help! rooster severely hurt a hen.

[Kylea0219]

My rooster has severely hurt my hen. He has been crowing non stop lately and has been wearing the feathers off all my girls. Half are losing their feathers on their backs and their heads have a little bald patch from him grabbing them. He has been crowing non stop to the point where my neighbors who have chickens complained. I can't even see my neighbors house so hes pretty darn loud.

this morning I opened the coop and one of my sweetest girls was covered in blood. The rooster had been picking on her lately because shes wearing a vest because her whole back was completely bald. He must have grabbed the back of her head terribly because he ripper about a two inch patch of skin almost off. The poor thing.

The rooster is most likely going to become soup tonight when I get home. But what caused my relatively nice rooster to get way rougher with the girls?

I am hoping my hen makes it. I cleaned it out with just water. trimmed back a bunch of her feathers and placed the flap of skin back close as I could get it and wrapped it light ly with gauze so it can still breath. Shes isolated in my laundry room in a dog crate she seems to be eating and drinking fine. its pretty terrible..

 

[Kylea0219]

here's pictures

 

[Kylea0219]

Do you think she will make it?

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Chickens are tough. As long as it doesn't get infected, she should be ok. You need to keep a VERY close eye on it, isolate her from other chickens and keep flies away. Clean it daily for a few days. Hope everything goes well!

 

[Kylea0219]

Thanks Any Idea what caused my rooster to become so aggressive with the hens? he's about a year and a half old.

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Thanks Any Idea what caused my rooster to become so aggressive with the hens? he's about a year and a half old.

How many hens do you have, how old are they, and how long have you had them? Do you have any other roosters?

 

[Kylea0219]

I have 12 hens and him. They are all around the same age around a year and a half old. I got the girls as day old chicks last February . I got him a few weeks after them but that was well over a year ago. They have all been together almost their entire lives. Seems like since this spring he's been much rougher. We had no problems over the winter. He has plenty of hens. I am amazed with that many that I have so many he's worn the feathers off their backs.

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Yeah, that is a lot of hens for one rooster. Mine don't have that many each but the feathers aren't worn off like that. I don't know why he is doing this all the sudden. Sometimes rooster's hormones go crazy but then they get back to normal. I guess the best thing to do is get rid of him...or at least separate him from the hens for a while and see if he improves.

 

[Kylea0219]

I was thinking he might have a hormonal thing going on. The excessive crowing is new as well.

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Do you have neighbours with chickens? Or someone near you that has a rooster he hears crowing? Sometimes that will make them more aggressive as well.