I have been maintaining a cock and hen in one of those little prefabricated coops that were allowed to free-range daily. After some scrap management I was able to get the cock to loose interest in running out of his way to fight other cocks that were penned. That was done partly by getting the pair to forage in woods to south and around house to east. Near the coop I have a 10 x 10 foot dog pen that housed a trio of game hens that had not relationship with the cock or hen based on coop. The hen in coop has been laying a clutch for almost 2 weeks and is near going broody. When she is out foraging, she misses no opportunity to run off songbirds like American Robins and Mocking Birds. She even came out of cover to threaten a Red-Shouldered Hawk that perched on a power pole nearby.
This afternoon after work I released the trio of hens and things got really interesting. The cock went after them, but did not show cotton or cut his wing at them. Former is preparation for mating a hen whether she wants it or not while the latter can be aggression or courtship depending on context. He ran at them holding head high, cackles tight against his neck, and his tail held high and laterally compressed which is a sign of outright aggression directed at a target that is not fighting back. The cock ran all three hens from the dog pen out of his territory. During this hen living in coop was on nest laying an egg. Later one of the hens driven off by the cock came back when the coop hen was off nest after laying her egg. She also went after the hen and drove the latter off with some help from the cock. Both the coop hen and cock ran after the interloper holding the same posture.
This afternoon after work I released the trio of hens and things got really interesting. The cock went after them, but did not show cotton or cut his wing at them. Former is preparation for mating a hen whether she wants it or not while the latter can be aggression or courtship depending on context. He ran at them holding head high, cackles tight against his neck, and his tail held high and laterally compressed which is a sign of outright aggression directed at a target that is not fighting back. The cock ran all three hens from the dog pen out of his territory. During this hen living in coop was on nest laying an egg. Later one of the hens driven off by the cock came back when the coop hen was off nest after laying her egg. She also went after the hen and drove the latter off with some help from the cock. Both the coop hen and cock ran after the interloper holding the same posture.
