rooster attacking my new hens

roddyrooage2

Hatching
Nov 11, 2016
9
0
7
I am hoping someone can give me some advice as i had a two miniature silkie bantams one hen and one rooster bought up together from chicks,the hen was very tiny but very feisty and wouldn't let the rooster attack us, unfortunately we lost our hen recently and it left our rooster feeling lonely,so we bought two new silkie bantam hens, not the miniature variety though. We introduced them a bit at a time through a wire fence, and the rooster kept lunging at them trying to peck them, two weeks later we tried putting them together on the patio, but he kept attacking them pulling out their feathers, can anyone help. we love tham all.
 
Hi, welcome to BYC!
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You can tell your Silkies are girls that young?

How long has your guy been alone?

Have they been in full view with the fence between this whole time or just on occasion? Lunging at the fence is normal. The whole idea is that they set the pecking order (a little) while there are barriers to prevent injury.

Your boy must establish his dominance and the girls will respect him. At his age he probably isn't trying to mate pullets that aren't close to laying yet. Although that is possible, that's not your current issue. But when he does they may scream and run away and it may appear as though he's attacking them and pulling out their feathers.

And you need to establish yours... You say she kept him from attacking you? Here is a link on roosters and setting your order... Post #18 & 25 are the ones I am suggesting.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1149551/aggressive-rooster/10

Good luck!
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Hi,
Thanks for your reply, the place we bought the hens from said they had been sexed as day olds at the hatchery and are 98 % accurate,
we lost our hen only six weeks ago she was very small but feisty,however we only introduced the new hens to him every day but for only short periods. I guess we should put them together full time with a wire partition and see what happens.. what do you think?
 
Hi

Sexing day old chicks is nearer 90% accurate, definitely not 98%, so no guarantee you have 2 females.

Introducing for short periods doesn't help as it doesn't allow for pecking order to be established, so the whole process starts again the next time and the time after that. Definitely put them together full time with a wire partition between. It might also help if you swap things around and give the new arrivals the coop and put the older guy in the introduction pen.
 

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