Rooster not doing what roosters should do! Hen is terrifies of roosters.

[SweetJoy7]

Hello! We have a couple of 10-month-old roosters and they do not do some of the things i have read that roosters should do! I read that roosters are supposed to protect the weaker hens but ours pick on them even more! When there is a hawk flying overhead, the boys do not gather up all the hens and run for safety. We also have a hen, Francis, who is absolutely terrified of the two roosters. She has a bare back now and she always runs and hides so well when she sees the roosters that one time we couldn't find her! About 10 of our 20-40 chickens are being overmated. What should we do!?! Francis has a chickens saddle but her feathers are not growing back! Thanks!

 

[chooks4life]

What roosters will do depends on what their most recent ancestors were allowed to do. If instincts aren't allowed to be acted on, they're not reinforced or confirmed, and if they're not, they're gradually discarded as irrelevant. Because clearly if reproduction is occurring without those instincts being acted on, surely they're irrelevant and outdated.

This is how we bred maternal instinct out of some lines of hens. Since their chicks keep being hatched by humans, those breeds no longer have the instinct to care for their own chicks,because it's no longer necessary. We've long since bred paternal instinct out of most males and we've even bred filial instinct out of some breeds, so the chicks have no use for a mother nor father or any sort of parent figure any more. Instincts are easily modified through breeding and environment. The cannibal and bully behavior is also bred in or out, it's not natural to every single chicken.

When we keep roosters and hens separate as a rule, something similar happens, and they lose the instincts to form a normal family unit. Just introducing roosters to hens to breed for a short time won't reinforce the other instincts like non-mating behavior, i.e. finding food, finding nests, protecting hens, etc. All it reinforces is mating under duress, they lose instincts about how to get along with hens. These roosters are from family lines that were raised separate from hens as soon as they were able to be told apart from hens. All their generational lifetime social experience consists of is fighting with other males and sometimes even mating with them too, and gradually they come to see females as being other males as well. They don't know what hens are anymore, and hens from that sort of ancestry also don't know what roosters are anymore.

When kept in cages with no nests and no predators, roosters lose the instinct to find nests for hens, or protect from predators. They usually retain some 'tid-bitting' instinct though because that can be practiced on other males too, but some have developed fake tid-bitting where they only pretend to have food in order to lure another close enough to attack.

Plenty of males are no use for anything much anymore, just mating and being turned into dinner.

If you want a rooster with the correct wild-type family/husband/father instincts you need to get males from backgrounds that have kept the males, females, and chicks together, so their social instincts are active and beneficial, not malignant. It takes generations to breed out or back in. Some never had it bred out. Males and females who had it bred out often don't get along.

The hen, when ready, will crouch to invite a male she likes, if she has her instincts intact. The rooster, if instinctive, won't try to force a mating, he will only mount a hen who is willing. Obviously this simply doesn't happen in many flocks these days. Roosters only know to chase and attack and hens only know to run and be attacked, or attack in return, if they've lost their normal instincts. Both genders kill chicks, not look after them. This is all due to thousands of generations of disruptive human influence breaking down their social instincts by preventing them living in their natural family structure.

Many commercial layer or broiler hens especially will crouch for humans due to generations of artificial insemination, but are terrified of roosters, and many layer or commercial roosters mount human hands or feet due to generations of artificial insemination, and mostly will also mount hens but often brutalize them too as though they are roosters.

Your hens are not 'overmated' --- though I know it's the commonly accepted term for it. They are brutalized. There are many examples I can give to demonstrate this. In a flock of many dozens of females per male, there are only 'overmated' hens if the rooster/s present do not respect females, and are rough with them, or downright nasty. Many are. No matter how many hens you have, one per male or 100 per male, a good male does not 'overmate' hens.

The term 'overmating' actually refers to a male mounting a hen who is usually protesting, ignoring her protests, and ripping at her while he mates. Some actively try to kill her while mating. I'm sure you can imagine how distressing it is for hens to have to live with males like that.

Good males simply don't need to hold on with their beaks, and if they do, they're careful and do not remove feathers. If the hen rejects them, they respect it; after all it just means she's not ready to mate, so it's pointless trying to mate, and it's time to either help her find food, to get her into breeding condition, or go looking for a hen who likes them and is willing.

There is no harm to females caused by good males, only bad ones. My flock often has a ratio of one hen per rooster, and they all freerange together and live together, up to 50 males and 50 females on average living together, and 'overmating' simply doesn't happen. Because I culled out bullies long ago and I keep their family units intact. It's peaceful and calm, the roosters don't harm one another or the hens, and the hens don't harm one another either. Babies are raised in this mixed flock without harm as well. What you keep and breed on is what will shape your flock's future, and behavior is at least as important as color and type and productivity. Nasty behavior can destroy all other gains you're making in all other areas and it breeds on strongly.

If yours were from backgrounds where their ancestors were recently kept separate your males are likely brutal to the hens due to this, and the hens only experience damage and stress due to having the males around, no benefits.

At 10 months old, with so many hens around, your boys should be past the clumsy stage, so now what you're seeing is just nasty natures in action. Your flock would benefit from some real roosters. You can see, I'm sure, the fallacy of the belief that having a certain amount of hens somehow makes a rooster nice. If he's not nice with one he doesn't deserve more. The hens have a right to quality of life too.

Once you get a good rooster or a few of them, you'll never put up with the bad ones again.

Best wishes.

 

[SweetJoy7]

Thank you for responding!!!!! Our rooster started mating our hen the other day but then he stopped!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!! And I think our other rooster who attacked us has finally realized we are the bosses. NOT HIM!!!!!!!!! Thanks!!!

 

[chooks4life]

Well, best wishes with them. I should just warn you that roosters that attack humans, even once, basically always continue to do so, even if they stop for a few weeks or months. I say 'basically' always because some people vaguely suggest otherwise but they haven't yet confirmed it. Generally, if he attacks you once, that's it, he's going to do it again sooner or later.

Anyway, best wishes with your flock.

 

[SweetJoy7]

Thank you! We will be sure to make sure our rooster boys know who is boss!!! One of them is pretty nice to the hens when he mates them. He gets off very quickly. Thank you!