Rooster "grabbing" and "picking up" chicks.

[wayward]

So I have a silkie rooster named Sumo, he has spent most of his life sharing a home with another roo who was much bigger and scarier than Sumo could have hoped to be. For a large portion of Sumo's life, we thought he was a hen. He looked and acted like one, anyway.

Sumo has been relocated to a new coop front and center of our chicken village, and he has two ladies of his own. Each of those hens has chicks, adding up to 6 little ones running around. The chicks and Sumo have had absolutely no problems, I've actually seen him feed them bread and grass bits straight out of his mouth. Sometimes, however, he'll grab a chick by their neck or the tuft of their back feathers and just hold them there. They let out a pretty horrific shriek but when I examined the situation, he's not hurting them at all or even appearing to show any intent of harm or "pecking order" behavior. He just kind of picks them up.

Is there any particular reason for this?

 

[Judy]

I would guess he is teaching them something, maybe simply that he is in charge/

 

[Bayrider16]

If hes not harming them, then he is probably just pickng them up like how a dog picks up their puppies. Does he ever move them from place to place like that?

 

[wayward]

The only place he ever moves them to is about an inch above the ground and then he just lets them go. Probably due to the squeaking and struggling.

I just thought it was bizarre and that maybe someone had some experience with this.

 

[Bayrider16]

I have never had a rooster do this because i never bred my chickens. As long as he is not harming them then they should be ok. Dont separate them unless the chicks get seriously hurt. Good luck!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I do breed mine and have never seen anything like that. I know many roosters will help Mama with the chicks but I have no idea what he is doing.

This is curious behavior. I’ll ask someone that might have an idea and see if he wants to respond. He’s done a lot of studying of roosters with chicks.

 

[centrarchid]

I have seen such and also no harm came of it. There appears to be an aggression component but something about chicks stops aggression sequence resulting in rooster appearing confused before he releases chicks. Occurrences I observed seem to be associated with application of feed to a hungry rooster. Even males that are doting fathers do it once in a while. They are like us in that when a lot is going on they get their wires crossed resulting in behavior that does not make sense to the observer.

Exact same sequence involving juvenile offspring will transition more clearly into aggression but even then it is usually lower in its intensity than what mother would do with same offspring of same age class.

 

[Ponyfeather]

I'd watch to see if the chicks he is picking up later turn out to be males. It sounds like a possible dominance issue, maybe the chick pecked him or he is breaking up aggressive behavior between the chicks.

 

[centrarchid]

I'd watch to see if the chicks he is picking up later turn out to be males. It sounds like a possible dominance issue, maybe the chick pecked him or he is breaking up aggressive behavior between the chicks. 

That I feel comfortable ruling out. Examples of broody roosters I have followed have not indicated either parent distingishes between offspring based on sex. Current rooster (see link below) with 10 week old juvenile offspring, well beyond subject of this thread, still not distinguishing based on gender. When eviction time comes which is not far away then father will boot offspring of both sexes at least away from central roost area. In contrast, young birds do seem able to distinguish gender among themselves.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/882368/what-to-look-for-in-a-broody-rooster