Oh my goodness.. my Roo's are rapists.

[MzGina]

OK this is my first flock.... they are all 14 weeks old and sort of a mix of chickens( Thanks TSC) I have 4 Roosters ( maybe 5 still dont know) 3 I have been told are BR and one I believe is a Ranger but is handicapped ( He holds his own and pretty cool fella) The Br's will jump on and try to mount any bird that lays down... The little rapists.. the first time I saw it I tripped out!! The hen acted like he was killing her... as the days are going by its happening more. No one is hurt...or being picked on..I am the one freaking out! HUbby says its nature.. looks like torture to me.
Do they ever stop for a while? Will I have to seperate them? My Roo's are cool otherwise I have established I am the Top of the pecking order and I think the Roo's are even a little scared of me.. I pick up and pet all of the hens ... Roo's not so much...they dont like it at all.

 

[Crazy chook lady]

OK this is my first flock.... they are all 14 weeks old and sort of a mix of chickens( Thanks TSC) I have 4 Roosters ( maybe 5 still dont know) 3 I have been told are BR and one I believe is a Ranger but is handicapped ( He holds his own and pretty cool fella) The Br's will jump on and try to mount any bird that lays down... The little rapists.. the first time I saw it I tripped out!! The hen acted like he was killing her... as the days are going by its happening more. No one is hurt...or being picked on..I am the one freaking out! HUbby says its nature.. looks like torture to me.
Do they ever stop for a while? Will I have to seperate them? My Roo's are cool otherwise I have established I am the Top of the pecking order and I think the Roo's are even a little scared of me.. I pick up and pet all of the hens ... Roo's not so much...they dont like it at all.

Sounds normal.

 

[AllynTal]

At 14 weeks, they're cockerels, not roosters; and yes, sounds normal to me. How many pullets do you have? As they get older, if there are too many cockerels, you'll have problems with the girls being overbred (even if all the boys do get along, which they probably won't). They're getting to the age where you might want to separate the cockerels from the pullets. The boys won't fight among themselves so much if there are no girls to fight over and the girls will be much calmer without having to fight off the unwanted (for now, at least) advances of the boys.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

It's alarming for sure, but also very efficient. They get the deed done and then go right back to foraging as if nothing just happened. The poor hens, however, always look traumatized.

Bird, hamster, elephant, man ... it's always the same deal.

 

[birdofhermes]

one of the consequences of caging animals up together. imagine how bad it would look if it were humans

 

[chuckachucka]

I would question how 'normal' this is. Common, maybe, but not ideal. When a rooster mates with a hen he will usually try to woo her first by tidbitting or wing dancing and if she accepts him she will squat and stay still and quiet while he mounts. If the hens are complaining then they are not happy about the mating, probably because they are not laying yet and thus are not 'ready' for that yet


In this case the boys should accept no as a good roo should not be aggressive toward his girls. Aggressive mating can lead to feather loss and injury. In a small flock you can try to train a rooster to be less aggressive with the girls by interfering and carrying him around as punishment when you see the negative behaviour, but it is more practical to separate the boys from the girls until the girls come into lay.
I have only ever had a single rooster with a handful of pullets and have never tolerated forced mating. Luckily the girls are usually quite good at either pecking the unwanted male away or running away. If the run is small as to not allow the girls space to escape, this will make matters worse.

 

[rebrascora]

Actually it is not normal, in that multiple adolescent cockerels running around in a flock without a dominant flock master and older hens to keep them in check, probably in a limited area with little place to get away from them, is not normal..... and it will get worse.
Your pullets are not sexually mature and do not know what to do and yes, to all intents and purposes, they are being raped....in the sense that they are being forced to have sex, by a snotty nosed teenager that is at the whim of his hormones. You may also witness more than one of them holding a pullet down and taking turns to mate her repetitively....and there is a risk that she will get injured because she will be terrified and struggling to get away from them. Occasionally they end up getting scalped with their skull exposed or gashes under their wings as well as lost feathers and raw skin. If the problem is really bad, some get depressed and won't leave the roost. The stress of this situation also leaved them prone to other ailments and it is not a healthy situation.
When a pullet/hen is ready to mate, she will squat close to the ground with her wings out to spread the weight of a rooster on her back, to prevent injury. She will do this for a rooster she respects. A good rooster will woo her with treats and a little dance and find good nesting spots for her to lay her eggs, so that he earns her respect. A good rooster would also chase off horrid little oiks like these and not allow them to treat his hens like this. In the absence of a flock master, it is your job to protect your hens. The best way that you can do this is to remove those juvenile males and put them in a bachelor pad at least until the first flush of hormones is over, but that may be 6 months to a year.
Another option is to butcher and eat them.... I find it is so much less difficult to contemplate this when I see them being so ruthless with the pullets.
At 14 weeks they are only going to get worse.
I am also concerned about your handicapped Ranger.... This is the age that Marek's disease often shows up and usually the stress of having so many young males in the flock is a trigger for it. Is he lame/uncoordinated?

 

[Wolfgang B.]

Truthfully, That's why I have hens only.

With 4-5 cockerels you should have about 40 pullets for a healthy ratio. Is that the case?

 

[rebrascora]

I would question how 'normal' this is. Common, maybe, but not ideal

This is exactly so...... It is common because people buy chicks from a hatchery and have pullets and cockerels the same age growing up together without adult birds to keep them in check and teach them how to behave. People assume because they see the same behaviour in their flock that it is "normal" and acceptable behaviour..... it is not. If these birds were raised more naturally, the mature rooster of the flock would run off the young males once they started this behaviour and the pullets and hens would stick close to him for protection. Humankind creates this unnatural environment where there are multiple young males and females in a flock with no adult birds to keep order.
It is an unhealthy situation.

 

[MageofMist]

I have a young silkie cockerel named Scruff who's recently started minding his manners. I have young and old(ish) hens in my flock, and a 3 month difference REALLY does make a difference. When Scruff goes to try and mount the older hens... He has to then run for his life from the furious hen who'll give him a right pecking if she catches up!

It is fairly comical to watch, the hens give up after a short chase if they can't catch him and just resume pecking about or dustbathing, but if they catch him, I swear they try to mount him! The hens are so feisty, the 2 older roos stay out of it to avoid being beaten up in the crossfire.

Now Scruff has started tidbitting and wing-dancing, while the hens don't attack him when he does it... They just awkwardly stare and then go to walk off, not interested, he seems to get the message that forcing himself on the ladies doesn't end well.

He does sometimes get away with mounting his sisters who are as old as him, but even that is fairly rare as Rooroo the dad and Peep-Peep the older brother step in when that occurs and angrily fluff at him to scare him off. Oddly despite my hen-to-roo ratio being VERY off, things are still fairly peaceful and organized in the flock, even with the addition of two male Japanese Quail.

Edit: The young pullets oddly don't avoid Scruff though despite this, they normally snuggle with him at night while the older hens and roos snuggle together. Scruff lost one snugglebuddy once his sister started laying, then she joined the grown-up huddle.