Roo: worth the trouble or a lost cause???

[Silkie fluff butts]

We lovingly raised raised 3 silkie chicks in the house. One turned out to be a rooster. They were together until they became too big for the dog crate at night and an outside pen by day. The roo (Lemon) lived with them until about 4 months old, when he was getting aggressive with them (i.e. grabbing them by the head for no reason). He was clearly scaring them. Fast forward to today. We have the 2 silkie hens, 1 submissive rescued bantum, 2 3 month olds (Buff Orpington and Australorp), and our old head hen who is an Easter Egger. Lemon and the 2 silkie hans are 6 months old. His is still kept separate in a small coop and pen in their yard. When given the chance to mingle, he goes for the most submissive hen. He'll jump at her like he wants to fight and then tries to mate rather rough and clumbsily. She is very clearly disturbed by the whole ordeal and so are the others. He is very respectful of the Easter Egger, as she will put him in his place. With us people, he is nervous and will bite us if our hands are out stretched or if we are catching him. He never comes after us and is calm when held. He is very nervous in general. His good qualities are that he is very protective of them, urgently calling them over if he senses danger and he never comes after us.

So I'd like to hear some opinions and advice. 1. is there is anything we can do to help him be less nervous, 2. can we teach him to be less dramatic with mating. None of the hens have ever been around a mating rooster. 3 are small and passive. I'm worried that he'll focus all of his "attention" on those 3. We love him, but we don't want our sweet girls traumatized either!

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[Perris]

I would let him run with the flock for a while and let things settle down, assuming the hens have space to run and clutter to weave through to lose him in pursuit. In my experience he will calm down once he's through the teen hormone phase, and the older hen will teach him some manners, which the younger ones will learn too. The girls will submit when he's got his act together.