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

[MzGina]

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?

MY handicapped Ranger has been this way for a long time. I even have a thread about him here somewhere. Time to get hubby to build an addition. The have a rather large coop now so the pullets can get away

 

[MzGina]

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.

And that is why I posted this. I do not know if you consider TSC a hatchery .... but thats where I got them. People have t start somewhere. I may not know alot.. but those birds are feed well with daily treats , and fresh veggies ...clean water , a nice cool/warm place to roost in a very large chicken coop.. and most of all LOVE. I didnt assume this was normal again why I posted here. Now I feel ashamed for buying chicks at all. Thank you.

 

[MzGina]

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?

I have 13 pullets ... going to have to build an addition for the cockerels

 

[MzGina]

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.

Someone stated above they squat down at some point do they still look traumatized during?

 

[MzGina]

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

I have a large coop... and I let them out under my supervision.. I live in the woods and I am trying to keep them safe.

 

[lazy gardener]

And that is why I posted this. I do not know if you consider TSC a hatchery .... but thats where I got them. People have t start somewhere. I may not know alot.. but those birds are feed well with daily treats , and fresh veggies ...clean water , a nice cool/warm place to roost in a very large chicken coop.. and most of all LOVE. I didnt assume this was normal again why I posted here. Now I feel ashamed for buying chicks at all. Thank you.

I do hope you are not feeling scolded here, because that is not what is happening. Nor should you feel ashamed. We all started at one time or an other with our FIRST birds! And we have learned as we built and matured our flocks.

RS did an excellent job of telling why such behavior occurs. While knowing why it occurs is helpful in terms of future flock management, that does not solve YOUR problem now.

Many folks doing their first flock set up, start their flock exactly the same way you did: buy hatchery birds from the local feed store. Those chicks are mailed from a hatchery to the feed store, where the customer then buys them. Unfortunately, feed stores can vary from one manager to an other. I've seen well run set ups where the chicks are well tended, and well separated, so there is no chance of them getting mixed up from one bin to an other. Such places are set up so that the customer can view the chicks well, and even choose her chicks, but the customer is not allowed to touch the chicks!

Other feed stores: not so much. Mis-labeled bins. Chicks being handled by customers and even children, then being put back in the wrong bin. Poorly cared for, in filthy bins, pasty butt visible from 10' away, and inadequate heat source. Even dead chicks trampled into the litter.

Plenty of threads on BYC re: TSC improper labeling of their birds: Straight run chicks sold as pullets, meat birds sold as Leghorns, and on it goes. The only advantage of buying from a feed store is that the customer gets to see what he is getting, and the feed store absorbs the cost of the early deaths. However, many feed stores offer no guarantee once a chick has left the store, while direct hatchery shipments offer a 48 hour guarantee.

Sorry for the long book. My fingers sometimes get carried away.

Back to your issue: I would immediately remove all cockerels to a separate coop/run, even if it's just a temporary set up. If you have a favorite cockerel, you could re-introduce him after the pullets start laying. Get rid of the rest. Or even all of them.

 

[sourland]

I do hope you are not feeling scolded here, because that is not what is happening. Nor should you feel ashamed. We all started at one time or an other with our FIRST birds! And we have learned as we built and matured our flocks.


Back to your issue: I would immediately remove all cockerels to a separate coop/run, even if it's just a temporary set up. If you have a favorite cockerel, you could re-introduce him after the pullets start laying. Get rid of the rest. Or even all of them.

Excellent comments by many of the responders here. 5 cockerels (eventually roosters) in a flock of your size will always cause problems. Gang mating of hens can result in injuries to their backs and sides from toenails and spurs. Separation now for immediate protection of your pullets, and then decide if you need one, none, or all of the cockerels.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

None of my roos chase hens into submission or rape them because they dont get hens until they are mature and act like gentlemen now my ee roo doesnt even care when i put a hen in with him he'll try to mate her but gives up lol then ignores her

 

[MzGina]

None of my roos chase hens into submission or rape them because they dont get hens until they are mature and act like gentlemen now my ee roo doesnt even care when i put a hen in with him he'll try to mate her but gives up lol then ignores her

So far the rapist is giving up... upon watching them this morn.... it is just the one and he does jump of if they protest. Also I think it helps that they are all about the same size...

 

[MzGina]

I do hope you are not feeling scolded here, because that is not what is happening. Nor should you feel ashamed. We all started at one time or an other with our FIRST birds! And we have learned as we built and matured our flocks.

RS did an excellent job of telling why such behavior occurs. While knowing why it occurs is helpful in terms of future flock management, that does not solve YOUR problem now.

Many folks doing their first flock set up, start their flock exactly the same way you did: buy hatchery birds from the local feed store. Those chicks are mailed from a hatchery to the feed store, where the customer then buys them. Unfortunately, feed stores can vary from one manager to an other. I've seen well run set ups where the chicks are well tended, and well separated, so there is no chance of them getting mixed up from one bin to an other. Such places are set up so that the customer can view the chicks well, and even choose her chicks, but the customer is not allowed to touch the chicks!

Other feed stores: not so much. Mis-labeled bins. Chicks being handled by customers and even children, then being put back in the wrong bin. Poorly cared for, in filthy bins, pasty butt visible from 10' away, and inadequate heat source. Even dead chicks trampled into the litter.

Plenty of threads on BYC re: TSC improper labeling of their birds: Straight run chicks sold as pullets, meat birds sold as Leghorns, and on it goes. The only advantage of buying from a feed store is that the customer gets to see what he is getting, and the feed store absorbs the cost of the early deaths. However, many feed stores offer no guarantee once a chick has left the store, while direct hatchery shipments offer a 48 hour guarantee.

Sorry for the long book. My fingers sometimes get carried away.

Back to your issue: I would immediately remove all cockerels to a separate coop/run, even if it's just a temporary set up. If you have a favorite cockerel, you could re-introduce him after the pullets start laying. Get rid of the rest. Or even all of them.

Thank You for your kind reply