Rooster problems

[aurajean515]

Hey everyone,
I have a BIG flock of chickens. Almost 100. And with them I have two bantam roosters, two standard sized rooster, and one couple month old cockeral I'm hoping to keep.
My two standard roosters are around the same age, a rhode island/new hampshire red, Mick, and a Lavender Orpington, Bleu. They're both about a year old now, give or take a month or two. Mick is the son of a previous rooster I had who we unfortunately had to put down. That rooster was very accepting of Bleu, when they were introduced, BigMac gave Bleu one good peck to the head and Bleu understood his place. Mick on the otherhand HATES Bleu. Especially more than ever since his dad has been out of the picture. He doesn't let him eat or drink or go anywhere near him or the girls. Bleu spends most of his time with the youngest hens, out of sight in the tree line. If Mick even catches a glance of Bleu he books it across the whole yard to chage at him. I've had Mick in solitary for a couple days because he's been aggressively mating with the girls, half of them are missing so many feathers. I dont even know how thats possible with how many hens I have. Also, a while back i was noticing wounds on quite a few of my hens, they were on both sides of the body, right beneath the wing. I came to the conclusion that Mick was being too aggressive and getting them with his spurs during mating. He's seemed to chill out since then as I havent noticed anymore wounds.
But since he's been in solitary, Bleu still seems to be too afraid to become a part of the flock, even though my hens all accept him! I'm worried about him.
Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Hobbits Mommie]

I don't see that there's much you can do except let nature take it's course.

 

[DobieLover]

You can remove BigMac from the flock. Permanently. He is injuring hens.

 

[Chickassan]

Bleu is still second, maybe even father down the male pecking order than that when you factor in your bantams he is going to be wary.
If he can still see or hear Mick then he's going to assume he is still loose too.

 

[Folly's place]

These cockbirds just aren't compatible, so either have separate flocks entirely, or eliminate one of them. I'd eliminate the bird who was causing injuries to the hens, even if he's now 'better'.
Go for the good of the entire flock, and it sounds as though Mick is causing a lot of stress all by himself.
In a flock that's managed as one group, like yours (and mine) it's necessary that everyone be reasonably compatible, including all the roosters. They don't need to be friends, but not determined to kill each other either.
Mary

 

[Quackter]

Maybe try pulling the aggressive rooster out for a few days, then reintroducing him? It works for hens. Maybe try feeding in two spots, with that many hens they should flock up if they have enough room. Then again, some just have that "game" attitude.

 

[microchick]

I've been dealing with a sexually agressive rooster for most of the summer. Barney was a big beautiful bantam cross rooster who had been blinded in one eye due to a fight over flock dominance with his brother. From that point on he was pretty much in charge of the 'coop' hens, girls who didn't venture out much, etc. Everything was 'cool'' until this summer when he started acting agressive towards a Cochin/OEGB cross rooster that i have 'Percival' is a sweetie that looks like a BBR OEGB in color but his body shape is Cochin.

Earlier this summer I noticed Barney chasing slow moving Percy down in the coop or in rare ventures out into the run (coming out to hunt Percy) grabbing him by the back of the neck and mounting him to 'mate' with him. I rescued Percy who is very easy going and no match for Barney more than once and sending him on his way after being carried around by his ankles for an extended period of time.

Then last night I saw Barney chase down a 4 week old chick that had gotten loose from me, grab it by the back of the neck and try to mount it by puting a foot on the little guy's back. That was the last straw. Barney was culled last night.

I hated doing it. He and I have a long history based on healing him up after he lost his eye but for the safety of the flock, he had to go.

My point is, this situation you have is not going to get better and I doubt if there is anything you can do to change your agressive rooster's tendencies to be, well, agressive to other other roosters or sexually agressive to the hens.

Your choices are down to permanently penning him up away from the flock and your hens, rehoming him which given he is agressive probably not a good idea as you would just be passing on an agressive rooster, or putting him down and into the stock pot.

Hard choices no matter which one you choose.But I sincreely doubt if you will 'break' him of his tendencies especially since you have been working on the problem with little success.

There are so many nice roosters in this world that dealing with a 'bad' one is often a waste of time and energy. It sounds like you have some nice roosters in the wings waiting for a chance to be a good flock master.

 

[aurajean515]

You can remove BigMac from the flock. Permanently. He is injuring hens.

BigMac isnt the one who is injuring the hens, Mick was. But I haven't seen any injuries for quite some time, seems like it was just a phase.

 

[aurajean515]

Bleu is still second, maybe even father down the male pecking order than that when you factor in your bantams he is going to be wary.
If he can still see or hear Mick then he's going to assume he is still loose too.

That makes sense, although I don't believe the bantam roos are higher than him as they are much younger and havent been around as long, theyve just barely begun crowing

 

[aurajean515]

I've been dealing with a sexually agressive rooster for most of the summer. Barney was a big beautiful bantam cross rooster who had been blinded in one eye due to a fight over flock dominance with his brother. From that point on he was pretty much in charge of the 'coop' hens, girls who didn't venture out much, etc. Everything was 'cool'' until this summer when he started acting agressive towards a Cochin/OEGB cross rooster that i have 'Percival' is a sweetie that looks like a BBR OEGB in color but his body shape is Cochin.

Earlier this summer I noticed Barney chasing slow moving Percy down in the coop or in rare ventures out into the run (coming out to hunt Percy) grabbing him by the back of the neck and mounting him to 'mate' with him. I rescued Percy who is very easy going and no match for Barney more than once and sending him on his way after being carried around by his ankles for an extended period of time.

Then last night I saw Barney chase down a 4 week old chick that had gotten loose from me, grab it by the back of the neck and try to mount it by puting a foot on the little guy's back. That was the last straw. Barney was culled last night.

I hated doing it. He and I have a long history based on healing him up after he lost his eye but for the safety of the flock, he had to go.

My point is, this situation you have is not going to get better and I doubt if there is anything you can do to change your agressive rooster's tendencies to be, well, agressive to other other roosters or sexually agressive to the hens.

Your choices are down to permanently penning him up away from the flock and your hens, rehoming him which given he is agressive probably not a good idea as you would just be passing on an agressive rooster, or putting him down and into the stock pot.

Hard choices no matter which one you choose.But I sincreely doubt if you will 'break' him of his tendencies especially since you have been working on the problem with little success.

There are so many nice roosters in this world that dealing with a 'bad' one is often a waste of time and energy. It sounds like you have some nice roosters in the wings waiting for a chance to be a good flock master.

Thanks for the advice, I'm worried that Bleu will not step up if I were to get rid of Mick. My previous rooster, BigMac, just fathered about 20 chicks and one of them is the young cockeral I mentioned earlier. My guess is he'll make an amazing flock leader, he's showing all the signs I was hoping to see. I'm worried if I get rid of Mick now, I'll have to go without a good flock protector until the young one comes of age.