Slightly aggressive cockerel.

[The Backyard Bantams]

Hi!

I have a chicken called poppy who turns out is actually a cockerel. He’s about 27 weeks and not crowing yet. I’m not allowed to keep him because my council won’t allow, so I plan on rehoming him back to the farm soon. My chicken just laid her first egg yesterday, so exciting! I have two other pullets that are also about 26 weeks but they don’t seem close to laying at all. Recently poppy has been chasing them a lot. He stares at them then Naruto runs across the yard and flaps and pecks them. He doesn’t seem to be hurting them badly but he’s stressing them out. He hasn’t tried to mount Ebony, the one that’s laying, or any of the others, but he seems to try to dominate them by chasing them. Is it this just a dominance thing? Is it normal?

Ps. He hasn’t done it to ebony at all, only the other two pullets.

 

[Gallinarium]

Cockerels get cocky as they age, especially to their sisters. The older hens look down upon them. Roosters generally stress the hens a bit, it's part of having them. The young ones want to stress their dominance, mostly because they haven't previously had any. As long as no one is getting hurt, or severely stressed, everything is fine.

 

[aart]

He's just doing what cockerels do.
If you feel he's stressing them too much, put him in a crate until he goes to the farm.
I wouldn't bet he hasn't mated the one whose laying.
Check the yolk when you open eggs to eat.

 

[The Backyard Bantams]

An update: 8 month old Poppy is still not crowing, although he does mount my he Ebony a couple times a day. I think he hasn’t settled down a bit. He basically is just doing his chickens thing next to her, and the new goes “buk bukkk”, steps on he pack, squooshing her down, grab some at her crest to steady himself, and then falls off. Pretty sure there has been no success so far, but I will check the eggs this weekend. If she did go broody I would let her sit on them but I doubt any would be fertile and she has no intention of being tied down as a mother. She is livin’ the single (well...Poppy) life.

Poppy is doing well and his feathers are growing out nicely, although I have noticed him gasping a bit (which I have made a thread on)

Thanks for the help!