I write this with a heavy heart as I am deliberating whether our much beloved cockerel needs to go.
We rescued him alongside 14 hens that were all kept in pretty awful conditions. The cockerel is at least 3 years old and as far as I know only socialised with 1 other chicken (a cockerel also) whom he was eventually separated from due to them fighting and he then spent the next couple years in solitary confinement.
The cockerel and 14 hens all relocated to our place at the same time where they were immediately introduced and he was accepted by all of them without any issues moving in with the ladies on the first night (not planned - he hopped into the coop at dusk and roosted with them!) He has truly been living his best life for the last 3 months free ranging over an acre of land with his ladies. He's never been aggressive towards them, us or our 2 young children and has been an absolute gentleman clearly becoming the head of the flock doing all the things a good cockerel should be doing and they are relaxed and happy in his company. Until last week....
It all started when one of the hens died. She was one of the larger ones (the flock is a mixed breed of Wyandotte, Leghorns, Ameraucana and an old battery hen) who was one of the higher ranking hens. At the same time 3 of the other hens (one of which is one of his favourites) became broody spending all of their time in the boxes and letting him know they were not impressed with his wing dance when they did venture out for food / water so his flock was somewhat diminished. I then noticed that the lowest ranking flock member was hesitant to come down off the perch in the morning and was the last to go back in the coop at night. Then this weekend (for the first time) I saw the cockerel being really aggressive with her - either pecking her after he'd finished breeding with her or just driving her away from the group where she hovered on the outskirts not letting anyone get close to her. Unfortunately on Sunday she accidently got too close to him and he went for her face and although there were no visible wounds she started gasping and coughing up blood then started fitting and died. I then saw that she had what looked like a prolapse coming from her rear end so she was clearly poorly. (She always looked pretty mangy with a huge bald patch on her back and stomach.) There were no issues with any of the other hens but we went from a pretty consistent 5-7 eggs a day to 2 eggs yesterday which I'm wondering could be shock from the hens?
Also - about a week before the above incident one of the other hens was hesitant to come down off the perch one morning and that afternoon after she laid her egg she hopped off into the bushes and has never been seen again! I've never seen the cockerel or any other hens be aggressive to her and she has been known to roam before (although always came home to roost) but the fact she was hesitant to come down off the perch that morning is bugging me.
In the meantime we have aquired another hen who looks like a very pampered and friendly ex battery hen (tip of her beak has been trimmed) who we have slowly been introducing to the flock. We know nothing of her background (she turned up in a neighbours garden and they asked us to take her in!) but I would say she was initially a bit freaked out over being around our feral lot and has had supervised introductions where although she's clearly the bottom of the rank - nothing other than a few pecks to get out of the way from the hens. The cockerel was fine with her and had bred with her a few times - I'm not sure socially she knows what to do and she just either stands there or moves around very slowly with her head lowered if he / they got close to her. Anyway - this morning she was pecking at some food put on the ground, I turned away to get something from the coop and I heard sqwaking and she came belting towards me with the cockerel in tow where he eventually got to her and pecked her aggressively on the face. I think it was instigated by one of the other hens pecking at her and he then followed suit.
My other half says that's it - the cockerel has to go. We don't have the facilities to keep them separate and we are away on holiday in 2 weeks with temporary cover for the chooks to lock up / let out / feed etc so can't keep an eye on them / supervise her being around them.
Is this normal cockerel behaviour? Is there a risk he is going to start picking off members of the flock one by one? (One of them is an old ex battery hen who I suspect will start to slow down soon and I'm worried he might start picking on her?) I know that it's just nature driving away weaker members of the flock but is his behaviour suggesting more than that? Considering we've already lost 1 potentially 2 hens because of his behaviour - what would you people do in my position? Give him another chance or is it not worth the risk?
I'm sorry for the long winded post but wanted to give you the full background so you had all the facts. I have a really soft spot for this cockerel seeing him live such a crappy life before and get such joy seeing him out with his ladies I really want him to stay - but not at the expense of the safety of the other chickens....
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We rescued him alongside 14 hens that were all kept in pretty awful conditions. The cockerel is at least 3 years old and as far as I know only socialised with 1 other chicken (a cockerel also) whom he was eventually separated from due to them fighting and he then spent the next couple years in solitary confinement.
The cockerel and 14 hens all relocated to our place at the same time where they were immediately introduced and he was accepted by all of them without any issues moving in with the ladies on the first night (not planned - he hopped into the coop at dusk and roosted with them!) He has truly been living his best life for the last 3 months free ranging over an acre of land with his ladies. He's never been aggressive towards them, us or our 2 young children and has been an absolute gentleman clearly becoming the head of the flock doing all the things a good cockerel should be doing and they are relaxed and happy in his company. Until last week....
It all started when one of the hens died. She was one of the larger ones (the flock is a mixed breed of Wyandotte, Leghorns, Ameraucana and an old battery hen) who was one of the higher ranking hens. At the same time 3 of the other hens (one of which is one of his favourites) became broody spending all of their time in the boxes and letting him know they were not impressed with his wing dance when they did venture out for food / water so his flock was somewhat diminished. I then noticed that the lowest ranking flock member was hesitant to come down off the perch in the morning and was the last to go back in the coop at night. Then this weekend (for the first time) I saw the cockerel being really aggressive with her - either pecking her after he'd finished breeding with her or just driving her away from the group where she hovered on the outskirts not letting anyone get close to her. Unfortunately on Sunday she accidently got too close to him and he went for her face and although there were no visible wounds she started gasping and coughing up blood then started fitting and died. I then saw that she had what looked like a prolapse coming from her rear end so she was clearly poorly. (She always looked pretty mangy with a huge bald patch on her back and stomach.) There were no issues with any of the other hens but we went from a pretty consistent 5-7 eggs a day to 2 eggs yesterday which I'm wondering could be shock from the hens?
Also - about a week before the above incident one of the other hens was hesitant to come down off the perch one morning and that afternoon after she laid her egg she hopped off into the bushes and has never been seen again! I've never seen the cockerel or any other hens be aggressive to her and she has been known to roam before (although always came home to roost) but the fact she was hesitant to come down off the perch that morning is bugging me.
In the meantime we have aquired another hen who looks like a very pampered and friendly ex battery hen (tip of her beak has been trimmed) who we have slowly been introducing to the flock. We know nothing of her background (she turned up in a neighbours garden and they asked us to take her in!) but I would say she was initially a bit freaked out over being around our feral lot and has had supervised introductions where although she's clearly the bottom of the rank - nothing other than a few pecks to get out of the way from the hens. The cockerel was fine with her and had bred with her a few times - I'm not sure socially she knows what to do and she just either stands there or moves around very slowly with her head lowered if he / they got close to her. Anyway - this morning she was pecking at some food put on the ground, I turned away to get something from the coop and I heard sqwaking and she came belting towards me with the cockerel in tow where he eventually got to her and pecked her aggressively on the face. I think it was instigated by one of the other hens pecking at her and he then followed suit.
My other half says that's it - the cockerel has to go. We don't have the facilities to keep them separate and we are away on holiday in 2 weeks with temporary cover for the chooks to lock up / let out / feed etc so can't keep an eye on them / supervise her being around them.
Is this normal cockerel behaviour? Is there a risk he is going to start picking off members of the flock one by one? (One of them is an old ex battery hen who I suspect will start to slow down soon and I'm worried he might start picking on her?) I know that it's just nature driving away weaker members of the flock but is his behaviour suggesting more than that? Considering we've already lost 1 potentially 2 hens because of his behaviour - what would you people do in my position? Give him another chance or is it not worth the risk?
I'm sorry for the long winded post but wanted to give you the full background so you had all the facts. I have a really soft spot for this cockerel seeing him live such a crappy life before and get such joy seeing him out with his ladies I really want him to stay - but not at the expense of the safety of the other chickens....
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In that case, you would call him a Cock. Cockerels are under a year, internationally.
