Rooster attacking my hens

[Chris Yount]

My rooster keeps attacking my hens they have grown up together but all of sudden he just started attaching them. What should I do

 

[MommaHen2Many]

What do you mean by "attacking"? Also how old is your little guy? I'm guessing he is moving into his "teenager" phase. You know like: "no one tells me what to do" "I'm the boss" "oh you don't believe me...I'll show you"....He is beginning his run at "ruling" the roost. However teenage roosters can become very bad boys. You don't want him hurting the hens. thats why I asked for a description/definition of "attacking"....he could also be trying to mate them.

 

[SIMZ]

How old are they and what exactly is he doing?

If he's around 16-20 weeks old he is starting to try to mate them. Roosters can get out of hand during those weeks, but tend to calm down eventually. You may need to separate him from them for a while, or at least make sure they have plenty of space to get away from him.

If that isn't what's going on then I'm not sure why he would just start that.

 

[Chris Yount]

What do you mean by "attacking"? Also how old is your little guy? I'm guessing he is moving into his "teenager" phase. You know like: "no one tells me what to do" "I'm the boss" "oh you don't believe me...I'll show you"....He is beginning his run at "ruling" the roost. However teenage roosters can become very bad boys. You don't want him hurting the hens. thats why I asked for a description/definition of "attacking"....he could also be trying to mate them.

I have had them for about 16 weeks as of today. And it is like he comes up behind them and starting biting or pecking at the back of there necks

 

[Chris Yount]

How old are they and what exactly is he doing?

If he's around 16-20 weeks old he is starting to try to mate them. Roosters can get out of hand during those weeks, but tend to calm down eventually. You may need to separate him from them for a while, or at least make sure they have plenty of space to get away from him.

If that isn't what's going on then I'm not sure why he would just start that.

Thank you for the advice they are about 16 weeks old so I might try to separate he from the hens for a little bit and see if that helps

 

[sannabelle]

If he's trying to grab onto their necks it's probably him starting to try and mount them for mating. That's how they "hang on", not to be too graphic about the chicken sex

 

[SIMZ]

Thank you for the advice they are about 16 weeks old so I might try to separate he from the hens for a little bit and see if that helps

That's exactly what's going on - he's trying to mate them. If they have plenty of space then you really won't need to separate him if you can stand the drama for a few weeks. Unless he's actually hurting them by drawing blood. It will probably get worse before it gets better, but should settle down quite a bit by around 25 weeks.

 

[MommaHen2Many]

Also, this teaches the hens how to "let him" mate as well...everyone is maturing. A more mature rooster, with mature hens, each know their "part" and it is not nearly as dramatic (or vicious--depending on the young roo)...things will get better.
But it is Soooo good that your keeping an eye on them.
When I was new to chickens...had 9 babies with a Momma Hen, the roos were about 5 months old (3 of the 9 were roosters)...and they literally "fought" over the hens...tearning the scalp off one of their "siblings"...I was shocked ...& had to doctor her for quite a while. After that, only one roo was allowed with the ladies, the other roo's were separated. Things do calm down....maturity in birds is a welcome thing, just like maturity in people. lol

 

[Ursuline Chick]

We had a young roo who had taken a particular liking to one of our hens. She didn't like him. He would grab her feathers on the back of her neck, but instead of squatting, she would run off, with the poor roo trying to hold on to the back of her neck for dear life. I am afraid it was funny to watch her run the poor roo all over the yard. I kept expecting to see his feet flying in the air. LOL