rooster and hen flaring neck feathers at each other?? PICS inculded!

[heatherg13]

I have 5 (almost 4 months old) chickens. One I know for sure is a cockerel. The others have no characteristics of being male, except I noticed recently that, mostly in the morning when I let them out of their coop, the cockerel will fluff its neck feathers up and charge at one of 2 hens and the hens will do it back??? This is our first time raising chickens so I'm not sure what this means? Is it normal or do I have 3 cockerels instead of 1? He does not do this to our 2 buff orpingtons, only to the easter eggers. I know about pecking orders but would the hens compete against a roo?? If we have 3 roosters out of 5 chicks we would be heartbroken

Any help would be SO appreciated! Thank you!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I have 5 (almost 4 months old) chickens. One I know for sure is a cockerel. The others have no characteristics of being male, except I noticed recently that, mostly in the morning when I let them out of their coop, the cockerel will fluff its neck feathers up and charge at one of 2 hens and the hens will do it back??? This is our first time raising chickens so I'm not sure what this means? Is it normal or do I have 3 cockerels instead of 1? He does not do this to our 2 buff orpingtons, only to the easter eggers. I know about pecking orders but would the hens compete against a roo?? If we have 3 roosters out of 5 chicks we would be heartbroken

Any help would be SO appreciated! Thank you!

The easiest thing to do at this point would be to post photos of your flock - show each bird, individually, from the side in a natural standing position so that the entire body and legs can be seen. At the age of your birds, gender ID should be pretty easy once we can see the birds. Once that's settled we can sort through the rest accordingly.

 

[donrae]

Sounds more like cockerel behavior, but I don't decide anything based on a teenager's behavior lol. Agree pics will be the sure way to tell who is what.

 

[ChirpyChicks1]

pictures are best but i have hens that do this (no roosters in my flock) they dont charge me but they will do it to each other

 

[Percheron chick]

Girls posture and fight too. Everyone in the flock has to establish his/her place.

 

[heatherg13]

I went out and took the best pictures I could get of them..

Ok, Ill start with our (Mr) Petunia...I know he is a cockerel,it's obvious.








Rosie- 4 month old Easter Egger





Violet- 4 month old Easter Egger







Dandy- 4 month old buff orpington




Daisy-4 month old Buff as well

 

[islandgirl82]

My pullets who are 7 months and have all been laying for the past few months do that to my 4 month old cockerel. I also have a 4 month old pullet who does it to him as well. One of the older pullets will even chase after him when he challenges the youngest pullet. It seems none of them have any tolerance for his adolescent shenanigans and are putting him in his place. My two mature hens ignore him completely unless he tries to muscle his way through the girls to eat first.

 

[islandgirl82]

Rosie, Violet and Dandy are pullets. Looks like Petunia is a cockerel given the hackle feathers and I do spot some saddle feathers in that first pic.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Your girls are girls - love that you have a cockerel named Petunia, lol. Sounds like you are just seeing normal posturing in the flock, which -as pointed out above - is not strictly a male activity.

 

[donrae]

Agree your girls are all girls. I had a rooster named Betty for several years