Author Topic: Large cockerel with small hens ? (Read 3510 times)

aaronsundin · « **on:** September 29, 2012, 08:09:03 am »

Hi everyone ,
a few months back I purchased 6 chocolate orpington hatching eggs from ebay . Four out of six hatched - two were dispatched quite young as they were cockerels and started fighting , leaving me with one cockerel and one hen . They are beautiful chocolate orps , but bantams thay sure aint ! The cockerel is massive and has just started taking an interest in the girls . They all live free range during the day but most of the hens I have are banties and much smaller than him . I'm worried that the hens may get injured being mated but a large fowl cockerel , should I get rid now ? Yesterday afternoon I saw him catch , kill and devour a robin , something I've never seen any of the chooks do before .

fairhaven · « **Reply #1 on:** September 29, 2012, 08:30:34 am »

I must admit I've never seen one do that to a wild bird before either

How is he with the hens, Is he aggressive at all? Do they seem settled with him there? We have a huge light sussex cockerel & some of our hen are bantams and they have all been fine with him - He has mated a couple of them but has been a perfect gent the whole time

If they are all settled & peaceful with each other I would leave him with them, Someone else may have another opinion though....

sokel · « **Reply #2 on:** September 29, 2012, 09:49:10 am »

I have a buff Orpington Cockeral and he freeranges with bantam and full size birds, I have seen him mount the bantams when they stray away from the bantam cockeral but there has been no problems.
I have seen both hens,cockerals and ducks chase small wildbirds and catch them if they get into the runs

aaronsundin · « **Reply #3 on:** September 29, 2012, 10:12:33 am »

Quote from: fairhavenfarm on September 29, 2012, 08:30:34 am

I must admit I've never seen one do that to a wild bird before either How is he with the hens, Is he aggressive at all? Do they seem settled with him there? We have a huge light sussex cockerel & some of our hen are bantams and they have all been fine with him - He has mated a couple of them but has been a perfect gent the whole time
If they are all settled & peaceful with each other I would leave him with them, Someone else may have another opinion though....

He's absolutely fine with the hens and indeed the other two cockerels . Not shown any sign of aggression at all . Just the normal pecking order thing at feeding time and when I check them all in at night when they're finding their own space. I'm not wanting to be rid of him as of course with most of them , he's a stunning looking bird . Reading the replies I shall keep him all the time there isn't a problem , many thanks.

in the hills · « **Reply #4 on:** September 29, 2012, 07:29:05 pm »

None of mine seem to show any aggression to wild birds - even when they have managed to get trapped in the hens runs.

I have a RIR cockerel and also keep pekins and other light breeds. The RIR cockerel seems mainly to tread the other big fowl and doesn't seem bothered with the smaller hens. I do have pekin cockerels though and they see the pekin hens as theirs and do look out for them. On the odd occasion that the RIR cockerel has mated the smaller hens he has been very gentle and they don't appear distressed or hurt.

We did, however, have a young RIR cockerel who actually killed one lighter breed hen when treading her. Actually spotted him tread her then just stand on top of her plucking out her feathers

. She had to be dispatched. I had seen him do a similar thing a couple of weeks before but thought it could be immaturity/ one off incident. I had intervened and the hen was fine on that occasion. Obviously he was dispatched.

A friend had a Buff Orp. cockerel who did damage her hens. She put it down to just his weight.