When do Roo's start acting roo-ey?

[DixieByrdRN]

My 8 week old roo just kinda attacked my other, much smaller roo (same age). This is the first time he has ever done that. He grabbed the back of his neck with his beak like he was biting him and held on forever (while I am screaming like an idiot). The poor small little guy was making a cry like sound. The little guy just started his teenage crowing so could that be it? Doc (my big roo) has been crowing for weeks. Is it like a hormone thing like dogs do? I thought they wouldn't start fighting until much later?

 

[4H kids and mom]

Yup its normal, and it gets worse before it gets better. Once they hit 10-11 weeks they begin their "mounting" (uh, servicing) phase, and your big roo will actually hold the little one down and mount him. The held down roo (or hen) will often find a place to hide their head and stay 'submissive' for a long while even after the 'attack'.

I have found that interferring only makes it worse, as they will do it no matter what, and if you try to keep them apart, it will make the aggresser, even more so. Mine are almost 14 weeks old and I tell you it looks brutal sometimes. Now my Top chicken (ChickenDuck) mounts HIS females and beats the other 2 males if they try to. Everyday there is a battle or two because the other males will try to take over. Chickens are alot like a pack of wolves socially. There are Alphas and there are the 'bottom dwellers' that everyone will gang up on. If you remove an Alpha or a bottom dweller, you are rearranging their pack/flock order and they will fight it out all over again to obtain their possitions. Best I can tell you is to let them work it out. If it gets really bad, use a hose from a distance to break them up. That way, they dont assosiate YOU with breaking up their quarrel. AND it keeps you from getting scarred in your "rescue" efforts!

Oh, and the 'scream' you hear is more of a hurt pride thing, not really a pain thing. My theory is no blood, no foul. I only break up a battle if I see it getting bloody. (which has only happened once between the two 'middle' roos)

 

[rufus]

They are just roosters being roosters. That is life. You might consider having them caponized. When I was a kid, my mom kept the laying hens, but my father would every fall get a couple of hundred male chicks dirt cheap from an egg producer.

At about six or seven weeks, he would have this old guy that "knew what he was doing" to come over and "fix" the chickens. My mother never let us watch because she said it was really not very nice. But I suspect it also was because the old guy was a real boozer.

It produced a very juicy, succulent bird. Nothing like trying to cook a rubber rooster.

Anyway, we never learned how to do the procedure. When I Googled it, I realized it was something I could never do. Also, it seems as if caponizing is illegal in the United Kingdom. However, there must be someone out there that can do it for you.

Rufus

 

[4H kids and mom]

I had heard that trying to capoize chickens older than a week or so old can be fatal to them, and that they can die from the stress, or bleeding out. I guess its probably possible to do when done by someone who knows what they're doing, but I'm not sure I would risk it on an older bird. But thats just me I suppose....