Mean Boy

[RobinS1217]

I have a 20 week EE Roo named Macho. He is with 16 girls he’s been with since hatch and he shares them with a Black Astralorp Roo. Macho will RUN DOWN the ladies and chase them frantically over our lot and pull at their necks and combs. They run for their lives. I know this is establishing dominance but my question is- could this be causing stress for my girls?(only one is laying so far) Or is it a normal Roo practice? My BA Roo doesn’t seem to chase them down the same way. Will peck and attempt to mate (he hasn’t quite figured it out) but never chases them although he is the king Roo in the coop.

 

[sourland]

Just dumb cockerel behavior. I would remove both cockerels from the flock until the pullets are sexually mature and start laying. If upon reintroduction his bad behavior continues, he would have to leave my flock.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Cockerels are notorious for terrorizing their hatchmate pullets. I suspect they are quite stressed by his overzealous behavior. So what does your older rooster do while your cockerel is chasing the girls? Or are both of the boys hatchmates?

 

[3KillerBs]

How old is the other cockerel? And do you have any mature hens?

A mature flockmaster would discipline a rowdy cockerel (I've seen mine doing it). Mature hens would also discipline a rowdy young male (when I sold my older hens this fall one of my buyers specifically wanted a couple mature girls to help raise her young cockerels with good chicken manners).

 

[RobinS1217]

Cockerels are notorious for terrorizing their hatchmate pullets. I suspect they are quite stressed by his overzealous behavior. So what does your older rooster do while your cockerel is chasing the girls? Or are both of the boys hatchmates?

They’re both hatch mates. He will crow at him sometimes but they literally snuggle- there is no bad blood between them.

 

[RobinS1217]

How old is the other cockerel? And do you have any mature hens?

A mature flockmaster would discipline a rowdy cockerel (I've seen mine doing it). Mature hens would also discipline a rowdy young male (when I sold my older hens this fall one of my buyers specifically wanted a couple mature girls to help raise her young cockerels with good chicken manners).

Same age, hatch mates. I have 9 mature hens. They’re co exist free range most of the day. my boys never shown interest in the layers. There are 2 that try to keep them in line. Would you suggest keeping my boys with the layers at night? I’m afraid the layers wouldn’t let the Roos in their coop.

 

[RobinS1217]

Just dumb cockerel behavior. I would remove both cockerels from the flock until the pullets are sexually mature and start laying. If upon reintroduction his bad behavior continues, he would have to leave my flock.

It’s an open air coop so I was hoping to keep a Roo with them for protection. We have dealt with hawks. Don’t have the means to cover it right now. Might leave the tame BA with the girls and put macho with my layers. I’m just afraid those girls won’t let him in their coop at night. They’re fine during the day but he knows his place. They put themselves up at night snd the boys have never attempted to coop up with the layers.

 

[3KillerBs]

Same age, hatch mates. I have 9 mature hens. They’re co exist free range most of the day. my boys never shown interest in the layers. There are 2 that try to keep them in line. Would you suggest keeping my boys with the layers at night? I’m afraid the layers wouldn’t let the Roos in their coop.

In this case, you'd probably be best off either separating the boys from all the birds or putting the boys with the adults until they mature and learn some manners or the pullets reach laying age.

Right now they're at the age to become intensely hormonal and to compete with each other. This will get worse over the next couple months.

@Mrs. K has excellent advice about cockerels and roosters.

 

[RobinS1217]

In this case, you'd probably be best off either separating the boys from all the birds or putting the boys with the adults until they mature and learn some manners or the pullets reach laying age.

Right now they're at the age to become intensely hormonal and to compete with each other. This will get worse over the next couple months.

@Mrs. K has excellent advice about cockerels and roosters.

Thank you for the input and direction!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Typical mating behavior between mature consenting adults.

1. The rooster dances, dips a wing and sort of circles the hen. This signifies his intent.

2. The hen squats. This puts her body on the ground so his weight goes through her body instead of just her legs. Most roosters weigh more than hens of their breed. This is nature's way of protecting the hens' legs and joints from that weight.

3. The rooster grabs the back of the head and hops on. The head grab might help him balance and position himself so he can hit the target, but its main purpose is to tell the hen to raise her tail up out of the way. This is instinctive when he grabs the back of her head. There would be no fertile eggs without the head grab to tell her to raise her tail out of the way.

4. The rooster touches vents and hops off. His part is done.

5. The hen stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake moves his sperm to a special container where it can be stored to fertilize the eggs.

This is the idealized version, it does not always go this way even with adults. Sometimes the rooster doesn't dance but just hops on. Instead of squatting the hen may run away. He may let her go or he may chase her. Sometimes when he chases she squats, she just wanted to know if he was serious. Sometimes she gets away. Sometimes he catches her and forces her. As long as the hen squats (which should be instinctive), no one is hurt, and he is not removing a lot of feathers either at the back of her head or where his claws are resting I'm OK with this.

I have a 20 week EE Roo named Macho.

You do not have a rooster. You have an immature cockerel hyped up on hormones. At that age mating behavior isn't about sex and fertilizing the eggs anywhere nearly as much as it is about dominance, you are correct about that. The one on bottom is accepting the dominance of the one on top, either willingly or by force. With immature pullets it's practically always by force. With both immature boys and immature girls it can be rough watching them go through puberty but eventually they tend to mellow out. It's getting to that point that is the challenge.

Sometimes it is not all that bad but often it can be hard to watch. A lot of cockerels literally lose their heads at this stage. It can be pretty violent so there is a risk of injury but like a lot of things it often looks worse than it is. I've never had a pullet injured with this but some people have. With living animals you don't get guarantees. Most years I let it go but every three or four years I separate some boys out in a bachelor pad, I have my limits. I suggest you base your decisions on what you see, not what we tell you that you might see. And use your tolerances and judgment.

When you have more than one boy, one will be dominant. They each have their own personality. Sometimes they get along well, sometimes they don't. That can change as they go through puberty since they are still maturing. Often the dominant one will suppress the behaviors of the more submissive. Not always but often. The submissive one's behaviors toward the girls can change dramatically if you remove the other. Can change, doesn't always.

Mature hens often want a rooster that is the potential father of their chicks to behave like a responsible father. Some mature hens will squat for practically anything in spurs, even if those spurs haven't grown yet, but many expect more. An immature cockerel usually cannot meet that standard. Different things can happen when you put a young cockerel with a flock of mature hens.

I had a cockerel five months old smoothly take over a flock of mature hens. Really rare, only happened once. I think part of that was that he was overly mature for his age. Also, the dominant hen was pretty mellow, did not want to hold om to the power that much. Most of my cockerels can do that at 7 months but I had one that did not until he was 11 months. In that case the dominant hen wanted to hold onto power too. That was not a peaceful handover of leadership.

If the cockerel tries to mate with the mature hens they may run away from him. He may chase the down and force them, he may not. Usually he does at least try.

If he bothers the hens they may fight back and win. Usually when I see this some hens are OK with him and some fight. Often the dominant hen will knock him off to show she is in charge. To remain dominant she cannot let him mate in her presence, even if the other hen is willing.

Occasionally a hen may try to chase down the cockerel to hurt him but most of the time she's just chasing him away. It really helps to have enough room so he can get away. Extra room helps some of the other scenarios too.

I'm not going to make any suggestions as to what you should do. I don't know. But hopefully by going through all this you might better recognize what you are seeing and it will help you make decisions.

Good luck. Many people make it through what you are going through successfully.