Young Rooster

[Crazy_Beautiful]

I have a 7 month old Salmon Faverolle Roo who has just got a rush of hormones it seems. He isn't graceful at all when it comes to thr ladies. He is actually very rough and the girls want nothing to do with him. He grabs their necks very hard and some hens are stunned and wobbly afterwards. He has yet to be successful yet that I have seen.

He great in other parts of his job. Shares the best food with his flock. Protects them from overhead hawks. And is friendly enough with us... little territorial but I am working on that by picking him up a few times a day.

I am not wanting to rehome him ad I was hoping to have hatching eggs comes spring.

I have no bantam hen with him. Smallest hen would be a maran the rest are large breeds like him.

Will he grow to be more graceful? Just trying to find his balance? It is all around so awkward and I've only ever owned one rooster before and he was smooth lol

 

[Tonyroo]

Like all cockerels, age comes with experience. As he gets older his hormones it will settle and he will more welcomed by the hens. Takes about a year to 1 1/2 years to be a gentleman.

If you have cockerels in the future you want to keep. He will teach the young ones how to behave faster.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've never had Faverolle's but I have had one cockerel take over the flock and perform flock master duties at 5 months. I had one cockerel that took until 11 months. Most of my cockerels seem to take over at around 7 months but each one is different. The personalities of the girls have something to do with that too, especially the dominant girl. Not sure how old your ladies are.

Sometimes when they go through puberty it isn't that bad. Sometimes it can be hard to watch. Since violence is sometimes (maybe often) involved it is possible that one gets hurt, but I haven't had that happen myself. At some point he should mature enough that he does take over, the girls accept him, and things turn peaceful. But you have to get through his puberty (and maybe the girls' puberty too depending in how old they are) and sometimes that is hard to do.

To me you have two options. One is to keep going as you are and observe. It's possible no one will get hurt, mine don't, but it is always possible one will. Or you can lock him up where he can see the girls but not get to them. Try again in a month or two to see if he has matured to the point his hormones are under control and the girls are willing to accept him. Either way, you should have hatching eggs in the spring.

 

[Folly's place]

If you have birds who are all the same age, he doesn't have actual adults to emulate, or who would squelch his obnoxious behaviors. If nobody is being injured, things may settle down without having to confine him. All advice already given is good.
However, if he's thinking about challenging you, that's not so good. Do you walk 'through' him? you should. Don't defer to his space, he needs to respect yours, always. And I think hand feeding him isn't a good idea either; toss treats on the ground out there instead, so your birds can come to you when called, but still move out of your path.
Carrying him around isn't connected in his little brain with how he acts when you are out there!
Mary

 

[Crazy_Beautiful]

Question.

What happens if I don't know if these my faverolle pullets and rooster are siblings?
I had such a hard time finding them... and I do want to breed. But after getting hatchery stock and being so disappointed by them I kept the healthiest biggest of the bunch.

 

[Folly's place]

Chickens are actually pretty resistant to inbreeding issues, and I wouldn't be concerned for your first generation. Will you be breeding Favorelles, or mixed breeds? Best to have a plan first!
Mary

 

[Crazy_Beautiful]

Faverolles and Mixes. I have 2 coops each with their own rooster.

This coop is a faverolle roo with 4 faverolle hens. I originally had 8 hens but I sold the ones that had imo dirty colouring. Coop also has 2 Barnyard Mixes and 2 cochin and 1 maran. 10 in total. So best next year start searching for a new roo? They are a hard breed to find.

My other coop are EE.. I like colorful eggs lol.

Each have their own separated runs.

 

[Folly's place]

Not sure who to order from up there! Not showing birds, I'm happy with 'close enough' to breed standards, and care more about correct conformation, size, and temperament. Then correct color is nice. Notice we do white Chanties? The Favorelles we've had from MMcM and Cackle have been fine, but I have no idea who you can order from where you live.
We too like egg color variation! EEs, French Marans, and others, love them all.
mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

What happens if I don't know if these my faverolle pullets and rooster are siblings?

It sounds like you probably got them from a hatchery? Most hatcheries use the pen breeding system to maintain genetic diversity. That's where they have several roosters in a pen with many more hens and the random nature of breeding assures a genetic mix. The more chickens in that pen the better the mix, many hatcheries have kept their flocks going for a long time, though some occasionally mix in fresh stock.

There is a chance yours could be siblings or half siblings. They are almost certainly cousins. With a decent mix in the recent generations that is usually not a big problem. If they have defective genetics than those genetics could be enhanced, but that is the same even if they are not related. That's different from genetic diversity. Loss of genetic diversity is where they get so inbred they lose vitality, fertility, and are more susceptible to disease.

I'm not sure what you are breeding for: to show, productivity, behaviors, or appearance. Doesn't really matter. There are different ways you can proceed. One common method among breeders when developing the breeding stock is called line breeding. That's where you breed the best stock to each other to develop the traits you want. You can use siblings but they usually use a parent to offspring match. They can more point to certain traits with the parent-offspring as opposed to mating siblings. You do lose genetic diversity with each breeding but what you are trying to do is get rid of the genetics you don't want without losing too much stuff you do.

Once they get to where they want to go genetically they go into maintenance mode. There are different techniques for this. A common one is called spiral breeding. One common spiral breeding model is to divide the flock into three separate flocks, call them Flock A, B, and C. The hens always stay with their flock, the roosters rotate in a certain pattern every year. You might mate your best rooster in flock A to the best hen in Flock B, B rooster to C hen, and C rooster to A hen. Follow this sequence each breeding season. A good breeder can maintain good genetical diversity for a long time with this method. You can start with spiral breeding and skip line breeding. It might take you longer to get where you want to go (depending on where that is) but you will maintain better genetic diversity.

One very common model used on small farms for thousands of years is where you keep a closed flock (don't bring in any new genetics) for several generations, then bring in a new rooster or roosters to start the cycle over when you need to. The more hens and roosters you have in the flock the longer you can go without bringing in new genetics.

One very important thing in any of these methods, choose your breeders carefully. Be ruthless in only selecting your best stock to breed. Otherwise you are breeding defective stock.

I don't know how serious you are about improving your chickens through selective breeding. It can be a lot of record keeping and costs if you need separate breeding facilities. It helps to hatch enough chicks so you have more to choose between, what do you do with the extra boys and girls?

Probably a lot more information here than you wanted, but the bottom line is that I would not worry about them being siblings. If I hatched out some defective chicks I'd rethink that, but it is unlikely you will see any problems.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I like to pick up my roosters, and I don't have a problem with them. And they don't attack me. They learn if they get close they will be picked up, so they either want to be, or stay away. I never push them off with a boot or a broom, they think that is fun.