Rooster puberty - how to deal with it?

[Edward7]

Hi everyone. First-time chicken owner here. I have a male chicken who is about 18 weeks old I think, and a half-dozen females that are about 14 weeks old. I currently keep them all together.

The past 2-3 weeks, the male seems kind of "unstable", like he is full of angst or something. I get the sense that he wants to test me daily to see what he can get away with.

In the mornings when I let them out of their coop, and into their larger covered "run", I toss food on the ground, and the male tends to want to suddenly chase the females and I even saw him try to mount one recently.

I'm assuming that if there was an older rooster in the flock, he would instantly grab the young male and teach him some manners, any time he stepped out of line. Right? So I don't want to be an "indulgent" parent who lets the young male get away with everything, and thereby accidentally train him in bad behaviors. So whenever I see him starting to chase the females, I hold up my hand, say something like "hey", and try to get between him and the females. I try to do this in a "calm, assertive" manner, as a famous Mexican dog professional used to put it. I'm always surprised that this seems to stop him from chasing. If not instantly, then after 5-10 seconds or so. If I'm not calm then it doesn't work as well.

However, to stop him from mounting a female a few days ago, I had to tap him firmly on the back. Perhaps I should explain: I've been told two things about them mounting females: 1) that they can hurt females that are only 14-weeks old that do not want to be mounted, and 2) that it is potentially a sign of disrespect/challenge for them to mount ANY female in the presence of a higher-ranking male (me).

Also I'm trying to mentally prepare myself to catch & pin him, if necessary, any time his behavior does not seem appropriate, if the methods I mentioned above do not work. If he picks up on my willingness to take further steps, I'm hoping he will take me seriously when I just hold up my hand, make a sound of disapproval, and walk towards him.

I've also begun to not ever walk around him, but ask him to move out of my way, if he's in my way. Just as a basic daily discipline.

So I guess my two questions are:

1) Do the males sometimes calm down a bit after puberty? Or nah?
2) Does it seem like I am going about this the right way?

P.S. This male has never attacked me, he has no spurs, there are no young human children around, and he's locked up in a "run" most of the day. Also, he treats the females well as far as treats or food go, always letting them eat first before he does.

However, I have taken to not turning my back to him, because, again he just seems right on the verge of acting-out a lot of the time.

On the positive side, I'm told that his father / bloodline is known for not being human-aggressive. However, the small farm that I got him from has a few older roosters who probably train the younger ones how to behave, and this guy only has me to fill in the gap / parenting vacuum... Does that make sense?

 

[FrostRanger]

Yes, they do calm down, and what you're doing is completely unnecessary. If he's bothering the pullets too much, separate him from them until they mature and he calms down a bit, no need to stop him from mounting hens in your presence but making him move out of your way is still a good idea and honestly just practical (try walking into a run with several chickens underfoot and your hands are full). Just set reasonable boundaries and you and him should be fine. Since he comes from a known good bloodline you have a significant advantage towards getting a nice rooster

 

[Mrs. K]

I think you are picking up bad vibes, trust your instincts. Often times they will try and get behind you, and then when you look, look all innocent. Sometimes they give you the stink eye. Does he jump up on things making himself taller? Does he flap his wings or lifts his neck feathers? Does he crow incessantly when you are there? All of those are signs that he is becoming aggressive.

I am just not a believer in 'if you do this, then they will be trained" They don't have much of a brain and they have huge gonads for the size of them. I do think that if one waits till they are aggressive it is too late.

There are two lines of thoughts here - pet or no pet. I rather belong to the no pet group, but I don't handle my chickens, I just watch them. I want a rooster to just naturally move away from me giving me about 5 feet of respect. I don't want him afraid, just calmly moving away from me.

But you will find equal number of posts that swear by cuddling, holding, carrying their rooster with marvelous results. Which really leads me to believe that people really have little influence on roosters. After all we don't live in the coop. I think it is a crap shoot and you either get a good one or you don't.

I do agree with the advice above, it would not hurt to pull him out until your girls start laying. Once the years go by, and you have a multi-generational flock, this is not much of a problem, but with just flock mate birds, there are no older birds to keep the juveniles in line, and they can be hard on pullets.

Mrs K

Mrs K