Hen attacking Rooster

[Zealo]

So my new members of the flock have settled in rather nicely with the older gals, but now that they get along, other problems are starting to appear.

I've got 8 chickens all together.

Older gals- Two barred rocks, and one Rhode island red

Younger members- two light brahmas, one white barred rock, and two production reds... Which one turned out to be a rooster.

The younger ones were all raised up together and have never shown heavy aggression towards each other until a few days ago.

My white barred rock is the head honcho when it comes to the younger ones, though she used to be content with following the rooster around even though she'd still show him that she was boss. One day I guess she just got sick of him sticking around and kept trying to pick a fight with him. She wouldn't let him eat, stand around, lay, anything really without her standing above him with her neck feather up.

One day I got back from work and I saw blood around her neck. I took her inside right away and found out that she had two small scratch's on the side of her head, and when I went back to the run, I realized the roosters feathers were everywhere. Not wanting another fight to breakout, I went and grabbed him, and as soon I caught him, she came straight over and was attacking his face with what I'd pick clearly as rage. Which gave away that it was indeed them fighting.

The rooster has his own place now, much to his dislike, and is allowed to see the girls through a fence. Sometime the white barred will come over, fluff her neck feathers and stare him down. But now that their separated, she mostly ignores him.


I tried looking up closer problems that people have had that's somewhat similar to mine.
But its always, new hens attacking a rooster, or a new rooster being attacked by established hens.

Which in my cause it a already established flock with just a hen attacking a rooster.

Save to say, I think my hen is more of a rooster then the actual rooster.

 

[aart]

How old are these birds?
Are you absolutely sure the white rock bully is a hen?

 

[dekel18042]

How old are these birds?
Are you absolutely sure the white rock bully is a hen?

I thought the same thing. Bur if you add a rooster, especially a young one, he isn't going to start at the top of the pecking order. If the hens are older (and bigger), they will quickly put him in his place and he will have to work his way to the top.
If I have a young rooster in with others his age and I am interested in him, perhaps for a flock rooster and he is being bratty as a young rooster can be, I will throw him in with the hens (or even occasionally into the bachelor pad for a much needed attitude adjustment.
My most respectful roosters come up through the ranks this way.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

What you witnessed is the normal interaction between a hen and a rooster. This is classic pecking order behavior of an alpha hen trying to maintain her position at the top of the pecking order. I'm sorry but when one chicken pecks another chicken to either defend itself or else establish or advance its place in the pecking order, blood is drawn. In fact chicken blood is spilled so often by chickens themselves that domestic chickens have evolved to have championship blood clotting abilities. This is also why i chide folks who tell us that they have a 2, 4, 6,8,10, or even 12 month old rooster. Some chickens of the male persuasion do not come into their own or in other words produce enough testosterone to hold their own in a large flock of older hens that is until that bad boy hits about two years old. There has been many times that i have culled a mature rooster running with 10 or more cockerels. It never failed that if i shot the alpha roo to cull him, that his understudies fell on and began flogging the still flopping body. Your hen was just taking advantage of your poor rooster while you had him at a disadvantage. Chickens are quick to sense a vulnerability in others and exploit this vulnerability fully.

A roosters' protection of your hens has a price. The price that he demands is flock supremacy. You may like it or you can lump it but if he lives long enough he will achieve it. If this sounds too much like the law of the jungle to you, remember that domestic chickens are just poor copies of the Red Jungle Fowl. So the Law of the Jungle analogy applies to the ancestors of the Jungle Fowl.

 

[Zealo]

My younger ones are going to be 15 weeks old tomorrow and Definitely sure my white barred is a hen. While she acts like a rooster in front of the actual rooster, she's very much a hen.

Truth be told, I care little for the rooster and have no plans on keeping him and have no prob with my white barred beating him up to show him who's boss. I'm more worried what damage he can do to them when his older. So once his old enough, he's going into the fridge because I have no need for roosters and don't tolerate them.

My hens do a wonderful job of protecting themselves, so having a rooster... Other then to make chicks, would be pointless at this moment.


Was more interested if anyone had heard of a single hen outrageously attacking a rooster to kick him out of the flock.
Just the fact that she makes him cower before her presence makes me laugh.

 

[dekel18042]

My younger ones are going to be 15 weeks old tomorrow and Definitely sure my white barred is a hen. While she acts like a rooster in front of the actual rooster, she's very much a hen.

Truth be told, I care little for the rooster and have no plans on keeping him and have no prob with my white barred beating him up to show him who's boss. I'm more worried what damage he can do to them when his older. So once his old enough, he's going into the fridge because I have no need for roosters and don't tolerate them.

My hens do a wonderful job of protecting themselves, so having a rooster... Other then to make chicks, would be pointless at this moment.


Was more interested if anyone had heard of a single hen outrageously attacking a rooster to kick him out of the flock.
Just the fact that she makes him cower before her presence makes me laugh.

Ah, but the worm will (Should, anyway) turn......

 

[123EJD459]

So my new members of the flock have settled in rather nicely with the older gals, but now that they get along, other problems are starting to appear.

I've got 8 chickens all together.

Older gals- Two barred rocks, and one Rhode island red

Younger members- two light brahmas, one white barred rock, and two production reds... Which one turned out to be a rooster.

The younger ones were all raised up together and have never shown heavy aggression towards each other until a few days ago.

My white barred rock is the head honcho when it comes to the younger ones, though she used to be content with following the rooster around even though she'd still show him that she was boss. One day I guess she just got sick of him sticking around and kept trying to pick a fight with him. She wouldn't let him eat, stand around, lay, anything really without her standing above him with her neck feather up.

One day I got back from work and I saw blood around her neck. I took her inside right away and found out that she had two small scratch's on the side of her head, and when I went back to the run, I realized the roosters feathers were everywhere. Not wanting another fight to breakout, I went and grabbed him, and as soon I caught him, she came straight over and was attacking his face with what I'd pick clearly as rage. Which gave away that it was indeed them fighting.

The rooster has his own place now, much to his dislike, and is allowed to see the girls through a fence. Sometime the white barred will come over, fluff her neck feathers and stare him down. But now that their separated, she mostly ignores him.


I tried looking up closer problems that people have had that's somewhat similar to mine.
But its always, new hens attacking a rooster, or a new rooster being attacked by established hens.

Which in my cause it a already established flock with just a hen attacking a rooster.

Save to say, I think my hen is more of a rooster then the actual rooster.

There’s a ton of more experience people on here than me, but I have had some success so I thought I would share.
I honestly never have gone 30 days of separation, for one reason space and the other I buy locally and see and know the far I get my chicks from if not hatching myself.
But I do go several weeks with the roo and chickens looking at each other thru wired fence. The day I let him out I hang broccoli, kale and usually make a peanut butter seed ball and these keep the birds content where their not focusing on just the new comer. It has worked the past three times I’ve done this.

 

[123EJD459]

There’s a ton of more experience people on here than me, but I have had some success so I thought I would share.
I honestly never have gone 30 days of separation, for one reason space and the other I buy locally and see and know the farm I get my chicks from if not hatching myself.
But I do go several weeks with the roo and chickens looking at each other thru wired fence. The day I let him out I hang broccoli, kale and usually make a peanut butter seed ball and these keep the birds content where their not focusing on just the new comer. It has worked the past three times I’ve done this.

 

[raingarden]

Thank goodness. I've been wondering why many of us unfortunate husbands are hen-pecked but I'd never seen a hen-pecked rooster.