I had 2 roosters. One is an extremely docile English Orpington. I have never seen him be aggressive, he is gentle with the girls, and even tolerates being held and touched. The second is a small silkie mix with a big attitude, but excellent rooster. Never fights any other birds and great with the girls. He tries to fight me, but petting him calms him down.
I decided to keep an Orpington cockerel that I hatched this past spring. He is bigger than his dad (English Orp roo). He just recently started acting interested in the ladies. And just started crowing. He seemed to be a very late bloomer, I thought maybe since there were 2 other dominant Roos around.
Anyway, it seems like he may be trying to gain rank or something. He has one specific hen that he is always following and mating with. I have seen him run other hens off from the feeder recently. The other boys are so calm they just let him do whatever, still no boy fights.
The feeder does get crowded and yesterday he raised his feathers at a hen and they had a staring contest that ended with a bunch of her feathers being pulled out. After that I ordered another feeder online so I will see if having 2 feeders solves some of this.
This morning I caught him chasing his favorite hen all around the yard. He had his wings dropped down and chased her all around and I was yelling and trying to intervene but eventually they just stopped and went on like nothing happened.
He has been awkward at mating and will sometimes grab the hens from the front and they will scream and he will try to get on them, but eventually they get away. He has gotten better though. I just worry he will hurt a lady because he is so huge.
Is all this normal young roo behavior? I have never had a roo who wasn't just a lovey pile of feathers before and it all seems a bit aggressive or whatever.
I decided to keep an Orpington cockerel that I hatched this past spring. He is bigger than his dad (English Orp roo). He just recently started acting interested in the ladies. And just started crowing. He seemed to be a very late bloomer, I thought maybe since there were 2 other dominant Roos around.
Anyway, it seems like he may be trying to gain rank or something. He has one specific hen that he is always following and mating with. I have seen him run other hens off from the feeder recently. The other boys are so calm they just let him do whatever, still no boy fights.
The feeder does get crowded and yesterday he raised his feathers at a hen and they had a staring contest that ended with a bunch of her feathers being pulled out. After that I ordered another feeder online so I will see if having 2 feeders solves some of this.
This morning I caught him chasing his favorite hen all around the yard. He had his wings dropped down and chased her all around and I was yelling and trying to intervene but eventually they just stopped and went on like nothing happened.
He has been awkward at mating and will sometimes grab the hens from the front and they will scream and he will try to get on them, but eventually they get away. He has gotten better though. I just worry he will hurt a lady because he is so huge.
Is all this normal young roo behavior? I have never had a roo who wasn't just a lovey pile of feathers before and it all seems a bit aggressive or whatever.
