Why is my rooster bitting my hens!?

[luckysamara199]

hi first id like to start by thank you for reading this and responding my question. So I have a 4 and half month old rooster. He is polish rooster I noticed he started bitting my hens heads and backs. They are also polish hens. Does anyone know why this is happening or how can I stop it? He yanks them by the feathers on their head and pulls them out or he does it on their neck or back. The first time I noticed this behavior was a few weeks ago. I don’t know what to do. I checked their heads to see if they had injuries but they don’t they only scream when he bites them. Any advice? He also is really calm when I grab him he’s just really aggressive towards the girls. He chases them too. He does it about 7 times a day or more. Please help!

 

[sourland]

He is a teenager with raging hormones. He wants to mate and the pullets are not ready. You can separate him until the pullets mature or just let things be if he is not injuring them.

 

[TwoCrows]

X2 on what @sourland said, he needs to be separated from the girls until he grows up a bit more. He could injure the others.

 

[DobieLover]

hi first id like to start by thank you for reading this and responding my question. So I have a 4 and half month old rooster. He is polish rooster I noticed he started bitting my hens heads and backs. They are also polish hens. Does anyone know why this is happening or how can I stop it? He yanks them by the feathers on their head and pulls them out or he does it on their neck or back. The first time I noticed this behavior was a few weeks ago. I don’t know what to do. I checked their heads to see if they had injuries but they don’t they only scream when he bites them. Any advice? He also is really calm when I grab him he’s just really aggressive towards the girls. He chases them too. He does it about 7 times a day or more. Please help!

This is normal behavior for a cockerel coming of age. It's also normal behavior for the pullets to scream and pull away from him because they aren't ready yet. He really isn't pulling out their feathers, he's just hanging on and the pullets are running away so the feathers get yanked out. He's not attacking them or being aggressive in a "I want to kill you" way. He just wants to mate.
You can separate him within the flock for 4-6 weeks until the pullets get a little older and more receptive if you want. But he's not hurting them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What you are describing is pretty typical for a flock of immature pullets and an immature cockerel. That behavior is not about sex or fertilizing eggs, there aren't any eggs. It's about dominance. The one on the bottom is accepting the dominance of the one on top, either willingly or by force. At that level of maturity it's almost always by force. His hormones are running wild. The pullets are still too immature to accept him but they know they don't want to accept his dominance. After all, he's still an immature brat. When he and the girls mature things normally settle down and it's really peaceful but getting to that point can be hard to watch.

The head grab is an essential part of the mating act. He grabs the back of their head when he's on them and they instinctively raise their tail out of the way so he can hit the target. You'll probably see a lot of that later. But right now he is grabbing them to force them to mate so he can dominate them and become flock master.

How dangerous is it? Force and resistance is involved so there is some risk of injury. You cannot rule out injury so you need to pay attention. Even if it were a flock of all girls you need to pay attention, they can have pecking order fights or bullying. But this is dominance on hormones. The risk of injury is higher than with an all-girl flock.

Every year I hatch about 40 to 45 chicks and raise them with the flock. I see the behavior you describe every year, just with many more cockerels. As long as the cockerels just bother the pullets my dominant rooster leaves them alone, it's when the cockerels start bothering his hens the rooster gets involved. It can get wild down there. I do have a lot of room which I think helps. I've never had a pullet hurt. Others have, violence and force are involved so you can't ignore the possibility. Once every three or four years it may get rowdy enough that I isolate some of the boys, just remove them from the equation.

I think you have three different options. One is to let them go, that's pretty much typical immature behavior. Pay attention and if you see injury take immediate action.

Isolate that boy for a while. Keep him away from the girls until they all mature more. With the girls that's usually about the time they start to lay. With him, who knows. You're just going to have to try and see how it goes. Base your decision on what you see.

Get rid of the boy now. The only reason you need a rooster is if you want fertile eggs. Anything else if personal preference. Nothing wrong with that, I have a few preferences myself. I generally recommend you keep as few boys as you can and still meet your goals. I don't know your goals or preferences so I don't know if the right answer for you is 0, 1, or even more.

You are not the only one to go through this. It can be hard to watch. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[luckysamara199]

He is a teenager with raging hormones. He wants to mate and the pullets are not ready. You can separate him until the pullets mature or just let things be if he is not injuring them.

Thank you for your response! I did not know that