I’m
not missing Frank, the handsome dandy of a rooster that graced my hen
house for a while. He seemed to particularly dislike my Mediterranean
hen, the late Henrietta’s sister, aggressively jumping on her and
brutally pecking at her until she squawked in agony and hid herself
away. His behavior, however, with other hens was the opposite; he was
friendly and protective. He viewed me as a threat and eyed me as if he
were going to make a run to attack me.
I explained my issues
with the rooster to the neighbor who had given me Frank and the laying
hens. I told him that Frank that didn’t seem to like all the hens, just
some of them. As it turns out, Frank had been raised with some of my
hens when they were little chicks, but not the Mediterranean hen. He
didn’t know her, didn’t like her, and didn’t want her to have a place in
the hen house pecking order. Thus, he picked on her.
Frank needs help
After
I sent Frank back over the fence to my neighbor’s coop, he began
exhibiting the same brutalizing behavior, practically pecking to death
the necks of certain pullets and young roosters. My neighbor threw up
his hands a week or so after Frank returned, complaining that he was
sure that Frank was going to kill the younger roosters. Frank had
plucked the feathers of his victims and had pecked them until their
necks were raw.
My neighbor wanted what I had wanted—a new home
for Frank. Surely there was a safe, nurturing place for a cocky,
aggressive rooster, perhaps with counseling or retraining on chicken
house manners. Anyone know a good pet psychologist for chickens?
Chicken psychology
I figured it would be prudent for me to
learn something about chicken psychology so I turned to the Internet
and found some excellent articles. I learned that first and foremost, a
rooster sees it as his job to guard the hens. Chickens also live their
lives in a social hierarchy or pecking order, so if the rooster is
removed and placed with new hens, the order must be established. With
the addition of other hens or roosters to an existing flock, the order
has to be re-established.
Fowl behavior
Aggressive
behaviors in both roosters and hens include pecking, posturing,
isolating or shunning certain birds, and cock fighting (between
roosters). Contented behaviors are dusting (when they lie and dust
themselves in the dirt), scratching, eating, breeding, and laying eggs.
I
suppose in retrospect I could have tried a water pistol on Frank or
moved him a into a separate pen, or somehow established my dominance
like another rooster might in the event he actually attacked me, but in
the end I just took the easy way out and gave him back.
Sorry,
big boy, you had some great-looking tail feathers and a comb as tall as a
backstop, and you were hot with some of the ladies, but we like the
peacefulness now and I’m pretty sure I speak for the Mediterranean hen
when I say, we don’t miss you at all.
