Rooster attacking one of my hens

[mmeyer]

Sunday i cleaned out the run and coop ..made my head count, everybody was fine.
Monday am check.. 1 rooster 6 hens... two must be laying. take a look . The one hens whole head looked like... Well if you've seen roosters fight and the winner just pecks the losers head to a bloody mess. that what my hen looked like. Checked back through the day. she seemed to stay in the nesting box all day. From the feed store I got a bottle of ??(don't remember the name) I helps heal but also deters pecking. I put food and water nearby.
Tuesday..Shes worst.she got attacked again. I then see the rooster trying to get into the nesting box (It already had 2 hens in it). I shooed him a way got the other hen out and shut the door. The hens head looks just terrible. Treated it again. she'll eat from my hand and is standing ok. so she by herself. with food and water. Any other suggestions or a why this may be happening?? Oh and yes the other hens are very annoyed that they have to use the other nesting boxes in the main coop.

 

[Barn Mama]

have you seen the rooster attacking her? and if so what is he doing ?

 

[mmeyer]

I haven't seen them fight since last fall. I had two separate mobile coops, one with just hens (the older group) and the new bunch ordered this year. I noticed that on sat/sun aka free range days. The rooster would see the new girls on the block and go running after them. The top older hen would put herself between the rooster and her hens. He never attacked her. Just kept trying to get by. With the onset of winter the coops where combined. A new pecking order was made with the hens but no fights involving the rooster. None of the other chickens are bloody.

 

[Barn Mama]

He could be breeding them!

 

[mmeyer]

Just an update...its been a week and the hen is still alive but the back of her head is just awful looking. I treated it again friday. She eating and drinking and wants to get with the other hens. but until the hole (about the size of a nickel) in the back of her head closes NO WAY. Shes also not laying but i'm not concerned about that considering her injury. The rest of the hens are laying just fine.

 

[Casey09]

i have 3 hens that are having this problem too and its our roo for sure. when he mounts them he grabs the backs of their head and hangs on till hes...finished...on one of the girls he has pulled most of the feathers off the back of her head, on the other 2 he keeps grabbing their combs and one of them he nearly ripped off...i about had a heart attack and locked the roo up in the spare coop for the rest of the afternoon and brought the hurt hen in the house and isolated her for the night. i picked up rooster booster (its bout 2 bucks less than blukote) and that helped her heal and now i put it on all the girls when the roo starts getting frisky again. its about time for the stew pot for him though because hes starting to go after the humans and its getting really aggressive.

 

[mmeyer]

the other hens are ok.. a few head feathers missing but no actual head wounds. I figure it must be spring. He's never been aggressive to me. I'd hate to have to get rid of him, he was suppose to be a hen (feed store bought) so I have a arucana rooster. I'll see if my feed store's got rooster booster. I've got some extra cash from giving eggs to co-workers and friends. I give the eggs away but ask for donations for "feed the chicken fund". One of my bosses wife love fresh eggs. I gave him a dozen eggs and put them in the frig at work. But he forgot them. When he got home he told patty (his wife) and she sent him back to work to get them so she could have a fresh egg before going to bed. He gave to the feed the chicken fund and then the next day i found more money on my desk and asked why and he said Patty said he didn't give me enough.

 

[Casey09]

lol we do trades for out eggs. where we live there are a lot of fruit trees (but not in our yard...) so we get fresh lemons and oranges and stuff for eggs. we also bribe the neighbors with eggs since we arent supposed to have a rooster in city limits

 

[ken-t]

If I may be bold. Roosters breed for sex not love. the one he's ridding is undoubtaly at the bottom of the peck order. I've seen roosters with 10 or even 12 hens ride one continulesly. my advice is unless your trying to have chicks get him out. he's not doing your hens any good. if you were them would you like to be continualy be raped?