The downside of having a cockerel

[MEGAN]

I don't know if any of you have the same problem as me but since having a cockerel the girls have mostly stopped showing there place in the pecking order with an odd peck but have started treading the others like a cockerel. It really was worrying yesterday when Savannah a very large wellsummers jumped on top of Blanche my smallest and oldest pekin, it was a good job I was about to push her off. One of my silver partridge hens frequently tries to tread any girl she gets near big or small. On the whole the integration with big and small girls has gone without a hitch and its really nice letting them all have the run of the large area but this new way of showing authority is worrying especially as I have two tiny rosecombes what would happen if a dorking jumped on them. I may have to resort to letting them out in shifts which would be a shame.

[sandiesbrahmas]

What you need is 10 cocks like I have at the moment.

Sandie

[pottymoo]

I have never had this problem I have 2 cockrels one of which is still a a baby Mr p goes around and treads his girls on a regular basis but I can honestly say none of the girls have taken to the same behaviour moo x

[MEGAN]

Right Sandie so what I want is more, I do have little Billie but I'm not sure how much good he will be as he is tiny. Not sure what the neighbours would think to all those cocks though. Ten you recommend then
Moo thats really good looks like you have it sorted. I guess you have your bantams and big girls separate though so I suppose if it started it would not be too much of a problem.

[275wright]

No Megan, I have never had that either. The only time was in the early days when Norah was going through 'the change'. She would have tried it on but the hens seemed to know she wasn't the real deal and would have run a mile. Now she doesn't bother. She runs about with her best friend blind Mabel who is also quite butch and feeds her. Mabel is now sporting a good pair of spurs and her plumage has changed completely. She was quite a pale gold partridge but now she has got more of the male colours. Deep oranges, and her chest is almost completely solid chestnut with hardly any lacing. The only thing Norah doesn't have is spurs, she still has girlie legs, but the rest of her, my goodness I have forgotten what she looked like as a female.

[sandiesbrahmas]

Actually it is odd that your hens are behaving like cocks when they have the 'real deal' around. Maybe they are just trying to sort out their own (new) pecking order as the cock will almost always be the alpha. Hopefully when they know what that order is they will stop the nonsense.

Don't write off a small male, though. I have a tiny chap (probably half bantam) and he sees off many of the much bigger cocks.

As for masculinisation, this can occur when the ovaries fail or when a hen develops an ovarian tumour. It can go so far as crowing and mounting, but they will never be fertile, of course. some hens do have sizeable spurs, but very few use them in the way that the boys can. Having said that, my two Brahma chaps have spurs about an inch long, but they never use them in their (very occasional)scraps, they just face peck. The La Flèche boy brandishes his spurs at times, but always when he is many yards away from any other male. He is just a noisy black woos with an enormous range of vocalisations

Keep us informed of how the behaviour develops, Megan.....and NEVER NEVER have 10 cocks unless you live as we do a long way away from our neighbours who also have cocks.

Sandie

[pottymoo]

yes megan I have the big girls and the batties in the other run. The babies look at them through the door. One of my hens ollie she's 11 weeks now keeps biting my ankles and raisin the little cockrel runs around my feet, I swear I am going to tip over him one of these days moo x

[solarbats]

Megan - We've never had a cockerel and yet our hens have always taken on the role. Our Black Rock Alice used to mount the exbats and be quite mean to them - she is now suffering the consequences as she has arthitis just like some old cockerels get

[275wright]

Yes Megan it has just dawned on me I was thinking of the hens but the ducks and geese would. We never had a gander so Josephine took on the role. She would have mounted Daphne and if Phoebe had have been laying an egg or sitting in her nest she would guarded her like a rottweiler.

With the ducks even when we had a drake they would have had a bit of girl on girl action on the pond when he wasn't looking.

[Barley]

OMG I think my lot should go to therapy......
Henny Penny..a cockerel with a girls name and doesn't protect the girls !!
Mole....a randy drake hatched under a chicken, and likes to mount chickens !!!
3 ducks who like girl on girl action , have evn witnessed all 3 on top of each other !!!

I love them all even though they have their " quirks "

Lin x x x