Rooster behavior

[chynasparks]

My roo has no blossomed into a real beauty, magnificent comb and wattles. Pretty feathers. I was worried about his behavior but not so much now. He's acts like a rooster but he hasn't progressed to harmful aggression. I'm hopeful he will stay this way. I love to hear him crow. I'm attached to him so - yeah - he's gonna stay!

 

[Jaeto]

His behavior should be pretty normal if he's mostly grown up (fully feathered except for maybe a few of the longer tail feathers, really crowing, etc.). My rooster used to attack my pants leg when I got close to any of the hens, I guess because he thought I was a bigger rooster.

The only advice I could offer is try to make yourself not look like a rooster to him. Like feed him from your hand so he sees you as a food dispenser and not a roo... that sort of thing. (Don't poke him away when he attacks your leg, because then he'll just assume that you're trying to fight him. Which is counterproductive and bad.) Or, since you said you're only fostering him, he might not stick around long enough for anything big to happen.

Is he with any hens?

 

[jace2]

He attack my boyfriend leg and he was just walking outside he has feeded the rooster the other day,I'm a fraid of the rooster attack my chickens they only 18 weeks old they are in a pen. i just don't know.

 

[Jaeto]

If he's attacking your other chickens (are they hens or roos or both?), you should separate him in a cage or a fenced-off area of their run.

How old is your aggressive rooster, by the way? Do you know?

Sorry about your boyfriend's leg... I don't know what to say because my aggressive roo was sent to a farm (like an actual farm sort of place) after a while, due to his EXCESSIVE crowing. I guess you could just wait it out.

 

[jacksonsquare]

@spchicken. A good roo to hen ratio is 1 roo to 7-10 hens. I hatched 18 eggs and only got 5 pullets. I've been trying to rehome the extra Roos with no luck. I know aggressive behavior is needed to protect the flock but with so many Roos it's not good. I have no choice but to look up recipes for chicken dinner. I hate to do that because they are beautiful ameraucana mixes but I can't keep them.

 

[GEvans2769]

I have 2 roosters and 6 hens. The 2 roo's keep mating with 1 of my hens and now she is losing feathers around her neck and bleeding. She's 2 months older then the rest of the hens. Do I need to take out one of the roo's?

 

[keesmom]

If your cockerels are harassing a pullet that badly then I would separate one or both males for a while. Mistreatment of females should not be tolerated.

 

[bangcluckHilton]

Three months is about right. What you are seeing is pretty normal. The boys’ hormones are starting to run wild. Part of it is about sex but only part of it. The mating ritual is also a dominance thing. The one on bottom is dominated by the one on top. Later on, when they mature enough, they will work out which one is dominating and the ritual will go much smoother, but right now the pullets don’t want to accept the dominance of your cockerels.

The cockerels hormones for sex and flock dominance generally kick in earlier than the pullets’. Those girls are confused about what is going on but yeah, they sure don’t like it.

From what you said, it is only one cockerel right now. Don’t be surprised to see some others get into the act pretty soon. Also, expect to see some confrontations between the boys for flock dominance as the others mature. They’ll face off, flare their neck feathers, and probably scuffle a bit. Usually it ends pretty quickly when one decides to run away. There may be some chasing involved, but as long as they have room to run away, it usually ends without any of them getting hurt.

Don’t be too shocked to see some of the girls getting involved in these face-offs either, though that is not real common. One of the cockerels will eventually establish himself as the total dominant flock master, but it’s not unusual for some of the girls to rank higher than some of the boys at the bottom of that order.

Oh, and just so you better understand the mating ritual, once they mature.

The rooster should dance. He lowers one wing and sort of circles around the hen. This signals his intent.

The hen squats. She gets flat on the ground. This spreads the rooster’s weight throughout her body and into the ground so she does not have to carry all his weight through her legs. Roosters are usually a fair amount heavier than the hens. As long as she squats and spreads that weight, that’s not a problem.

The rooster grabs the back of her head and hops on. That head grab helps him get situated so he is in the right position to hit the target and helps him keep his balance. It has another very important purpose though. It is the hen’s signal to raise her tail up out of the way so he can hit the target.

The rooster touches vents and hops off. His part is done.

The hen stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This gets the sperm into the right place in her body.

There are a lot of variations of this, mainly with the hen initially running away or the rooster forcing her. As long as she squats to spread that load and the rooster does not draw blood, it isn’t really nearly as bad as it seems.

There is a purpose for the rooster sometimes forcing unwilling hens. To do his job as flock master, the hens have to accept the rooster’s dominance. Part of his job as flock master is to break up fights and keep peace in the flock. If the others don’t accept his dominance, he can’t do that very well. Sometimes he has to force them to accept his dominance. A big part of it too is that the pullets as well as the cockerels have to mature enough to do their part and learn to control their hormones. Right now yours are just starting to hit puberty with some more advanced than others.

Usually all this sorts itself out without any of them really getting hurt. Usually. I’ve never seen one injured during this process but I practically always have mature hens and a rooster to see them through this process. They are living animals. Anything can happen. There will be scuffles and some rough patches while the pullets and cockerels mature enough to all do their parts to this, but eventually peace will return to the flock. Until you get used to this and understand how natural all this is, you may have a couple of rough months.

Good luck with it.

Ridgerunner
Should I be concerned that my 3 x 19wk old hens are squatting for my husband????
They are backing up to his feet, squatting & "spreading the weight" of his hand stroking their backs, then they point their tails straight up & 3secs later they're doing the feather shake thing you describe.
Is my husband cheating on me with my chickens???
I should mention they've only been producing eggs for 10days now......
Answer this question in depth if you dare!!!
Dee

 

[netty74]

One of my friends I work has a friend with a rooster that has been hanging around her house and neighborhood for the last week . The neighbors needless to say ate not happy with him . My friend says that the lady has been feeding him corn everyday and also when she gets home from work the rooster is waiting for her on her poarch every night . I am considering trying to catch this rooster and bring him to my small farm . I have a flock of 20 hens in 4 seperate coops . I do not want to mix this rooster with my girls , right now I do not want chicks . Would it be a bad idea to bring him home and let him free range at my farm with the hens cooped . I don't want to see him get hurt in the neighborhood , but I also don't want him to be unhappy at my house . I sell my eggs to my coworkers and I don't want fertilized eggs right now . Also the lady has said there is something wrong with one if his legs , I work for a vet so j could take him and get him checked out . I have no experience with rooster , I am new at keeping chickens and I have them for less than a year . Any advice would be great ! Thanks

 

[chynasparks]

Today for the first time my RIR roo attract my. I kicked his silly butt. He's a year old and has never challenged me before. I didn't hurt him but I did kick him. He came at me again and I kicked him again. Then I chased him around the yard a while. After that I got the bag of mealworms, sat down and offered them to the hens. They love mealworms. Bill joined right in and ate from my hand. I can forgive him because its what roosters do, however, if he gets too mean, it's chicken pot pie time.