rooster possibly making hens skittish

Hello Everyone

I am WWOOFing on a farm. Chickens are one of my responsibilities. About 3 months ago we got a new flock from another farm, a rooster and 8 hens. Over the last month the rooster has begun expressing alarm for no reason. I observe this when I come into the run to give them black soldier fly larvae. I set the larvae on the ground and leave the run. The chickens gather and start to peck, then the rooster flaps his wings wildly and makes a call of alarm that sends the hens running in all directions. After a few weeks of him doing this every time I bring the treats, half of the hens don't even come to eat the larvae. I am confused by this rooster's behavior and wondering if anyone has ideas as to why he is acting this way? Also, what can be done to encourage the hens who are now not coming to eat the treats to come eat treats?

I will also mention that he does not seem to do this to have all of the larvae for himself. After he does this expression of alarm, once he sees there is nothing to be alarmed about, he starts calling the hens over indicating there is food. The rooster waits for the hens to start eating before he has any larvae.

Thank you,
Yeka

The rooster sounds like a bully to me.

He wants all the larvae for himself.

I would be tempted to trap him somewhere so that the hens can have the treats all to themselves.

Hi Anne

I was wondering that too, but upon observing his behavior, I don't think he's doing it to get the larvae for himself. He eats very little and only after the hens start eating or had their fill. And whenever there's food, he always calls the hens over. His wing flapping alarms seem like rooster tourette syndrome.

I have an Australorp rooster that will aggressively flap his wings from time to time and pop off with the ole danger alarm. I think it is just them being nervous nellys about nothing. I would rather a few false alarms than missing a legit one personally!

Is it a young rooster still growing into his role?

Did he have live food in his old farm?

He might have learned that live things taste bad from other chickens or from eating something wrong.  

It sounds like he believes this is a serious threat and will harm his hens.   His job is to protect the hens.

Is he friendly enough you can spend time teaching him this is food?  Maybe cut some in half?

Timothy Norton wrote:

Is it a young rooster still growing into his role?

Yes, this rooster is young and hopefully will mellow out

r ranson wrote:Did he have live food in his old farm?

He might have learned that live things taste bad from other chickens or from eating something wrong.  

It sounds like he believes this is a serious threat and will harm his hens.   His job is to protect the hens.

Is he friendly enough you can spend time teaching him this is food?  Maybe cut some in half?

The larvae are dried and he does regard them as food, both for himself and the hens. But he does think there's a serious threat. I wonder if it's because I used to give them the larvae close by the fence, which is electric. I know he got shocked at least once, so maybe he began to associate seeing larvae with getting shocked. This does not stop him from eating it though. For the last week I have been walking the larvae to the center of the run so it's not anywhere near the fence.