Young Rooster (3-4 months old) already showing signs of aggression...help!

[NewChicKMom2014]

Well first off when I bought this batch of chickens was told they were all hens....not!

Got a rooster in the bunch and he is starting get aggressive.

He has one my Guinea's scared of him, she cowers and hides from him.

He mounts my Guineas, Ducks and of course the hens.

I got one hen who is half his size and I am afraid he going to hurt her.

He bites them all and pulls their feathers.

None my girls (guineas, ducks and chickens) want anything do with him.

He looks like he is gonna be a gorgeous rooster and he does a good job watching out for predators already for being so young.

I just don't want him hurting any the girls.

Is there anything I can do to reverse this aggressive behavior while he still young?

Otherwise I am going to have to re-home him.


Mr. Yell'o

 

[izzyschickens]

he does look like a beautiful roo. but do you want to keep him for babies and protection and also an alarm clock or do you want to get rid of him?

are your chickens free range?

if you want to keep him, and if your chickens free range then i would recommend getting a fence to separate your hens from your roos.

 

[NewChicKMom2014]

I'd really prefer to keep him, for babies and 'protection'.

They are semi-free range, the area that is theirs really can't be divided up anymore at this time, also I only have one coop at this time. Eventually there will be a bigger area available just for them.

I would just let them fully free range but there are coyotes and domestic dogs in my area that have killed my neighbors chickens. So I have to keep them contained to a certain area.

We are just starting out a-new here and building up. Eventually I want to have enough hens for eggs, but also hens for babies.

 

[NewChicKMom2014]

Note: I had intended to start out with only hens for eggs to start, then later on after we built another coop and bigger area for them, planned to get more hens and a rooster for babies....ended up with the rooster sooner than expected....but we have grown fond of him and would like to keep him...but not if he going to be aggressive....

 

[CabraVerde]

NewChickenMom2014, I am in the same boat! Started my first flock in early Feb. Purchased a straight run of mixed chicks. We ended up with some beautiful roosters and only 2 hens. I returned my two sweetest roos, who would snuggle together and guard the yard, keeping only J- my roo from Hell.
He exibits the same behaviors you are describing. He just started mounting this week. My hens cannot even sleep in the coop!
Second Izzyschickens proposal. We wont keep our roo much more. The city wont allow it. So I'll seperate J at night in a large metal dog crate I used to hide away the other boys in my garage at night. The seperate run is a great idea and my next task.
J didn't start crowing or having aggression until the day the other roos left the yard. He must have been bullied by his brothers and is now one himself.
I hope your lovely boy sweetens up. Try penning him up seperately then maybe hand feeding him. Maybe he just needs a little extra attention now that he knows he's handsome
I support rehoming though its hard to find reputable buyers, not cock fighters.
Thanks for your post!

 

[NewChicKMom2014]

I support rehoming though its hard to find reputable buyers, not cock fighters.

That is my biggest fear if I have to re-home....

 

[azygous]

Wow! Fancy boy all right! He's young and you can train him! I understand your problem with an area in which to segregate him, but you need to consider doing that. It would be an important first step in curbing his aggressive tendencies.

I look back on my first "accidental" roosters, and the ones since, and I can see the pattern of coop and run construction it launched. While thinking about how you'll handle long term infrastructure to manage your roo, there are things you can do immediately to get him under some control.

Right now, I have a young cockerel who needs to be restricted in his interactions with the nineteen hens because he's rather obnoxious in his over-zealous attentions. So he gets to free-range when the hens are penned back up, and most of the rest of the time, he's content to hang out in his own pen next to the girls. You can find a way to fence off a small corner of your run area for him until you can fashion something more permanent.

By being kept separate, he will learn you are the one in charge of his access, or not, to the hens. Over time, until he reaches around age two, his hormones will steadily decrease in intensity and he'll mellow. By age two or three, you'll have a much gentler rooster than you now have.

If he's aggressive with you, come back and we'll address how you can deal with that.

 

[CabraVerde]

Wow! Fancy boy all right! He's young and you can train him!

If he's aggressive with you, come back and we'll address how you can deal with that.

Really could use advice. Should I post a seperate thread?

 

[azygous]

Forum courtesy suggests you start your own thread rather than co-opting someone else's. It's easy enough. State the problem and describe the rooster, age, breed, was he hand raised or did you get him after he was grown, number of hens, other roosters if any, your run and coop, and anything you think may help us get a broad picture.

I'll be watching for you, and will be happy to share my thoughts and experience!

 

[azygous]

That is my biggest fear if I have to re-home....

Let me tell you a true story about a roo that was re-homed.

I hand-raised some Wyandotte chicks last summer until they were five weeks old, then they went to live in another flock kept by a friend of mine. One of the chicks turned out to be a roo, naturally. Walter, the young cockerel, got to be of hormonal age, and he became very obnoxious and overly attentive to the mature hens, and one in particular was getting rather thread bare from his attentions. He was also becoming rather aggressive and combative with my friend when he had to go into the run.

So my friend decided to take him into town to the animal shelter because they had told him they could find a home for him. He got to town and found the animal shelter wouldn't open for another two hours, so he decided to drive on over to the building supply yard for some materials since my friend is a builder by trade and he was on a tight schedule..

When he was checking out, he happened to mention Walter out in the truck and being on his way to the animal shelter. The young man who was waiting on him said, "A rooster? Can I have him?" So my friend asked him if he was thinking of keeping him as a pet or eating him. When the guy replied that he wanted him for a pet, Walter was handed over.

A few weeks later, my friend needed to stop in for more supplies, and he asked how Walter was doing in his new home. My friend wasn't quite prepared to learn what kind of life he had consigned this rooster to.

Walter is a house pet. He hangs out with the family in the evenings and watches TV with them from his perch on the back of the couch. At bedtime, he sleeps on top of a file cabinet. When morning comes, he goes outside and plays all day with a goat and a dog when he's not free-ranging and dirt-bathing.

What about the poop in the house? I'll ask about that when I go to the building supply yard myself next week, but my guess is that they discovered how easy it is to paper train a rooster.