Friday afternoon I introduced a 9 1/2 month araucana cockerel to my flock of 6 hens. It went rather smoothly that day, only a few fights but for the most part he kept to himself, seemed to stay up high on branches and perches looking around and yelling "predator" at everything that moved. He did tidbit for the girls, they ignored it. He tried wing dancing too, and they ignored that as well. Shortly before roost time I saw him sneak up behind one of my australorps and mount her. She did not protest. Shortly after that he snuck up behind one of my EEs and mounted her, who was not receptive and the whole flock pounced on him and pulled him off. So my first question is: Is the sneak attack and mount from behind just inexperience? I'm not a rooster expert but I don't think that is proper.
Problem number two: When I let them out in the mornings, he is in a breeding frenzy for about 2-3 minutes, trying to force himself on every hen whether they are receptive or not. Yesterday morning when this first happened one hen let him mount, then he went straight to another one but she fought him off, then he focused on my timid EE who was running from him. She got behind me (which she does all the time because I protect her from the bullies) and I kicked him back three times before he snapped out of it and calmed down. He spent the rest of the day again mostly by himself with very few fights. He did the same thing this morning, only this time I ran him into a rotational grazing pen and locked him in. After about 3-4 minutes he calmed down, started scratching around and tidbitting, so I open the gate and 2 hens went in. A minute later he bred the receptive one and a few minutes later tried to mount a non-receptive hen and 3 flock members pulled him off and beat the heck out of him. Question #2: Do I chalk this up to raging teenage hormones or is he just a jerk?
Should I be doing anything to correct these bad habits or do I let the flock handle it, or will he stop the a.m. aggression and sneak-attack style breeding with maturity?
Problem number two: When I let them out in the mornings, he is in a breeding frenzy for about 2-3 minutes, trying to force himself on every hen whether they are receptive or not. Yesterday morning when this first happened one hen let him mount, then he went straight to another one but she fought him off, then he focused on my timid EE who was running from him. She got behind me (which she does all the time because I protect her from the bullies) and I kicked him back three times before he snapped out of it and calmed down. He spent the rest of the day again mostly by himself with very few fights. He did the same thing this morning, only this time I ran him into a rotational grazing pen and locked him in. After about 3-4 minutes he calmed down, started scratching around and tidbitting, so I open the gate and 2 hens went in. A minute later he bred the receptive one and a few minutes later tried to mount a non-receptive hen and 3 flock members pulled him off and beat the heck out of him. Question #2: Do I chalk this up to raging teenage hormones or is he just a jerk?
Should I be doing anything to correct these bad habits or do I let the flock handle it, or will he stop the a.m. aggression and sneak-attack style breeding with maturity?
