Rooster confirmed?

[NatJ]

... has been a dick to all the rest pecking chasing and a few times biting necks till screaming starts from victim.

the one that crows has been making sure all the others go in coop before him at night like he is watching over them but he will have to go.

These are both talking about the same bird, right?

Despite his responsible behavior at bedtime, his other behavior sounds like enough of a problem that I agree he should be one of the ones to leave the flock.

 

[apoe]

These are both talking about the same bird, right?

Despite his responsible behavior at bedtime, his other behavior sounds like enough of a problem that I agree he should be one of the ones to leave the flock.

Yes same bird. He has also bit my fingers a few times not many but a few, when reaching to touch him or the other birds. I do like he is watching out for the rest at night. He has got between a couple that were squawking at each other and having what looked like a stare down they both dropped heads and stopped. These are good points.
My concern is at what point is he going after my wife when she goes in to fill feed or water, collects eggs when ladies start laying. My wife is already almost scared to go in since I have been holding most and letting them fly up on my arms when I go in worried they will jump on her. What is a good rooster to hen ratio for roosters to maybe get along? Letting my cuddly one Roosty go is not an option as long as his temperament stays the way he is now. Pics of Roosty and a pic of a few Roosty, Cin and a wyandotte with no name.

 

[NatJ]

What is a good rooster to hen ratio for roosters to maybe get along?

There is no particular ratio that I know of for that.

The rooster to hen ratios that are often seen, are based on big hatchery flocks that want all the hens laying fertile eggs (so they can hatch the eggs) while having as few roosters as possible (because roosters eat feed and need space to live, but don't lay eggs.)

For many breeds, 1 rooster to 10 hens works well. Some breeds need a few more roosters, some can get by with less. But that is in large flocks (hundreds of chickens).

For small flocks, some people have one rooster with just one or two hens. That often leads to hens being overmated (they get bare backs), but there are some individual roosters that do just fine in a situation like that, and do not overmate the hens. In some other flocks, people have one rooster with 20 or 30 hens, and ALL of the eggs are fertile. Those roosters obviously stay very busy!

For small flocks with multiple roosters, it really comes down to the behavior of the individual roosters. There are some that will get along with each other when there is almost any number of hens (those roosters are fairly rare). There are others that will not get along, no matter how many hens are provided (gamefowl are almost always like that, other breeds not as much.) Of course there are many rooster that are in between those extremes, including most roosters of the breeds that are commonly sold by hatcheries.

Having more hens can help, but having more space will sometimes help more. That is because they can get away from each other and split into several flocks, instead of all the roosters and hens being forced to be together all the time.

Or some people go the other direction, and have a bachelor flock with only roosters and no hens at all. Sometimes those work well (because there are no hens to fight about, the roosters get along fairly well) and sometimes they do not work well (roosters are still chickens, and some individuals just do not get along with each other, no matter what. Some hen-only flocks or mixed flocks have that problem too.)

 

[apoe]

So I released the beast this morning ten mins later hear screaming and see the dick looks like he is trying to mount a RIR that all seem to be males WTF!

 

[NatJ]

So I released the beast this morning ten mins later hear screaming and see the dick looks like he is trying to mount a RIR that all seem to be males WTF!

Mating behavior can also be dominance behavior in chickens (and some other species too).

So it sounds like he's trying to be in charge of the flock, and at present it is obviously causing problems.

 

[apoe]

I had thoughts today about letting him out to free range alone maybe he wouldn't return.

 

[NatJ]

I had thoughts today about letting him out to free range alone maybe he wouldn't return.

I would probably avoid that for two reasons:

1, it teaches at least one local predator that chicken is easy to kill and tastes good. That could encourage the predator to come back for some of your other chickens.

2, being killed by a predator is probably more scary and painful for the chicken than being killed by a person. This obviously differs from one predator to another, but few of them can match the speed of one quick chop with a hatchet (or several other commonly-used methods of killing a chicken.)

 

[apoe]

Was just a thought. He is still here and breathing. Will start looking for a home for him and two others.

 

[NatJ]

Was just a thought. He is still here and breathing. Will start looking for a home for him and two others.

I've had similar tempting thoughts. That's why I had a response already figured out, because I had to convince myself!