I've been observing Kolovos's mating attempts, which seem to become more frequent during the afternoon, but throughout the day as well.
The past five days, especially, it seems like almost no hen will crouch for him voluntarily, refusing his advances every time. The main reason I started paying closer attention to his mating attempts, is when the the hens started screaming every time he mounted them. After slight observation I started noticing that he seems to grab them very violently, like a hormonal cockerel. This is not the Kolovos I've known all these years. He had never been so violent with his matings before (apart from a small period when his son's presence stressed him out; he calmed right after the son was removed), and his hens most certainly never screamed while mating. He had always been a gentleman.
The backs of almost all his hens are damaged; one might expect as much after how violent his son was with mating, but a couple of the hens had started growing their feathers back, so this should not be an issue. All these new feathers have been getting more and more damaged. Two day ago I noticed a superficial scratch on the back of today's birthday girl.
Going back to the spur talk from a couple of weeks ago, I think that Kolovos's spurs have become too long, which is causing him a whole lot of trouble. The hens refuse to mate with him because his spurs are too painful to bear, which leads him to mate with them more violently, something he never did.
He has also started being a lot more confrontational with me. He never liked me, that was a given. But he's started raising his hackle feathers and posturing a bit these past few days, which would make sense if he's frustrated from not mating
Not sure what I can do to help. I don't know if trimming/filing down his spurs a bit would help. He's not done anything on his own, like Peris's or Shad's boys seem to. I don't want to think about rehoming him, this is not his standard behaviour, he has always been the best rooster to his girls so far
This could be a reaction to the stress he's getting from all the cockerels reaching the point of thinking about mating (they're a little over three months old), I'm not sure. Any input is appreciated, I don't like seeing the main group so out of balance
The past five days, especially, it seems like almost no hen will crouch for him voluntarily, refusing his advances every time. The main reason I started paying closer attention to his mating attempts, is when the the hens started screaming every time he mounted them. After slight observation I started noticing that he seems to grab them very violently, like a hormonal cockerel. This is not the Kolovos I've known all these years. He had never been so violent with his matings before (apart from a small period when his son's presence stressed him out; he calmed right after the son was removed), and his hens most certainly never screamed while mating. He had always been a gentleman.
The backs of almost all his hens are damaged; one might expect as much after how violent his son was with mating, but a couple of the hens had started growing their feathers back, so this should not be an issue. All these new feathers have been getting more and more damaged. Two day ago I noticed a superficial scratch on the back of today's birthday girl.
Going back to the spur talk from a couple of weeks ago, I think that Kolovos's spurs have become too long, which is causing him a whole lot of trouble. The hens refuse to mate with him because his spurs are too painful to bear, which leads him to mate with them more violently, something he never did.
He has also started being a lot more confrontational with me. He never liked me, that was a given. But he's started raising his hackle feathers and posturing a bit these past few days, which would make sense if he's frustrated from not mating
Not sure what I can do to help. I don't know if trimming/filing down his spurs a bit would help. He's not done anything on his own, like Peris's or Shad's boys seem to. I don't want to think about rehoming him, this is not his standard behaviour, he has always been the best rooster to his girls so far
This could be a reaction to the stress he's getting from all the cockerels reaching the point of thinking about mating (they're a little over three months old), I'm not sure. Any input is appreciated, I don't like seeing the main group so out of balance
so Betws got some cashews
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