🚨Wanted: Tips for Raising Hormonal Bad Boys

[Mrs. K]

You are still in the wishing stage. And making excuses for them. We have all been there. I know, and all of them posting know how badly you just want them to get along!

Be aware. This is not a single problem, and the problems are going to get worse, much worse. It is like gasoline and matches, just waiting to blow up.

You really need to pull out all of the boys, if you don't have room for them, cull them. Weeks ago, you could wait for someone to re-home them too, but you are running out of time.

Don't plan on keeping 3, plan on seeing how they turn out. A lot of roosters are not worth keeping, once they get past the darling stage, and you are rapidly approaching that.

Mrs K

 

[room onthebroom]

I'm currently trying to rehome four of the cockerels. No luck yet.

As for the bullied cockerel, he is a Polish and his head feathers haven't been able to fully come in due to being picked on in the brooder.
At first it was not just the other cockerels who were picking on him. Which ever ones saw the blood from his feathers breaking would pick on him. So he was removed from the coop (long story) for about two days. I was hoping it hadn't been too long and set him in the coop while I was adding bedding to the box I was keeping him in, and two of the other cockerels immediately went after him. This was at night when they were all on the roosting bars.

This was obviously not a smart decision on my part, which I realized right away. I'm not sure I would consider this all to be aggression from the cockerels. It seems to me like they were just picking on him because of the bald spot and only attacked when I set him back in after being separated for a few days.

Aside from the situation with the polish (who is now in a dog kennel in the coop) the cockerels are getting along fine. The few times they've bothered eachother another cockerel broke it up.
Though I do have way too many at the moment and one of them likes to bite so I will be rehoming all but three.
I'm trying to figure out how to deal with them until they're gone if they do cause any problems.

Well hello Boo!

Kiki didn’t say the pecked one was a Polish. That’s a whole other issue. That hair is just too alluring for young birds not to peck at. We kept our Polish girls separate from the rest of the flock until they got bigger & the other birds figured out what was food & what wasn’t.

If it were just a rooster vs rooster issue, I’d keep the docile one.

 

[Henhouse Harlot]

That's fantastic

 

[allen wranch]

I separated all my hormonal boys from the pullets. The girls and I appreciated it, but now the boys are fighting among themselves.

I know which boys I want to keep, but it is too hot to ship my “seconds” or take them to the feed store to sell. I do not need 17 Spitzhauben roosters!

 

[Dragonlady1956]

My chickens are 4 months old, 6 of them, 1 turned out to be a rooster (didn't want one, newbie). Currently my rooster only has one tail feather left. Don't know which hen is being a bully but she is currently keeping him in line. Don't know what the future will hold . . .
If he gets to aggressive I have found a rooster home for him.

 

[KellyBogo]

I JUST went through this! Started my first flock this February, 17 baby chicks. I ended up with 15 pullets and two cockerels. Everything was peachy and perfect. Around month 5, the boys turned into hormonal teenagers and began aggressively mating the girls. It was seriously occurring every minute throughout the day. I let it go for a few days, thinking it was just natural (though horrific to watch!). I reached out for help on this forum and found that the pullets are no where near the age of “consent” and are far too young for this behavior. I tried to separate the boys from the girls—I left the boys outside to free range whilst the girls stayed in the run. At night, I set up roosting bars in the run and locked the girls inside of the coop and had the boys sleep inside the run. I did this for about a week, and deemed it not worth the efforts for an entire year. The girls were not able to free range and It’s also quite sad to watch the boys circling the run all day and staring at the coop door at night. If I had the means to build a separate coop far away from the hens as a “bachelor” coop, I may have. However, we ended up re-homing the cockerels to a flock that had mature hens ready to mate.
It was sad for us to part with them, especially because aside from the aggressive mating, they were very docile and sweet to our family. My hens are very happy now and no longer stressed. I do miss the presence of the boys and the safety they provided. We will look into getting a roo next summer. Good luck with your situation. I’m sure you will find a solution that fits your needs.

 

[Mrs. K]

@KellyBogo - Once you pull them, you can almost feel the pullets relax.

You made the right choice, and next spring, pray for a broody hen, let her raise up some chicks with a cockerel in the bunch. That IMO gives you the best chance for a good home grown rooster, but even that is not perfect.

But once you realized, you might need to move a rooster along, it improves the flock, you don't hesitate.

Mrs K

 

[R2elk]

Three days ago I removed a hormonal cockerel. Things have been much, much calmer in the coop since his removal.

 

[Crozanski]

What can one do to help prevent the hormonal boys from beating up the girls in the flock?

Pretend you have a new flock... all the birds are the same age.

All of a sudden a couple of the males decided to start beating up a girl or two.

How do I stop them from continuing to beat her/them up?

I have a similar problem but they all jump on this one hen. She’s super submissive and I’m afraid they will kill her. She looks dead when they get off her

 

[Kiki]

I have a similar problem but they all jump on this one hen. She’s super submissive and I’m afraid they will kill her. She looks dead when they get off her

How many birds do you have? Males/females and ages?