Is Henry's behaviour acceptable?

I have a young cochin bantam rooster (Henry the 8th).  He is about 5 or 6 months old I believe.  He is in a coop with a little bantam cochin hen who is same age and two other regular sized chickens who are maybe 2 months, both pullets.  I do not like one particular approach he makes on the females and am not sure if I should just stand back and allow that perhaps he is just working out what a rooster does and maybe they'll settle down.  One issue is that he is focusing on the younger ones as well as the hen his age.  I think they really cannot ready to be wives but they are bigger than he is already so maybe he thinks they are ready to pursue?  Do chickens follow the pheromone trail like everything else or are they unique that way?  

The thing that he does is grab the feathers on or near their heads with his beak and hauls on them, they try to get as far away from him as possible.  They are so not into this, it causes shrieking and major objection, I can see them becoming weary of him and feel bad for the younger chickens.  I also noticed one of the young girls had a little feathered skin hanging down with blood on it under her throat.   Maybe he did this thing to that part of her neck  -  I don't know how it happened but this seems plausible.  The other young pullet wanted to peck and pull it off.  I cut it back actually so there was no blood visible  -  or as little as possible.  

Any thoughts or suggestions would be most welcome.  I can see it is probably desirable to take the young pullets out of there but if he is not staying then they probably could stay in that coup.  The little cochin hen seems very accepting of the young ones, she is the smallest in the pen.  Does size matter for chickens?  -  ie does it outrank age?  Henry seems unaware of age and it would seem size is an indicator to him.  Apart from this particular behavior he is fairly gentlemanly, I guess he is feeling his oats and running on instinct but hope he will develop some finesse to his approach.  I don't know for sure that he did the injury on the young chickens neck, when ever I've seen him do this thing he doesn't go for under the neck  -  I run as soon as I hear the protest to see what is happening exactly and by the time I get there it's often over.  just not sure what to do.  Have never had a bantam before and never a young rooster at this stage of his development.  I was given a rooster once who was already well established in his understanding of what he was, what he had to do and how he did it so did not see a transition from teenager into adult.  any insight on this much appreciated :-).

A gray area, for sure.

As you say, he may grow out of it. May get his mojo worked out. As well the young birds might get more ready to accept his unwanted advances. Then again, maybe not.

I have a youngish rooster now who started out as a real jerk to the ladies. I allowed that he was young and might grow out of it. Nope. He is not growing out of it. The hens HATE him and run, screaming, or hang out in the hen house all day, on the roost, to avoid him. By the time a rooster is so obnoxious that the hens have taken up avoidance behaviour, he is a dead rooster. That is my limit. He has had plenty of time to quit being a jerk. He is brutal and unrelenting. He is dead. You have to decide what your tolerance level is and how much time you are willing to allow Mr. Grabby Hands to work out his technique.

Keep an eye on the torn, bloody bit.   Not to many million years ago chickens were bloodthirsty velociraptors and the site of blood sends them into a piranha like frenzy. They will pick at blood and flesh and quite happily kill their buddies.

I do not know if size matters (I could hardly keep a straight face while I typed that  ) so maybe your little rooster sees those young hens as fair game. I would give him several weeks to get it worked out, but if the hens start lingering indoors to be safe from him, time to take some steps to prevent them from work site harassment.

PS. yes, grabbing head feathers is the usual practice with roosters, although some interesting conversation and a glass of wine would work better!

Thank you for your thoughts Uno, I will give him some time and see what evolves. It has been a week or so already so we'll give a little more time before making a decision. Don't want to write him off too quickly - he's really a nice bird overall and the girls are only weary of him a little bit, not exactly hiding at this point, they are all snuggled together on their roost every night. Wouldn't it be nice if they could take that glass of wine, bit of slow dancing (Marvin Gaye or Smokey Robinson or something from Motown!) . . . he'll get the marching orders if things don't work out though, be karma in bird form for his namesake :-). Yeah, I heard it wasn't the size of the boat, more the motion of the ocean, maybe Henry hasn't heard or maybe he's simply just not that discriminating. You are very funny Uno, I enjoyed the wood chopping conversation. Something about the mind of the person who loves chooks, very sharp and witty. The birds in my group closest to the velociraptor in physical shape and movement are probably the dark cornish, something about their lean configuration and athleticism. Will watch the blood thing. That would be a sorry thing indeed.

Oh, I discovered today that manuka/teatree is the same as melaleuca alternifolia. I bought some essential oils in the health food shop for my burner and the woman gave me a book on aromatherapy, within which there is a page on teatree oil. good for so many things.

I thought that behaviour was normal in young males. All of mine do it at first. We have an EO who is 19 weeks and is grabbing every chicken he can no matter what age. If you watch the older ones mate, they always hold on to the comb. They just do it with a little more finesse. I think the younger ones are going for the comb, they just are not good at it yet. Every rooster we have kept went through a time where they really were not easy on the girls. We wondered then as well if we should keep them. We did and they are not a problem now. We free range so the girls can put a lot of distance between them. No one has ever been really hurt. I am not sure it would be the same in a smaller run.

In my experience it is normal 'teenage' cockerel behaviour, and can be more pronounced in some breeds than others. I've learned pullets grow better and are more likely to reach their full potential when separated from cockerels as soon as everyone can be sexed. Teenage boys are walking hormones and can be horrible bullies. Especially if you have a pack of them. Most outgrow it and settle down after their first or second year, but some never do. Those without a hint of manners don't belong in the breeding pen imo.

Thanks Vic's Chicks and Flicker Chick. Good feedback. I'm getting the steady impression that this is learning behavior and it may or may not pass. Will see what comes and maybe he can spend some "tweener-time" in the bachelor pen if it gets too much for the girls. I heard Banty's can hold their own with bigger chickens, would this be an appropriate assumption for a bachelor pen? He would be the oldest fella in there and right now, actually he'd be the only fella in there cause no body else is showing rooster signs (although Bill Wyman, older Black Australorp is definitely a young rooster but is clueless to it - thinks he's just one of the kids in the school yard). Better get making the bachelor pen! Thanks.