Roosters Ganging up on Hens

[DixxieChick]

I have about 60 chickens. 12 are last year's adult hens, and the rest I bought from a hatchery via Rural King, born early August. I ordered two Black Copper Maran roos and two blue egg layer roos (maybe Easter Eggers?). There were five extra mystery chicks in with mine when i went to pick them up, so I took them to. I bought a few more Bantam/Silkies and they all grew up together. I wound up with at least 6 roosters. They free range most days, although I sometimes don't let them out until afternoon. I leave the door connecting coop and run open full time, except during extreme cold spells.

Yesterday I heard a strange disturbance and found five of the roos gang raping the same hen. Taking turns holding her down while they all took their turn, and as soon as she got up they went after her again. At one point she crawled under a log in the woods and would not come out. I thought she was dead but she got up when I drew near and they went after her again. I've never interfered but I'm afraid they are going to kill her. I threw large sticks at them to leave her alone. Today, same thing, but there's another hen that is bad off too. These girls have two inch patches of exposed skin on their backs. Feathers mangled and limping. I thought they'd survived a fox attack until I witnessed the roosters' relentless attacking. I witnessed the sixth roo trying to protect hens a few times, but it is one against five crazed. They even went after my Sebright Bantam and this years' silkie babies. It has been unseasonably warm - 50/60s. Maybe that is affecting them?

We are leaving Wednesday to visit family out of state for a week. I usually leave them in the coop/ run and they are fine. There are many sticks, perches, and tops of trees that I drug into the run for perches and hiding places so the birds can get away from one another.

What on earth should I do? At this point my plan is to lock the five misbehaving roos out of the coop/ run with food and water to fend for themselves. I am sure I will come home to dead hens if I leave them in with the girls. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm going into my sixth year and have never seen anything like it. Are these roosters set in bad behavior or are they redeemable? What would you do? Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

[goats-n-oats]

There are too many roosters in your flock. (I learned this in my flock this past year, with help from this forum). How many roosters do you have total? They say you only need one per 10 hens. If it were me I'd keep that "nice", sixth roo (I'm guessing he is the dominant roo) and butcher the other 5. Their behavior is usually redeemable but only after some of the extra roosters have been removed from the flock. Sometimes there are roosters with aggressive personalities anyway.
One tip though (from my limited experience), if you have an outdoors flock, a few roosters are necessary to monitor the hens while they are foraging and laying outdoors. Observe which ones are good chaperones and keep those to prevent loss of hens to predators.
As far as your upcoming trip, you can either get these 5 butchered today and put them in the freezer, or set up a large dog crate inside the coop and put the five roosters in there. They will probably beat each other up but will still be alive. I wouldn't leave them outdoor without shelter though.
What is your end goal with these roosters? Meat? Breeding?

 

[chrissynemetz]

I have about 60 chickens. 12 are last year's adult hens, and the rest I bought from a hatchery via Rural King, born early August. I ordered two Black Copper Maran roos and two blue egg layers (maybe Easter Eggers?). There were five extra mystery chicks when i went to pick them up that I got for free. I bought a few more Bantam/Silkies and they all grew up together. I wound up with at least 6 roosters. They free range most days, although I sometimes don't let them out until afternoon. I leave the door connecting coop and run open full time, except during extreme cold spells.

Yesterday I heard a strange disturbance and found five of the roos gang raping the same hen. Taking turns holding her down while they all took their turn, and as soon as she got up they went after her again. At one point she crawled under a log in the woods and would not come out. I thought she was dead but she got up when I drew near and they went after her again. I've never interfered but I'm afraid they are going to kill her. I threw large sticks at them to leave her alone. Today, same thing, but there's another hen that is bad off too. These girls have two inch patches of exposed skin on their backs. Feathers mangled and limping. I thought they'd survived a fox attack until I witnessed the roosters' relentless attacking. I witnessed the sixth roo trying to protect hens a few times, but it is one against five crazed. They even went after my Sebright Bantam and this years' silkie babies. It has been unseasonably warm - 50/60s. Maybe that is affecting them?

We are leaving Wednesday to visit family out of state for a week. I usually leave them in the coop/ run and they are fine. There are many sticks, perches, and tops of trees that I drug into the run for perches and hiding places so the birds can get away from one another.

What on earth should I do? At this point my plan is to lock the five misbehaving roos out of the coop/ run with food and water to fend for themselves. I am sure I will come home to dead chickens if I leave them in with the girls. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm going into my sixth year and have never seen anything like it. Are these roosters set in bad behavior or are they redeemable? What would you do? Thank you for taking the time to read this.

You need to somehow separate the boys until their raging hormones mellow out a bit. Cockerels don't usually have manners, and they could potentially kill a pullet. Especially when they gang up on her. Do you plan to keep any of them?

 

[DixxieChick]

I've only butchered one overly aggressive rooster, with help from experienced friends where we used to live. I will do it again, but between packing for myself and four kids, readying the house and animal chores for being away; plus reading up, gathering supplies, and mentally preparing to cull them, i cannot cull before our trip.

I got the roosters for breeding and protection for my flock. We have a lot of predators out here. I figured 4-6 for about 50 hens would work out, but I've never had this many roos at one time before. Nothing like being reminded how little I actually know about things.

This batch of chickens are odd-- about 15-20 of them sleep outside in the run. Two roos and some hens up on trees branch roosts, and the smaller hens and protective "good" roo on the ground outside the human run door. I used to put them in every night but they persisted on sleeping outside so I let them.

I like your idea. I have an old dog crate and I think i will set that up in the coop for now. Thank you!

 

[theoldchick]

Get rid of the roosters starting with the most aggressive one.

 

[wrathsfarm]

Partition off part of the run with fencing to separate the boys quickly?

 

[PoppasGrill]

We are not fans of culling, but am still in the process of building a bachelor coop for the more, shall we say, aggressive of the rapists.
We’ve seen them corralling a hen in one direction where there are 3 other roosters waiting to catch her, then stand and try to take a turn, we usually intervene if we are nearby.

 

[Folly's place]

Your pullets and hens are having a miserable time out there, these cockerels need to be managed better or be gone, soonest.
Separating them now will be best, this just can't go on!
Mary

 

[goats-n-oats]

If you're looking to add blue egg genes to your flock, Cackle's Black Ameraucana is a large bird with large blue eggs. Their personalities seem calmer than the Easter Eggers.