Normal for 16 Week Old (4 months) Cockeral to Relentlessly Chase 14 Week Old Pullets? Worried About

[GuppyTJ]

H All,

I have my first batch of 15 chickens, of which 7 are pullets and 8 are cockerals. They are all between 14 and 16 weeks (4 months) old. The dominate cockeral, Roadrunner, recently started to regularly chase the 5 youngest (14 weeks old) pullets, scaring the crap out of them. Roadrunner is the cockeral I WAS going to keep as my rooster but now I'm not so sure. These 5 pullets he keeps chasing were introduced to the original 10 about 6 weeks ago and have not yet integrated with the original flock. All 15 chickens share a coop at night but free range all day. The 5 new ones run when the original 10 come around.

Roadrunner is nice to me, by the way. I think his hormones are just going crazy but me understanding this doesn't make the 5 younger pullets any less afraid. I worry about the stress this is creating as just today (it's been a bad chicken day), I had to cull one of the 5 (there were 6) pullets who had Marek's. So, I don't want unneeded stress to cause any of the others to have the virus become active as I know virtually all chickens have the virus inside them. The Marek's infected chicken was with the other 5 pullets for at least a day after she was symptomatic but I was too slow on the uptake (though it was a hurt leg from being chased) to quarantine her faster (yup, big mistake... ugh)

In any case, regarding my cockerals and pullets, if you were me, would you:

a) Do nothing and leave them to work it out
b) Separate all the cockerals from the pullets. I have a coop like space and fenced in run I can use for this purpose. They'll be able to see each other on occasion but not often.
c) Separate the cockerals I won't keep (which I'll prepare for the dinner table) but leave Roadrunner with the pullets and see/hope he settles down and stops terrorizing them?

What would you do? Much thanks,
Guppy

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

With that many cockerels I'd separate them out. Normally I let them just chase the pullets (this is normal for a cockerel) until they learn their manners as they get older. But if you have that many and not so many hens then they may start gang raping one pullet at a time. This can injure the pullet (or kill her if she is tiny).

So I"d go with "C." Oh and by the way, I would advise to always keep a backup rooster or two (better to keep two chickens as one will be lonely by himself).

Just as soon as you get down to one rooster that is when a predator gets them or they die from illness, etc.

 

[GuppyTJ]

With that many cockerels I'd separate them out. Normally I let them just chase the pullets (this is normal for a cockerel) until they learn their manners as they get older. But if you have that many and not so many hens then they may start gang raping one pullet at a time. This can injure the pullet (or kill her if she is tiny).

So I"d go with "C." Oh and by the way, I would advise to always keep a backup rooster or two (better to keep two chickens as one will be lonely by himself).

Just as soon as you get down to one rooster that is when a predator gets them or they die from illness, etc.

Thanks much, ChickensAreSweet. Great idea, I'll keep a few backup roosters because predators are a big risk around here. So, based on your excellent guidance and insights, what I'll do is a hybrid of B and C.

I'll separate all 8 cockerals from the 7 pullets (option B) to give the 5 smaller pullets a break from being chased/scared. This will also give my "keeper" cockerals a little longer to mature and the younger, smaller pullets too. It will also give all of them a chance to get past the ~2 week active outbreak of Marek's incubation period (although, sources vary on this time frame). In a week or so, I'll start culling the table cockerals and then I'll let the keeper cockerals return to mingling with the pullets (option C... sort of).

I think this whole process will take a few weeks so the introduction of the keeper cockerals back with the pullets hopefully won't be that difficult. And again, they'll all be more mature and maybe more ready to cope with the boy/girl mating scene.

Much thanks, can't tell you how much people like you help new chicken people like me.
Guppy

 

[donrae]

I'd pull all the males out and just run a bachelor pad, until they're grown enough for you to decide who is your keeper, you know for sure everyone is healthy, and the pullets are not stressed.

 

[GuppyTJ]

I'd pull all the males out and just run a bachelor pad, until they're grown enough for you to decide who is your keeper, you know for sure everyone is healthy, and the pullets are not stressed.

Donrae and ChickensAreSweet,

Thanks much, I appreciate you sharing your expertise. Well... I pulled out all 8 of the cockerals and put them in a separate coop-like set up in the barn with a fenced in run. But, almost immediately, 2 pullets that grew up with the 8 cockerals wiggled through the fence (it's extra horse fence I had). So, all 10 original chicks want to be together, it seems. The 5 pullets getting all the abuse are the ones I added about 6 weeks ago and they stayed away from the 10 all day today.

I suppose I'll just leave it like this, with the 2 girls behind the fenced run with the 8 boys they grew up with? And the 5 new pullets using the coop and free ranging? It's strange to see the original 10 all behind a fence, given that they free-ranged for many months now. But they don't seem to mind much, probably it bothers them less than it bothers me.

One more question or thought... it's really the 3 largest, most mature roosters that chase until they catch the smaller 5 pullets and it seems to only happen in the evenings and sometimes in the morning. During the day, the smaller 5 pullets just get out of the way when they meet up with the 10 bigger ones. If I could just figure out a way to let the big 10 free range during the day but then get them into the secondary coop where I want them at night, I'd try that. But what will happen I suspect is they'll all (the 10 and the 5) go to roost in the regular coop at night since that is home for all of them. So I can't seem to figure out how to make that work, letting them all free range during the day and then separate them at night. Any ideas on this?

I'm usually pretty good at problem solving but these chickens and how they think... has me stumped. And I'm trying to not stress them all out, worried about contributing to more of them coming down with active Marek's...

Thanks SO much!
Guppy

 

[Fred's Hens]

Bachelor pad, as donrae said, is the right way to go. At this age, and with your ratio of cockerels to so few hens, a bachelor pads allow the pullets to rest, be in peace, have full access to feed and water and mature properly. Obviously, you aren't going to need more than one rooster one day and perhaps a backup in a pen somewhere, but that's it. By fall, you'll know which of your cockerels are the Alpha and Beta and which are the other six are heading for a swim alongside the dumplings.

 

[donrae]

You're going to need to pull those pullets out of there fairly soon or they're going to get severly overmated and possibly killed from overeager teenage males. Other than that, sounds good.

 

[GuppyTJ]

Bachelor pad, as donrae said, is the right way to go. At this age, and with your ratio of cockerels to so few hens, a bachelor pads allow the pullets to rest, be in peace, have full access to feed and water and mature properly. Obviously, you aren't going to need more than one rooster one day and perhaps a backup in a pen somewhere, but that's it. By fall, you'll know which of your cockerels are the Alpha and Beta and which are the other six are heading for a swim alongside the dumplings.

Oh, you made me laugh with the "swim alongside the dumplings!" Thanks for reading my write up so carefully, you got all the details right and your advice sounds spot on.

I pulled the 2 pullets out of the bachelor pad last night and put them in the real coop with the other 5 pullets. We'll see if those 2 wiggle back through the fence again today. If they do, I'll keep pulling them out each night as evening sets in. Eventually, they'll be too big to wiggle through or... they'll start getting harassed by the cockerals and learn to not climb in/and or they'll just have to learn to wiggle back out!

Guppy

 

[GuppyTJ]

Thanks, Donrae, as I mentioned to Fred, I'll just keep pulling the pullets out and at some point, I'm sure they'll stay out by themselves.

So very appreciative for your help,
Guppy