Advice for promising cockerel

[Lillith37]

Hello everyone,

I have a flock of 9 chickens — 7 hens, 1 pullet and 1 cockerel.

The cockerel and pullet are both < 6 months old. The cockerel is a bantam orpington. Two of my hens are also bantam orpingtons, the rest are a mix of full size chickens.

The cockerel, Odin, was hatched and raised by one of the hens within the flock. He is coming into his hormones now.

I am moving to a rural property soon where I am allowed to keep a rooster, so I’ve been watching Odin to see how he’s developing and whether he would be a good one to keep.

So far he has been pretty good… He is not aggressive to me at all. He is watchful and aware of me, but always moves out of the way if I cross his path. He is bonded to the pullet and they roost together in their own coop. The hens all roost in the main coop. Odin tidbits for the pullet and gives her his treats. He is overall very attentive towards her, always knows where she is, and so far I haven’t seen him try to mate her. She absolutely adores him.

He also usually “stands guard” when all the ladies are dust-bathing, preening or resting together.

Odin has, however, tried to mate with at least four out of the seven hens. And not in a nice way—he comes up behind them and takes them by surprise. Sometimes in the scuffle, he pulls out a clump of their neck feathers. He does also try to dance for them but they are NOT impressed—I think because of how rough he is sometimes. He is also scared of all of them (except the littlest one) if they are facing towards him. Most of the girls will go out of their way to intimidate him after he tries it on with them.

My top hen also chases him away/breaks things up if she is nearby, and all but the littlest hen can fight him off. If I am there and I see him do this, I give him a peck with my fingers on the back of his neck.

My question is that I think he is seeing me as competition and that’s what’s driving this behaviour. I was out all day today and when I got home, I went outside to check on everyone. There were no puffs of feathers anywhere, but while I was out there, he snuck up on two hens and was rough and ripped out some feathers. He knew I was watching/could see when he did this.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can approach my relationship with Odin and the rest of the flock to help keep things respectful and encourage good behaviour from him?

I give everyone a probiotic treat daily, and liver twice a week, by hand. I also put up leafy green piñatas and stake melon halves to the ground sometimes, and they help themselves. I have an excellent relationship with each of the hens. They hang out near me, jump on my lap or shoulders, are completely unafraid of me, and will squat down at times.

Any advice and relevant experiences welcome. Thank you for your time!

 

[sourland]

He's just a hormone driven teenager. If he starts causing REAL physical damage you could remove him from the flock until he matures. Understand that would present pecking order problems on reintroduction.

 

[FrostRanger]

I agree, i'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary for a hormonal cockerel. If he starts becoming too much of a nuisance separate him, but it otherwise sounds like he's hormonal and the big girls are teaching him some manners. I'd let things be as they are for now

 

[ChicNmom]

So far he sounds normal alert and sharing treats is a good sign.
He will figure it out and should calm down when he's about a year old.

I also have a young roo. My older ladies and Guineas are showing him his boundaries and so far he has been a really good boy and thay have taken a few tufts of feathers out of him.

 

[Lillith37]

Thanks everyone for your replies and reassurance. I guess I’m hearing that there’s nothing for me to do differently/not do, because he (and most cockerels) would act like this regardless.

 

[SamLockwood]

What you're experiencing is pretty normal. The older hens are going to see him as an upstart for a while, and what the more dominant hen is doing is actually what an adult rooster would normally do with a young cockerels: teaching him manners.

Any time the social dynamics of a flock flock changes there's a messy adjustment period. This can be adding new members, adding a rooster to hens that aren't useless to a rooster, or one or more birds get re-homed or die.

 

[Lillith37]

What you're experiencing is pretty normal. The older hens are going to see him as an upstart for a while, and what the more dominant hen is doing is actually what an adult rooster would normally do with a young cockerels: teaching him manners.

Any time the social dynamics of a flock flock changes there's a messy adjustment period. This can be adding new members, adding a rooster to hens that aren't useless to a rooster, or one or more birds get re-homed or die.

Thanks for your reply. I was mostly wondering if my presence or lack thereof was influencing his behaviour more so than the fact of the behaviour itself, because I had a suspicion he was only being rough when he knew I was around.

I know there are varying perspectives around how to approach & interact with cockerels/roosters so was curious about whether people let them sort it out, intervene if things are getting intense, give treats only to the boy and see if that helps, don’t pick up or engage with the hens whilst he’s around etc.

 

[Silkie2299781]

I think its already been said, but just going through his crazy teen stage

 

[Lillith37]

I think its already been said, but just going through his crazy teen stage

I knowww and to be fair he is far from crazy, that’s why I think he has promise. I’m just not sure whether I’m exacerbating his behaviour or if there’s a way I can approach him that will help him feel more settled. I’ve never had a cockerel this long before and I have a different relationship with him than with my hens, so it’s a new dynamic for all of us.