New flock, mean rooster

[LaNae Jackson]

Hello to all from WV. I'm new to the site and new to raising chickens. I've recently rescued a small flock of birds, 4 hens and 1 hateful rooster. I now have them housed in a proper coop and spacious run, but every time the birds are together the rooster goes nuts. Attacking the girls - scratching, pulling feathers, other violent rooster duties. The girls don't even want to go back in the coop at this point. Just wondering if there are any options to make him more tolerable or if I should just try to re-home him. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

If he's an older bird then that is how he'll behave and you should get rid of him. I suspect he's young and you have pullets and a cockerel. He's a teenage boy raging with hormones. The girls are not laying yet so won't be receptive to his sexual advances. This is common. The young boy can be separated until the pullets are older and will receive his advances or chalk it up to not wanting cockerels and cock birds and get rid of him. At this age he'd make a good roaster. If you wait it out he'll settle down and the girls will squat for him. It's a rough few month period they all go through. Having older hens helps keep the young bucks in line and of course they can be separated until the pullets are in lay.

 

[aart]

Welcome to BYC...sorry you are having troubles.

I now have them housed in a proper coop and spacious run, but every time the birds are together the rooster goes nuts.

Am a little confused by this, is the male kept separate from the girls part/most of the time?

Yes, knowing the ages of the birds would shed some light in the situation.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum, glad you joined us!

Since you are new to chickens I’ll copy something I wrote years ago about mature mating behavior.

The rooster dances for a specific hen. He lowers one wing and sort of circles her. This signals his intent.

The hen squats. This gets her body onto the ground so the rooster’s weight goes into the ground through her entire body and not just her legs. That way she can support a much heavier rooster without hurting her legs.

The rooster hops on and grabs the back of her head. The head grab helps him get in the right position to hit the target and helps him to keep his balance, but its major purpose is to tell the hen to raise her tail out of the way to expose the target. A mating will not be successful if she does not raise her tail and expose the target. The head grab is necessary.

The rooster touches vents and hops off. This may be over in the blink of an eye or it may take a few seconds. But when this is over the rooster’s part is done.

The hen then stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm into a special container inside the hen near where the egg starts its internal journey through her internal egg making factory.

This is typical behavior between mature adults. It doesn’t always work out exactly like this. Some roosters dance more than others. Hens don’t always squat when he dances. There may be some chasing and force involved. But as long as the hen is squatting when he is on top and she is not damaged it all works out.

As Egghead said, what you are describing is typical immature cockerel/pullet behavior. He covered it pretty well. Usually when they mature things settle down tremendously but often it is rough to watch them go through adolescence.

The only reason you need a rooster is if you want fertile eggs. Anything else is just personal preference. I don’t know why you want chickens or anything else about your facilities (the more room you have generally the better, especially if you keep a rooster), but you might want to think hard about why you should keep him, even if he is just an adolescent. You don’t have to eat him to get rid of him, you can rehome him.

 

[LaNae Jackson]

Chickens are all around 1 1/2 year old Rhode Island reds, I was letting them all out together but the rooster was too difficult and violent to put back in, so I have left him in for the last week or so while the girls are out. I brought the chickens to my property because it is spacious enough for them to have an adequate run and coop and they re able to free range a bit. The lady that had them before said she kept the rooster for the chickens protection, but I don't think he's for me.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree. At that age he needs to go.

 

[LaNae Jackson]

Is there any truth to me NEEDING a rooster for protection against predatory animals? The run and coop is completely secured - no gaps larger than 2", chickens buried around the bottom, everything is completely enclosed and they are in there run unless I am home and can keep an eye on them

 

[Ridgerunner]

People have different opinions on how much protection you actually get with a rooster. I'm of the opinion it's not much. A rooster can sometimes fight off a small predator, maybe a small hawk. But most of the time if a rooster tries to fight he quickly dies. He just can't stand up to most predators. Instead of defending his flock, mine are much more likely to lead his flock to safety rather than staying behind to protect them once a threat is identified.

A rooster does tend to be an early warning system, often does some watching while the flock is foraging. But in most flocks without a rooster the dominant hen takes on this chore. So possibly some benefit but not much.

One place a rooster adds security, if he perceives something that might or might not be a threat he will often put himself between his flock and the possible threat while he tries to figure out what is going on. I can carry a food or water bucket and he will ignore it, but if I carry something strange like a small camera he does that. That could also be some predator he goes to check out so he is in bigger danger if it really is a predator.

Most of the predators I worry about during the day are ambush predators, fox, hawk, coyote, bobcat, and such. The rooster just doesn't have a chance to prevent the initial attack. If a small hawk has a chicken in the ground he may fight it off but the chicken is already wounded and maybe dead. With the other bigger predators he just leads his flock away. The flock would be running anyway.

I've had two bad dog attacks, 8 and 5 chickens lost. Both times my rooster escaped unharmed.

From what I've seen you just don't get that much predator protection from a rooster.

 

[Peeps61]

Unless you are going to hatch your hens' eggs out, you don't need a rooster. RIR's can be aggressive - much more so than the other breeds, in my experience. My current rooster (s) are birds that were hatched by a broody hen and the other in an incubator. The younger one just started to crow, so I've been watching him and the flock dynamics. The other rooster is his father, and he is a wonderful rooster. Not human aggressive at all and kind to the ladies. I took a "hands off" approach while raising these two - they have retained some natural fear of me, and I act like the "top rooster" when I go out among the chickens. Both have accepted this and look at me as the provider of food, and not a threat to the hens. Hope you can experience having a great rooster sometime! My first was evil too, and it was a happy day when he was taken by a predator. All other roosters have been good, and raised with the "hands off" approach.

 

[Mrs. K]

If this is your first year with chickens, let that bad boy go. He is not what you would want to breed to anyway. If asked, I always recommend having a flock without a rooster the first year. Roosters take some experience. Even then you can get a rotten one. He will ruin the whole chicken experience for you and your girls. Take him out, and those girls are going to give you a lot of fun and joy.

Give him away, and don't ask questions.
Mrs K