My chickens are beginning to frighten me.

[Mrs. K]

To the original poster: you don't state the age of your flock, but I am betting they are some where between 3-5 months. Kind of the teen years, and at that point they are skitterish and noisy. They will calm down. Many of us don't handle our birds a great deal, and are perfectly comfortable with the hens moving away from us as we come into the coop/run. Some breeds stay rather flighty, and will flap around like you brought down the hatchet and they know what for, which they don't.

I do agree with the other posters that just being around them, they will calm down. Give it time. They don't hate you, and won't attack you. they won't even fly away or at you if you gvie them enough space. Move slow around them, and they will settle.

To Debp:

I think you are describing a one age flock, as in you have raised these birds together, and when you refer to the bigger rooster, he is just that, bigger, but not older? If so what you have is several rooster who are rapidly out growing their "sister" pullets. The roos are highly interested in the pullets, and the girls are not ready yet. Now sometimes, one roo will step up, put everyone in his place and establish a pecking order...... but sometimes they just keep fighting it out, and it can become a mess.

If you have the space, I think I would pull all of the roosters. This will give your girls a break, and let them grow up. The roosters if kept to themselves will settle down, and they will mature some too. Then pick your best roo, and cull the rest, putting your rooster in with the girls when they start laying. If you can't, I would start culling anything you don't like right now, working your way up the list. Cull a couple, see how the flock settles down, not good, cull some more.

If you have an established flock with older hens and a dominate older rooster, it sets up a different dynamics in the flock. The older birds are dominant in the flock, and the younger birds grow up under that dominance, are a little slower to get out of line. Eventually you can wind up in the same problem, but a little later I have found.

Mrs K

 

[donrae]

Eating feathers is never a normal or desirable behavior. Neither is pulling out feathers intentionally. I'm not sure if your birds are trying to pull feathers, or if the pulled feathers are a byproduct of mating. Either way, I'd separate the cockerels from the pullets. You've got another 2ish months before those guys are really meaty, and it's going to be a rough time for the pullets. There are easy ways to set up a grow out pen when they're this age, and the weather's nice enough they don't need much of a shelter. Quick and easy would be some wire horse/cattle panels and a tarp for a roof, with at least a few T-posts to hold everything together.

 

[Cacique500]

The chickens seem to have unified against me and my husband in a ways that I didn't think were possible for chickens to do. This may sound crazy, but you can almost hear the deep seeded hatred of me in their clucks.

Mmmhmmm...



...never go to the coop alone...

 

[boyswillbeboys]

Update on my rooster woes:
I am having trouble deciding what is normal behavior for a rooster of 15 weeks age and what is a problem. I had 7 roosters (New Hampshires and Barred Plymouth Rocks) and 16 pullets and had planned to butcher at least 5 of the roosters for meat as soon as they were big enough. If there is a place to read details of rooster behavior (and hens for that matter), please direct me there.

My birds have started to act like roosters before they have meat on them (and I'm not expecting grocery store meat - they are just feathers and bones at this point). Yesterday, my tame, mild-mannered rooster that I had allowed myself to become attached to was gored, tearing his crop out so that I had to butcher him. That was a sad day for me, as I may have caused it by separating my biggest rooster from the flock a few days prior, and that may have upset the apple cart, so to speak. I had not observed any spur fighting, so this took me by surprise. I had watched my top rooster pick and eat pin feathers from pullets earlier in the week, and had read that you should nip feather-picking in the bud, so we removed him to the garage for a few days and then into a new separation pen in the coop. I had planned to butcher him in a few weeks when he had a little meat on him. But, then I noticed at least 3 other roosters that do surprise attacks on other birds, mainly the pullets, to grab and sometimes eat feathers, so I decided I may be micro managing them - or that it is impossible to isolate all the roosters.

So, today I let all my chickens out to free-range together. I noticed that my big rooster immediately established his dominance with another rooster by picking out a feather and chasing him, but not excessively. He also kept doing a little dance whenever the rooster came near him, and the other rooster would run. He never pecked him again and the other rooster stayed nearby. This seems like a good behavior to me. He is warning the other rooster and only pecked him once. But, he did then surprise attack a pullet that let him near and picked out some of her neck feathers. I want to get rid of at least 4 of my remaining 6 roosters, but would rather wait another couple weeks until they are bigger, unless that is really unwise.

I need some advice on what is normal for a rooster of this age. I have been watching my flock this am, and mostly it is quiet, except for occasional surprise attacks by roosters (several culprits) on pullets that usually involve some feather pulling.
Those with experience, what would you do at this point? They are free-ranging all day, but some mornings they have to stay in a large coop/run, and also in the evening (which is when my tame rooster was gored).

What is happening, is your roosters are matureing, and ready to mate the pullets, but the pullets aren't quite ready, so the roosters grab the pullets in an attempt to mate, the pullets run away and the rooster is left with feathers in his beak. or at least that's what's happening in ,my flock, the boys are definitely more mature sexually than the girls, I have a mixed age flock, and the older rooster has to work hard to keep the other boys in line, they are all mating the 1 year old hens, but occasionally one of the younger ones tries to get the younger girls, but the older rooster does step in to protect them, when he can

 

[debp]

Thank you. I think you are right about the pecking behind the neck. But plucking back feathers out and eating them for the blood seems different to me.

Beekissed recommended that I create a bachelor pen and choose one rooster. I am having trouble with the choice, as my two biggest, most mature roosters are pretty darn aggressive, and my neighbor who has had chickens for years said those are the ones that often turn aggressive to humans. But, I worry that the lower ranked, less mature roosters could turn out the same way, once the they get bigger and the now dominant ones are removed to the bachelor pen. So I am having trouble choosing the rooster I will keep, now that my favorite gentle rooster is gone.

 

[debp]

Thank you Mrs. K and donrae. I got similar advice from Beekissed and she said choose a rooster to stay with the flock and separate the rest. I have made arrangements with my neighbor to use his old unused coop and am ready to separate the boys, but I am having trouble choosing my rooster. One of the 3 New Hampshires is really big and dominant over all others. I have him in his own pen away from the others now. He is so aggressive it kind of scares me since we have 2 close neighbors with little 2 year old girls (humans that is). The largest Barred Plymouth Rock immediately stepped into the role of head rooster, and while he seems much more respectful of me, he isn't very popular with the pullets as he is really hard on them. I am liking some of my smaller, less mature roosters better, but that might just be because they haven't matured as much yet. Does anyone know if Barred Plymouth Rock are just as likely to be aggressive (to humans) as New Hampshires? I avoided Rhode Island Reds because the rooster reputation in that breed. Is the dancing behavior of my big New Hampshire rooster a good sign or a sign of a super aggressive rooster?

 

[Folly's place]

Both RIRs and NHs have a reputation for having more aggressive, and human aggressive, roosters. I would avoid any cockrel who challenges you; that includes any sideways dancing at you. There are good threads here about behavior, and managing cockrels to improve their attitudes. All bets are off if you have small children visiting! Cocks can be bold with other chickens, and not human aggressive, or they can turn into bad boys. Mary

 

[donrae]

If you're nervous being around roosters, I'd say don't keep one at all. I think it sounds like you need more confidence dealing with chickens in general before you tackle the hormones of a rooster. You can pick a rooster up any time later on, when you're more confident. Any rooster has the potential to be aggressive. They're like most animals, they pick up on body language cues and your attitude. If you're hesitant, fearful, or submissive, they'll walk all over you.

 

[debp]

Well, I'm not at all afraid of any of my birds including my big rooster. He hasn't danced at me, just other roosters. I think I have a good relationship to the flock. But, the big NH has feather-picked (pin feathers for the blood, I think) and chased off another rooster and wouldn't let him back near the coop until it was almost dark. I penned him today, and now the biggest BPR stepped into that role and did the same thing to the same rooster. So, maybe that is what all top roosters do to potential competitors? Still there was something about the NH behavior that seems more amped up.

I think 1 rooster would actually help keep peace in the flock and protect the flock a bit as they free-range. I just didn't know that the roosters would mature and start having problems this young and before they are ready to butcher. So, it was a painful lesson, and it cost my favorite rooster his life.

But, I would like to keep a rooster that is not likely to chase children (or any person), and I don't know what to look for in the behavior of roosters when selecting one. My roosters vary a lot in how big and mature they are. So, if anyone can point me to threads that discuss reading rooster behavior or how to select a rooster for a backyard flock - not so much for breeding yet (I know they will breed, but I'm not ready for breeding my own flock)- that wold be wonderful.

 

[donrae]

I've kept multiple roosters together in a laying flock and never had a rooster (or other bird) purposefully pull feathers. It's not a normal behavior for dominance, dominance is a little bit of sparring and a lot of chasing and hiding