story. I put scratch down for them and the rooster attacks the babies, even with separated piles more than 10 feet apart. Both boys and girls, and has taken feathers out of at least 1.

Is....this normal? Or should he be sentenced to a crockpot?

 

[50-45-1]

That sounds like normal to me.
I would offer separate feeding statuons as you are doing, but put some sort of sight block between them so everyone can enjoy meal time.
By the way I think free choice feeding is best. Always avaliable.
My feeder is never empty.

 

[nuthatched]

Do you free feed? Or is this about the treats?

 

[moMoney_moChickens]

> Do you free feed? Or is this about the treats?

Yes, but I'm not as strict in the spring/summer to have it constantly filled

> My feeder is never empty.

Picking up a pattern here that I'm not adhering to...

 

[GlicksChicks]

Yes, this is normal. They are showing who is at the top of the pecking order and who gets first dibs at the food.

What I do when I introduce new chicks is I have an area where only the chicks can get to so they can eat. For example, I had a feed bowl in an area with a dog fence inside the coop and had an opening only wide enough for the chicks to get into. I had no problems with them getting plenty of food that way.

With young chickens, they are smaller than adult chickens so they can slip into much smaller places than mature hens. Definitely much smaller than a mature rooster.