Roo's being mean to girls

[sinistershelly]

My 4 month old BR's sure are getting big fast. I ordered 9 girls but turned out to get 4 boys in the mix. Well the boys are starting to show their age but, Ive been noticing one roo/cock being a lil aggressive towards the girls. I figured it would just be boys against boys to figure out who the head of the grp would be but this one boy I saw the other day was going around to EVERYONE and biting them on the back of the necks. And Im not talking quick nips, Im talking like grabbing them and not wanting to let go. None of the other chickens want to be around him. When he comes around they all run off. Is it normal for him to be biting them all like that? Not to mention he has been coming after me too that lil turd.

 

[Flip-N-Flogging]

Get rid of him. It'll take more time than you want to deal with for him to stop with the girls. And if there are three behind him to be a good roo, why waste your time trying to make him respect you. A mean roo is a mean roo.

 

[triplepurpose]

Some amount of that kind of thing is normal. Chicken mating is often a violent thing to the human eye. 4 months is still pretty young. I'd give him a few weeks to see if he settles down. Sometimes they are like that when they are first learning how to mate, and then they let off a bit once they figure it out.

If he is coming after YOU though, keep a sharp eye on him. Most people don't like to risk keeping a rooster who will attack people. In my flock a rooster who shows human aggressiveness is quick to go... I've been there before, and have no patience for keeping an animal that bites the hand that feeds him, or attacks small children... Now, both my current roosters are very well-behaved--I've breed it out pretty well over the previous two generations, so no more worrying, and no more sneak attacks while I'm collecting the eggs...

Good luck!

 

[sourland]

This is the beginning of mating behavior. Soon all 4 will start the process. Time to cull/re home 3 of them before your pullets are stressed/ijured.

 

[triplepurpose]

Quote:
I wouldn't automatically cull at this point. A more judicious approach might be to wait to see which cockerel(s) you want to keep. If possible, having a way to separate them if you need to until you figure out what to do is really nice. You don't need more than one for nine hens, nor do you need any for that matter. It depends what you are looking for.

In similar situations, I've observed how one rooster often emerges early as the dominant one. You could keep him, but often he is dominant because he's most aggressive. This is not something I want in MY flock, so I usually cull this early bully. I then choose from among the remaining cockerels the one that appears the healthiest, most beautiful, friendliest, etc. Some people would probably disagree with this method, arguing that I'm breeding out a certain amount of vigor by selecting against quick developing, robust roosters, which may be true, but I feel the trade off in a better-behaved and more mellow flock leader is worth it for my purposes--and I currently have two handsome, healthy, dutiful, docile roos to prove it. Our neighbors made the "mistake" of keeping the biggest, liveliest rooster for their flock and giving away the "underdog" to us, and they ended up regretting it when they had to get rid of their rooster after he attacked them repeatedly and bullied the hens and pullets.
And if you don't plan on breeding, I'd DEFINITELY keep one of the "underdogs."

Just my two cents... Good luck!