All of a sudden my rooster attacks his hens...thoughts?

[Roo Boy]

We have one rooster with 15 hens. This rooster is a few years old and has always been a good boy. Over the past several months he has become increasingly aggressive towards certain hens. He attacks them while trying to mate. He often times creates wounds and can draw good amounts of blood. He stressed out two of our leghorns to the point that they ran away into the woods and became dinner for a predator. Why would he change his behavior towards his hens like this? Should he be culled?

 

[Folly's place]

Is there any doubt? Wounding hens is outrageous behavior, IMO. Something has to change! I have had a couple or roosters who became human aggressive at two or three years of age, and they were eliminated. This is terrible flock dynamics, and cruel to the hens. Mary

 

[Roo Boy]

I agree. This is our first flock so we don't really know what to expect from roosters.

Why would he become aggressive suddenly? Do you think he will revert back?

 

[JadedPhoenix]

How old is he? Roos mature faster than hens so his hormones may be raging. Be aware that most newbies tend to think that their roo teens are attacking their hens but in actuality, most of the time they are not. It is quite normal. IF the boy is rough enough to draw BLOOD, then isolate him for a couple weeks so that the hens can mature to catch up to him. By then, the hens will then instinctively know how to react to him which will cut down on the "roughness".

 

[Roo Boy]

How old is he?  Roos mature faster than hens so his hormones may be raging.  Be aware that most newbies tend to think that their roo teens are attacking their hens but in actuality, most of the time they are not.  It is quite normal.  IF the boy is rough enough to draw BLOOD, then isolate him for a couple weeks so that the hens can mature to catch up to him.  By then, the hens will then instinctively know how to react to him which will cut down on the "roughness".

Our hens range from pullets to 2 years upto 4 years. The first two he started bullying were the leghorns at less than a year old. We thought it was perhaps incompatible breeds. But now we found a bloodied up hen that is one of his original companions she is probably 4 years old. We think roo is probably at least 3-4 years. He's been great his first year with us, now all these issues. We really enjoyed him until now and wish we could solve this or it remedy itself....but maybe this is not possible?

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Try isolation for a few days once or twice. If he continues, into the soup pot. There are too many good roos out there to put up with too much from a suddenly bad one.

 

[Roo Boy]

Will he not start back even more aggressively asserting his dominance once reincorporated into the flock? We are certainly willing to try it....

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Usually it tends to mellow them out a bit (if they will mellow at all) since it makes the hens more apt to hold onto their own ranking in the pecking order. So then they are "Hen Pecked".

 

[Roo Boy]

We isolated the big boy today. He can still see his girls, but can not make any contact with them. Hopefully this works.

 

[kleinengel10]

i am having the same issue but with 2 Welsummer roosters(7 months old) they attack my 2 yr old black sexlink hen all the sudden. They have ripped the back of her neck open down to the meat. I have isolated them 2 days in a row twice. Poor girl is scared to death of them, she is submissive and still attack her. Not sure why they are doing this only to her. So I think they will have to go.