Rooster doesn't dismount after mating and is fixated on one hen -- stew time?

[chickens really]

Well being he only breeds her when she leaves the safety of the mature Rooster and then stands on her he is challenging the Rooster. He takes what he can get. Once fully mature he may calm down or things could go sideways really fast.

 

[Morrigan]

Having 2 males in residence may be exacerbating the younger cocks aggression.
What are you plans for the older cockbird?

The plan is to cull him and replace him with the BCM. I've been delaying his culling in the hope that he is keeping the cockerel in check while he is maturing, so he doesn't make a complete adolescent pest of himself to the hens. The old cock has lost a step and has limited interest and great difficult catching the girls to mate, so the hens (Gimpy aside) are not being over-mated.

Well being he only breeds her when she leaves the safety of the mature Rooster and then stands on her he is challenging the Rooster. He takes what he can get. Once fully mature he may calm down or things could go sideways really fast.

I'm starting to see some other signs that the cockerel is thinking about challenging the Duke. I probably need to bite the bullet, cull Duke and then see if the BCM behavior is acceptable once he is the only rooster in the game. If he isn't, it looks like I'll be buying hatching eggs again and trying again next year.

The hard part is putting my emotions to the side. Part of me wants to keep Duke one more year, even though he really isn't up the task anymore, just because it's hard not to get attached over the years.

 

[chickens really]

The plan is to cull him and replace him with the BCM. I've been delaying his culling in the hope that he is keeping the cockerel in check while he is maturing, so he doesn't make a complete adolescent pest of himself to the hens. The old cock has lost a step and has limited interest and great difficult catching the girls to mate, so the hens (Gimpy aside) are not being over-mated.


I'm starting to see some other signs that the cockerel is thinking about challenging the Duke. I probably need to bite the bullet, cull Duke and then see if the BCM behavior is acceptable once he is the only rooster in the game. If he isn't, it looks like I'll be buying hatching eggs again and trying again next year.

The hard part is putting my emotions to the side. Part of me wants to keep Duke one more year, even though he really isn't up the task anymore, just because it's hard not to get attached over the years.

Well if it was a possibility you could House Duke and Gimpy in a separate Coop and Run together and try that?

 

[aart]

I'd at least isolate the older cock for a time to see how they younger ones behaves.
I've seen immediate changes when doing so.

 

[Morrigan]

I'd at least isolate the older cock for a time to see how they younger ones behaves.
I've seen immediate changes when doing so.

That's an interesting idea -- would he have to be out of sight from the other chickens?

 

[Shadrach]

I have an 8 month old BCM rooster. Recently, I've observed a couple of behaviors that make me wonder if he's a keeper.

First, he is laser-locked on one hen, a small EE "Gimpy" who was born with a twisted foot. He occasionally dances and courts some of other hens, but he just runs Gimpy down every chance he gets. She usually hangs out with my older rooster, Duke, and when she's with him, he leaves her alone, but as soon as she separates, he's on her. I have 12 hens, and he focuses 90% of his attentions on her. I assume its because she is easy to catch, but was hoping he would start spreading his attentions out more evenly.

Worse, when he does mate her, it's not a quick on and off. Because he's young, he's a little awkward, so there's a lot of shifting and flapping. I get that, but after he's finished, he remains standing on her, looking around, like she's a perch. I don't know how long he remains, because if I see him standing there, I walk over and shoo him off, but it's been at least 30 to 60 seconds that I've observed before I'm able to shoo him off. Is this normal for young roosters and something he is likely to outgrow?

I'm worried he is going to injure her with all his attentions and prolonged standing. She's losing feathers on her back and has stopped laying, presumably because of the stress. She is my husband's favorite chicken, and he is ready with the axe. My plan was a to replace old Duke with the BCM, but I'm second guessing that now.

Gah! I hate to have to start my replacement rooster search all over this year.

There aren't many reasons I would kill and eat one of the roosters here for behavior problems but this might be one of them.
I have a very lovely but very slow and docile Marans and bantam cross. She has never laid an egg in her life, but every new cockerel makes a B line for her, mainly because she can't get away.
In the morning I had a period when I had to carry her out of the coop to keep her away from the boys. I did this for a few months until her current rooster grew up enough to protect her. I had to train him to look after her. It took a lot of time and effort. I still get odd days when he forgets about her in his rush to herd and mate the other hens but the situation is much better now.
I had to reduce the number of hens what is now her rooster had in his tribe to 3 that actually lived with him. There were two others I moved out into their own coop for a couple of months while the training was in progress.

 

[Shadrach]

Do not isolate the senior rooster if she goes to him for protection or he behaves well towards her. Your cockerel will not grow up any quicker and in the meantime he won't have any competition or discipline.

 

[Morrigan]

Watching this rooster situation unfold has been interesting.

Between my last post and this one, I was out in the chicken yard -- cleaning out their coop and walking the fence perimeter checking on the e-fence -- and observed some encouraging signs.

The old cock, Duke, was in the coop, encouraging a laying hen. BJ had the yard and remaining hens to himself. He tidbitted over some morsel and Gimpy and another young hen came right over to him. He then danced for Gimpy who neither squatted nor ran away. BJ then danced for the other hen who squatted. BJ hopped on, quickly did his thing and jumped right back off. No standing on the hen, no forcing Gimpy.

I'm wondering if the standing episodes were BJ establishing his dominance over Gimpy and, having done so, he will knock off with the standing.

 

[MissChick@dee]

I think your right. The standing atop a freshly mated hen... showing off for the older cock makes chicken sense to me.

 

[Morrigan]

Well, the roosters have forced my hand -- I'm out of time to decide what to do with BJ.

We're in the midst of a big storm, so the chickens spent most of the day in the coop together. I came out to check and found BJ bleeding from a pretty good sized gash on his face. I suspect he got cornered in the coop by Duke, after he got too frisky with a hen. With the weather, I don't have a good place to separate out Duke for a trial run to see how BJ does in his absence.

So, decision time.

On one hand, Duke is a known quality. With him, I know I will have a peaceful flock. But, that comes with his low fertility and iffy genetics. I will also have to start all over again this spring with purchased eggs and raising up another rooster.

BJ is young, has shown some good qualities and I like his appearance. He may be a great rooster over the long term, but there are so many unknowns.

What to do? I'm leaning towards culling BJ tonight. I don't like the idea of turning BJ loose on my hens during this weather where they are all coop bound and they can't get away from him.

I will build out cockerel quarters, adjacent to my coop for next year, so I have better options when getting a new rooster through the crazy-randy months.