Why are my chickens acting so strange all the sudden?

[Willow's Meadow]

So recently my 14 week old chickens have been acting very well.....different then how they were. For example last night I was in the coop fixing the water hanger thing and feeding my rabbit. Well anyway as I'm standing there I look down and watch my Light Brahma cockeral basically attack one of the buff orpington pullets. He grabbed her by the neck/feathers on neck with his beak and started running around the coop dragging her behind and stopping to shake her back and forth! It was terrible!!!! My chickens have been aggressive like that recently and I don't know why

. I have 15 pullets and 2 roosters so maybe I should just have one. They do fight sometimes. Are the cocks starting to like maybe want to mate with the pullets? Is that why there is some fighting going on? I'm a newbie so I'm not sure lol. They are in there very big run all day and in the coop at night(the coop is 11 ft. x 6 ft.) so maybe its to small for all of them. Is that why they are fighting? I know when they were younger they established the pecking order because they would fight a little but for a long time the fighting stopped....now it started up again and is worse!

I am thinking of taking 1 cock and 4 or 5 pullets to the auction.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Normal chicken behavior. I'd reset that roo though if he gets too rough. Reset...meaning take him out for a day so that he goes back to the bottom of the pecking order. Guess he's trying a bit too hard to get a girlfriend...

 

[AKsmama]

Sounds like the hormones are kicking in big time for your boys. The recommended ratio is one roo to 10 hens, so your girls may end up being a bit harrassed if you don't add more of them or get rid of one of your boys. It is normal behavior- they're growing up!

 

[TeamChaos]

Yup, that was about the age that my dudes started dragging pullets around by their combs and just being jerks in general. I moved them to a separate pen and even that proved too much (they were beating up on each other) so I went from 11 roosters to three.