Rooster behaviour (silkie)

[silkiefluff]

Just wondering with those of your with Silkie rooster, what behaviours you tolerate and what you don't? My rooster isn't overly aggressive, he doesn't attack me or anything, but I was watching them the other day and he grabbed the front fluff of one of my females and pulled. She wasn't doing anything weird, and he didn't do it from the back, he just grabbed her while facing her. It didn't seem to make sense. He tries to mount them a lot too (they're only 5-6 months) and he sometimes doesn't let my other rooster eat, unless I'm there to yell at him.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Sounds like normal flock behavior. He's the dominant rooster so he gets to eat first. He's trying to breed and it's not pretty for a young rooster. Not good at foreplay. They grab them by the neck and try to mount. After the hens get used to him it won't seem so violent.

Here's an interesting video that touches on some of that and a LOT more.

ETA
That's not that young.
I had a Jaerhon rooster that was trying to mate at 8 weeks.

 

[dipsychicks]

we have three young silkies (approx 14 wks)and are discovering that one of them must be a rooster. he is going after one other silkie aggressively pecking and pulling on the head fluff from the front just like you are describing. they had been going head to head trying to one up the other with how high they could go over the other. the 3rd young silkie is just watching and following them like "what are you doing to eachother??" this one is the runt of the 3. didnt thrive well at first and nearly died as a chick. so this one is a little behind....my concern is that we also have six 18 week leghorn hens and two silver laced wyandotte hens. i watched this morning as the one silkie went after the other and saw that one of the leghorns started pecking on the less dominant one as well. i am worried that by the end of the day this poor thing is going to get pecked to death. my thought is to separate the one for awhile. we cant tell if both of these silkies are roosters or one of each. we do not intend to have more than one rooster. is this rooster on rooster behavior or rooster to hen behavior? and how the heck can you tell what their sex is?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Unless one is injured, if you choose to separate, always separate the most aggressive one. If you take out the one getting picked on, it will be worse when it gets put back as an outsider.

 

[dipsychicks]

thats good to know because my first thought was to take the one getting picked on and run! LOL!. thank you. im glad i found this site it has proved to be very helpful. i think we are going to try and find homes for the two. maybe some 4H kids will enjoy them. of course i will need to keep my little runty we have a special connection