Rooster won't let some hens eat

[pfields]

For some reason my BA rooster has started chasing away some of my hens from eating when I pour out their feed in the morning and afternoon. He seems to only chase away the EE's. My EE's are very shy so I put some food in another place for them but the other hens come running and scare them off. Why is he doing this? I have 21 hens and two roosters. The GSL rooster doesn't do this at all. I would get rid of both of them but lately hawks have discovered our chickens. The roosters have been great in alarming us. They free range all day in our half acre fenced in backyard.

 

[AmericanMom]

For some reason my BA rooster has started chasing away some of my hens from eating when I pour out their feed in the morning and afternoon. He seems to only chase away the EE's. My EE's are very shy so I put some food in another place for them but the other hens come running and scare them off. Why is he doing this? I have 21 hens and two roosters. The GSL rooster doesn't do this at all. I would get rid of both of them but lately hawks have discovered our chickens. The roosters have been great in alarming us. They free range all day in our half acre fenced in backyard.

It sounds like your rooster has for whatever reason rejected these two hens.. I had a couple Ancona hens that my rooster rejected. Might work to get rid of the rooster that has rejected them and replace with another rooster.

 

[Chullicken]

I was having the same issue with my Icelandic rooster but it was either just one hen or all of them at points. Hen's are all Sex Links. So I made sure the feed never ran out, water always full and dusted for bugs. Seems he was most prone to this behavior when those things were an issue. For the last month, he started doing at treat time as well and acting really odd in general. I researched and found nothing I could do. I put him down today with an extremely heavy heart and took him to be buried in his favorite place. First two years he was everything I could have asked for, but he slowly started changing his behavior with the flock. Just can't have a formally amazing flock rooster doing this behavior.

 

[CannedMonster]

In another thread it was suggested this behavior in roosters is related to the decrease in sunlight with shorter days resulting in a decrease in hormones.

Just like when hens lay less the males breed less and can also stop tidbitting for the girls and become more interested in just feeding themselves.
I’m not sure how much truth there is to this but I do know that in the spring when days are getting longer, the roosters become more “roostery” lol.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

In another thread it was suggested this behavior in roosters is related to the decrease in sunlight with shorter days resulting in a decrease in hormones.

Just like when hens lay less the males breed less and can also stop tidbitting for the girls and become more interested in just feeding themselves.
I’m not sure how much truth there is to this but I do know that in the spring when days are getting longer, the roosters become more “roostery” lol.

You are exactly right. Day length has a very appreciable effect on how a rooster acts and at this time of year roosters begin to act less like roosters and more like hens. While the hens lose some of their femininity and in some respects start acting more like roosters.

Hence you experienced changes in the actions in both your hens and in your roosters.

 

[Chullicken]

In another thread it was suggested this behavior in roosters is related to the decrease in sunlight with shorter days resulting in a decrease in hormones.

Just like when hens lay less the males breed less and can also stop tidbitting for the girls and become more interested in just feeding themselves.
I’m not sure how much truth there is to this but I do know that in the spring when days are getting longer, the roosters become more “roostery” lol.

Oh, that is really interesting, maybe some truth to that in some circumstances. Mine had done it since the end of summer which was the issue, progressively getting worse. He also had some noticeable issues nobody could figure out such as losing his balance randomly, this zig-zagging of the head. Though the symptoms are common for several issues I had observed him eating what he could and drinking water. With extreme heavy heart (Tearing up as I write this) I laid him to rest the other day after watching him slowly degrade and become more aggressive with the flock. Thank you for the input!

 

[CannedMonster]

Oh, that is really interesting, maybe some truth to that in some circumstances. Mine had done it since the end of summer which was the issue, progressively getting worse. He also had some noticeable issues nobody could figure out such as losing his balance randomly, this zig-zagging of the head. Though the symptoms are common for several issues I had observed him eating what he could and drinking water. With extreme heavy heart (Tearing up as I write this) I laid him to rest the other day after watching him slowly degrade and become more aggressive with the flock. Thank you for the input!

I’m sorry you lost your guy!
My 7 month old cockerel Angus also “zigzags” his head.
He started doing it a few months ago.
He’s never been very aggressive but he’s not tidbitting for the girls as much now.

 

[Mosey2003]

My rooster is being more of an ass lately too. I put 7 new pullets in the pen with the 5 previous and he's beating them away from the feeder a lot. I'm gonna add another feeder so at least he won't be able to reach them.

 

[J99]

My Rooster is 4 months old invwith 30 pullets and he’s started running them away from the food , I put feeders on opposite sides of the yard so they can all eat plus two small ones in the coop for the babies, I WONT put him down , but what’s some reasons this could be happening? And is there any success stories ?

 

[Shadrach]

My Rooster is 4 months old invwith 30 pullets and he’s started running them away from the food , I put feeders on opposite sides of the yard so they can all eat plus two small ones in the coop for the babies, I WONT put him down , but what’s some reasons this could be happening? And is there any success stories ?

It should all change when the pullets are laying eggs and the rooster is fertilizing them.