# Rooster hurting chickens



## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Why would are roo pick out a few hens and abuse them? I mean literally chasing them down and pulling feathers out. He's not breeding them just being mean..
I hate to cull him because he's so pretty, but right now, that's all he's worth other than meat.


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## jn4 (Jun 21, 2012)

NannyP,..I have witnessed the same thing over the years with certain Roo's. What I found thru watching them was mostly the Hen's were not submissive enough for the Roos likes. Or they were too independent for the flock in general. I know that sounds abit odd but time and again it has proven right...Those of mine were very independent minded and would be the last to head back to the coop...would wander off from the other girls,..and would "diss" the Roo when he came up......watch to see if these things are happening with yours.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

I have it too. I agree with jn4. I have 2 older hens that are not submitting. He chases them off. But it comes and goes, it's a periodic thing. In the meantime, I provide treats in 2 areas, and some little extra goody here and there sneaky like.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Thx, jn4. Would he kill her? I kind of figured that maybe she wasn't submissive enough, but wasn't sure. DH said it was probably TOM! (  )
Seminole, treats for the girl to soothe hurt feelings?


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Patty, I always give special private treats to the under dog. I don't think the roo will kill her. He either has a favorite or two right now, or like jn4, they are not behaving submissive enough. See who's allowed to eat with him.


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## jn4 (Jun 21, 2012)

NannyP I've never seen one kill a hen before because of it. And it seems to be the slightly older hens that display this action.

My main Rooster died sunday. He would bully up on an older Jersey and a Leghorn. They refused to return to the coop at night is how it started..it was also noticed they were laying less and less. Could be thats the way a Roo culls his flock...you know drive out the unproductive hens. They weren't anti-social..they just didn't care much for him anymore...
So anyway now that he is gone they seem to interact more with their flock and even go in the lockup at nite. 
They also appear to be heading up the flock in the daytime...all the other hens and young birds follow them.....got a couple young "buck's" that will soon take over and we shall see how that works out.......
This "pecking order",.....it's an ever changing and ever learning process..just when I think it will be such and such......they do the opposite.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

That being so, she is one of the older girls starring at 3 years old soon , if she's not 3 already. She's one of my originals and was around 6 months old when I got her. I imagine we'll be sorting through this spring and getting rid of the older ones and bringing new in.


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## jn4 (Jun 21, 2012)

Yeah..it does seem to be with "older" hens.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Well I think it's time to separate Mr Roo. The hen he's been mean to is getting too thin and is staying in hiding. We're going to put him in the grow out pen fir awhile and see how tge girls act. if they get better over a few days ,we'll try him out again. But if he's mean again, he goes to the freezer.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

I actually think he hurt the two we lost or kept them from eating.


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## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

With a mixed flock, especially with a big disparity in the pecking order, I try to always have two feeders... Some times three.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Well the source of my chickens pain and distress is headed for the stew pot. The girls,are already feeling less stress and are all spread out hunting for bugs. ..


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Too bad. : (


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Oh well, in this case, just a part of farm life. He was very pretty but totally unnecessary.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Just want to say my roo is at it again. It must be some kind of dominance thing or he has 2 special girls and the other 4 are just not special right now. My polish roos never did that.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Well, being the "thinker" that I am, have realized that our roo was just too big for our girls. We raised him so his growth did not seem to be an issue until we lost the one with something wrong with her back. Also it was mentioned somewhere on this site about size equality. "light bulb moment ".


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## jn4 (Jun 21, 2012)

You know I hadn't thought of that and I should've. A couple years ago we had a Rather large Jersey Roo that was hard on a couple hens.....his spurs had actually ripped thru the feathers and hide exposing the raw flesh on their backs. They survived the ordeal but it was touch and go for a bit..... we eventually put that Roo down.
I would of caught this sooner if they had been penned,..but at the time I was totally free-ranging the birds and didn't notice the warning signs.

And due to free-range we were keeping 3 Roo's....not a problem per say when Free-ranging.as they separate into several groups instead of ONE flock......it caught me by surprise for sure.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Interesting. I have a JG roo, well 2. I'll have to watch and see how he does with these 2 top hats I have in there.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

My one roo today chased off Mariska, a JG, MY FIRST HEN EVER! 8 years old. She went and sat under a bush. I made her some mush and put the bowl by her. Of course the roo walks over and I block his every move and he walks away. I walk away and he comes back and I got him with the hose. In the interim, 5 other hens, one at a time try to share with her and she just growled at each and they turned around and walked away. She licked that bowl clean!

Mariska is also my drinking buddy


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## tdepointe (Jul 26, 2012)

I have on rooster in a relatively large flock for him 25 hens. The pecking order is he has most of the bird in his flock. Then a dominant hen has 3 hen she rules. Before this arrangement worked out the rooster would pick on her constantly. Now they more or less avoid each other.
No one was killed of badly injured in this while they worked it out although it did take about 3 months after I introduced the rooster.


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## sean (Nov 7, 2014)

I had a roo like that. He ended up killing two of my hens so I culled him.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Thx, Sean! He got culled, too. I didn't realized how much he had starved my girls. They've all gotten nice figures back now though. I have a red roo now coming up, so I'll be keeping a close eye on him..


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Oh wow! I didn't realize that roos could either chase or stress a hen that much. I guess I really don't have any like that here, although some rooster pecking order goes on in the pen with the 6silkie roos.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

I didn't either, Seminole. He was raised in the same coop as all the rest.(he was supposed to be a she) He was full blood australorp. I guess that just Google searching, they are very dominant o er the hens.
This last 2 years have been very educational!


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

I had one like that...he went bye bye.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Here is a couple of pictures of the roo pecked hen. I don't know if y'all can see how scarred and her comb is or not. She was bleeding all over me because he had just gotten past me to her. I put him back in isolation.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

Kentucky fried....


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

As much as I hate to, I guess we'll have to. I'm going to pen him up and fatten him out a bit first.


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

If he's a young rooster he might grow some manners still... if not freezer camp is probably best.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

I draw the line at preventing the ladies from eating. Some do that. My rooster waits until 5pm to eat while everyone else is eating scratch. Causing hens to lose weight is a no no.


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

My 2yo rooster killed my 4yo rooster yesterday evening.I broke up a fight earlier but didn't think much about it because 2yo always ended up running away and was 2-3 lbs lighter than 4yo.I noticed 4yo was missing at bedtime so I went in search of.Found him wedged behind a piece of plywood-dead.Very heartbroken over this.I already have 13yo rooster in house because 2yo was bullying him,13yo is a small rooster so he's easy to terrorize.2yo is my lap rooster and now down to him being the main rooster and he's good to the hens.Put eggs in incubator a few days ago and I hope 4yo has some babies in there,he was a good rooster.RIP Buddy


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

CQ , I'm so sorry! That's what I'm dealing with right now. When comes down a hen producing eggs and a roo just getting his jollies, I'll keep the hen


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Ok, Mr Red has been "re-homed".


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

I am so sorry. Chickens can be really mean to eachother (girls too).


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Seminole, he actually did find a new home and girlfriends!


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

A dog almost got my 2yo rooster yesterday-there were 2 dogs.Only rooster got attacked,he lost most of his saddle feathers and walked/stood in a hunch down position.I kept him in last night and this am he went to the door to go out so I guess he'll be ok.I wonder if Karma had anything to do with it-he did just killed other rooster 2 days earlier.None of the hens were touched.My bird Norton alerted us to the dogs-he lets me know if something strange is in the yard or sky-he's so much better than the dog who doesn't let me know these things


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