Sudden aggressive mating from young chick??

[RosemaryDuck]

Well this is definitely a new one for me.

I went to change out the feed for Scramble & Omelette (5 week old easter eggers). They're both roos.

When I put my hand into the brooder, Scramble ran up, jumped onto my hand and grabbed a bunch of skin in his beak. He very aggressively started humping my hand. I quickly shook him off and shut the door.

I've never had a chick do this...or even a rooster do this in all the years I've been raising them. What on earth?? Do they even know how to do that this early?

 

[KingD]

Maybe it just meant "get outa here!"

 

[RosemaryDuck]

Maybe it just meant "get outa here!"

I hope it was just that! It was very rude .

 

[Tankueray]

I think so too, they don't have the hormones flowing that would make them want to mate yet. That said, if it happens again, you should watch them both and take note of their pecking order. He may be low and trying to dominate you, or high and the same thing - the only reason for knowing which is to potentially predict whether one will have to be sent to freezer camp.

My current two EE pullets are very protective of the other chicks in the brooder. They'll run out at me when I put in a food dish, but then sort of just stand there like that should have been enough to chase me off. Come to think of it, I had a pretty sassy one in the last batch that ran at me and challenged me to staring contests all the time. I named her Rizzo. She's the first one every morning to run right up to me or chase me down in the yard and ask "chook chook?" and she'll bug me to death until I go get a treat. (I had a talking parrot for 30 years, that chicken is absolutely asking for food, it's crazy.) It was about 5 weeks that they went outside full time, I think the brooder also makes them a bit territorial and stir crazy by then.

 

[bill3607]

Take it as a compliment. He thought you were really hot.

 

[RosemaryDuck]

I think so too, they don't have the hormones flowing that would make them want to mate yet. That said, if it happens again, you should watch them both and take note of their pecking order. He may be low and trying to dominate you, or high and the same thing - the only reason for knowing which is to potentially predict whether one will have to be sent to freezer camp.

My current two EE pullets are very protective of the other chicks in the brooder. They'll run out at me when I put in a food dish, but then sort of just stand there like that should have been enough to chase me off. Come to think of it, I had a pretty sassy one in the last batch that ran at me and challenged me to staring contests all the time. I named her Rizzo. She's the first one every morning to run right up to me or chase me down in the yard and ask "chook chook?" and she'll bug me to death until I go get a treat. (I had a talking parrot for 30 years, that chicken is absolutely asking for food, it's crazy.) It was about 5 weeks that they went outside full time, I think the brooder also makes them a bit territorial and stir crazy by then.

Thank you for your detailed response! I didn't think a chick would ever try to 'dominate' me, but it makes sense because other animals can do it, so why not birds!

I've just never seen it happen all this time, so it sort of baffled me when he did it. I've never even had an adult rooster try that on me!

 

[sourland]

I've had bantam chicks crow and attempt to mate while still in the brooder. He's precocious for sure.

 

[bill3607]

I've had bantam chicks crow and attempt to mate while still in the brooder. He's precocious for sure.

Him such a dirty little bird and he has no shame. tsk tsk tsk

 

[Tankueray]

Thank you for your detailed response! I didn't think a chick would ever try to 'dominate' me, but it makes sense because other animals can do it, so why not birds!

I've just never seen it happen all this time, so it sort of baffled me when he did it. I've never even had an adult rooster try that on me!

Like children and puppies, they're always testing boundaries until they make you "pull over this car!" You should see how bad tiger and gorilla juveniles are! There's a reason all accredited zoos have physical boundaries between the keepers and the animals once they're out of the nursery and know how to coordinate all their muscles.

I've heard a lot of conflicting stories about EEs, and haven't confirmed anything myself, but I've heard more often than not that EE roosters are bad news. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me as a biologist (versus every other mixed breed out there and roosters in general) but I guess that'll be one of the highlights of my behavioral studies in the future. So far from raising them from chicks, what I'm seeing is that EE (Ameraucana/legbar mixes) are alert, intelligent, and a little scary at times; but also sometimes fluffy, dumb, pay no attention to the raptor in the sky birds, especially if they're getting drunk on weeds and mealworms. My OEs seem much less intelligent (I think they're favorelle and legbar maybe), and the welbars probably wouldn't survive on their own for more than a minute. The spitzhauben are pretty neat though, definitely another breed for intelligence testing, they seem to observe and catalog as much as I do.
I'm not a crazy chicken lady, I'm a chicken nerd.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Well this is definitely a new one for me.

I went to change out the feed for Scramble & Omelette (5 week old easter eggers). They're both roos.

When I put my hand into the brooder, Scramble ran up, jumped onto my hand and grabbed a bunch of skin in his beak. He very aggressively started humping my hand. I quickly shook him off and shut the door.

I've never had a chick do this...or even a rooster do this in all the years I've been raising them. What on earth?? Do they even know how to do that this early?

How is Mr. Meanie's behavior since you posted? My Easter Egger roos have always been very docile. The roos i keep in my flocks are mostly Easter Eggers for that reason. But snce EEs can be a mix of many different breeds, temperments will almost certainly vary.

Ive had the most issues with Isa Brown progeny. Ive thought the stereotypical rir roo temperment must be coming out in later generations. Have had my hand attacked several times through the years by those. They were aggressive to other chicks too, including pullets. They didnt make it to freezer camp. They weren't big enough before i ended their onery little nonsense.