My roosters have all gone insane!

[ravencreek]

I understand that its getting warmer and baby season but why in the world are ALL my roosters(guineas included) attacking everything? They are attacking each other, the dogs, cat, and they even went after my kids(ages 3 and 6) while they were playing on their swingset. After that incident I put them all back in the pen(they are normally full time freerangers) and refuse to let them out until I figure out whats happening. Anyone?

 

[jeslewmazer]

If they are young roosters it could be that they are trying to take dominants. Chickens have a pecking order that has to be established. Some breeds are more aggressive than others and some even turn into man fighters. Most can be corrected if caught early, because the longer it goes on the higher the chances to have a true man fighter. Kids are a easy target. Sometimes roosters will get more cocky when they are with a hen(s) for long periods of time with little human interaction. There are just so many possibilities to why yours have gone crazy.

 

[ravencreek]

Well I have daily interaction with them. The kids also help me feed them and collect eggs. I currently have 2 turken, a leghorn, buff orp, welsummer,and a light brahma roos. Then I have 5 turken, leghorn,buff orp, silver laced wyandotte, barred rock, welsummer,light brahma, blue orp, and 3 black australorp hens. I am PRETTY sure I have 3 guinea roos and 1 guinea hen.. I bought them as day olds and have crappy luck. Also have a turkey hen but she is not insane. She is actually the only one acting normal. And these are all year old birds. I was going to pair off all my breeds for pure eggs but decided to just let them all run together. I was thinking of rehoming most of the roos but not sure.

 

[jeslewmazer]

As for the chickens 6:15 (roon) ratio. If you did have separate breeding pens and 1roo to 2-3 hens should affect their behavior for the better, but if you keep them all free range I would go down to 2-3 roos. I find it hard myself to cull out extra roos. I tend to like them all. But it is better for the flock, my other animals, and me. I only know a few things about guineas, so I can't tell them apart. I have seen them interact will chickens though. They seem just a crazy as young roos. Attacking each other and chickens. The chickens usually lose. There are different methods of trying to tame crazy chickens. I make sure that my roos don't fight, top, and things of that nature will I am around. If I give treats I will allow the hens first and keep the roos at bay for awhile then let them have some. I try to show dominates in chicken terms. Hitting while they are trying to attack has made some worse, so if I have an aggressive roo I will go straight for him and pin him to the ground if I can catch him, wait till he stops trying to get away then grab him up and hold him for a short time then put him back down. Some people on here say they use a rake. I don't know what they do. Hope this helps some.

 

[Parrotchick]

My roos have gone loco in the past week too, ganging up on my favorite roo Spitz. I thought maybe it was because they have cabin fever, unable to free range and having less space in their pen due to the snow. I sure hope it's not the spring crazies (my first year too). Spring fever sounds like it could drag on a lot longer than cabin fever. The first night I even checked to see if there was a full moon.

Fortunately my hens aren't acting particulary nutty, knock on wood.

I had some questions too that maybe someone could answer to help both of us deal with the crazy boys anyway. I've tried blocking my roos from Spitz; they are persistent but they know I'm on the top of the pecking order and eventually back down. But it doesn't do Spitz any good when I'm not around to protect him. (He actually ran up my coat and onto my shoulder to escape from them) Does it help to be tougher on the aggressive boys, ie will their relationship with a human affect their relationships with each other? Will giving extra positive human attention to a non-dominant roo give him more respect from the others or will they think he's more of a pansy? Is there any kind of social engineering we can do, aside from physically keeping them separate?

 

[ravencreek]

I have some pullets on the way so maybe that will help as far as the ratio goes. 30 "sexed" pullets due to arrive from Ideal any day now as well as I have 25 unsexed chicks right now(separate from the adults of course). I love all my chickens and its very difficult to rehome them. But if I have to rehome roo's I will. Should I rehome the most dominates first or the lower ranking roos?

 

[write2caroline]

My Roo has progressively increased his aggressiveness even attacking me. We never enter the pen with out a stick to push him off. Basically, if he thinks we are harming his girls he is on high alert which is what he is suppose to do. But he has also taken to waiting till we leave the run and attacking our backs. I just try to show him I am top
Rooster. I do not let him breed in front of me and I face him and push him back. I also hold him until he calms down if I can catch him and I do not feed him treats unless I am treating everyone else and he is nice. He is worse with my hubby, son 17 and daughter 12. My son noticed that the roo attacked if he felt provoked and everyone is working on being proactive and not provoking Razzmatazz but not letting him win and running off. Razz may turn into cocovin if he keeps it up but really he is very good at caring for the girls when they are in the run and that is his job so I am not anxious to "alice in wonderland off with his head"
Caroline

 

[gritsar]

Awww spring is in the air.

Try being around a 1400 lb. bull that's gotten a bit of spring air up his nose.

 

[Daidohead]

Yup...Spring fever, feeling kinda feisty my own self. More hens or fewer roos.

 

[FortWorthChicks]

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