Rooster behavior with new mama hen

Murdock624

Chirping
Sep 28, 2019
66
48
81
North GA
I had a question about the way our rooster has been acting. We had a broody hen hatch some chicks last week. I have them separated from the rest of the flock, but they can still see them. Henry, our rooster, has always been been friendly. He has never liked to be touched, but has never tried to attack any of us until the last few days. He's gone after both of my teenage daughters. He hasn't really made contact with them, but has definitely acted aggressively towards them and tried to peck them. He's done this I think 3 different times. Every time he's gone after my girls, they have been near the new mama hen and chicks. Is he protecting them or could he be turning mean? We had another mean rooster that would sneak up behind us and attack. It was awful. We gave him away with full disclosure on how mean he was. I do not want to get rid of Henry. He has been awesome up until now. He's about a year old if that makes a difference. My daughters aren't around him quite as much as me and my husband and our sons. Could that be part of the problem? If anyone has advice or suggestions, I would really appreciate it.
 
I would let the mama and chicks back in with the flock. It could be he is upset because he is separated from them.

But truthfully, there is no clock on roosters, where if you get this far, and have a good rooster, you are golden. They can and do change through out their life. Beware, he may be giving out warnings as loud as he can, that he is becoming aggressive. I would be very wary of small children approaching him.
 
I would let the mama and chicks back in with the flock. It could be he is upset because he is separated from them.

But truthfully, there is no clock on roosters, where if you get this far, and have a good rooster, you are golden. They can and do change through out their life. Beware, he may be giving out warnings as loud as he can, that he is becoming aggressive. I would be very wary of small children approaching him.
I can't let her and the chicks loose yet. I tried that a couple days ago and all the other chickens started attacking the chicks. Thankfully, none of them were injured.
We will definitely be keeping an eye on him. He's a big boy so I really, really hope he's not turning mean.
 
A year old is when hormones come in full bore. He's likely just reminding them of the pecking order.
I hope that's all it is. Like I said, he's been awesome up til now and he takes such good care of his girls. There were a couple of times our mean rooster had me cornered and would not back off and Henry ran up and attacked him and I was able to get away. I'm hoping he'll calm down after I let the mama hen loose again.
 

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