Bully Rooster

[RGfarms]

My Chicken all got along fine until they "went through the change" so to speak. Now my roost constantly attacks the hens. He jumps on them, holding them down and pulls out their feathers or creates sores on their backs. And now this week he has started attacking the ducks as well. No matter what I do( separating them, holding him, hand feeding him and so on) he just continues to attack the others. And he doesn't stop until he really hurts them. When I am outside with them, I am constantly pulling him off the others and defending myself. The spray bottle doesn't work either.

 

[N F C]

I don't know that your rooster is a "bully" so much as just acting like a rooster. How many hens do you have? One rooster can easily service 10-15 girls. And of course, unless you want some fertile eggs to hatch, you don't need a rooster at all to get eggs. If he is over-mating and stressing out your girls and making you defend yourself, it might be time for him to go. There are a lot of nice roosters out there if you want fertile eggs.

Good luck to you, thanks for joining us

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! X2, unfortunately that can be normal adolescent rooster behavior, There are some good articles on raising roosters / bully behavior in chickens in the Learning Center that you might like to check out https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/maintaining-a-healthy-flock some roosters are better than others and if you happened to wind up with a really bad one you may be best off replacing him (if you even need a rooster)... there are too many good roosters around to need to keep an aggressive one.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[RGfarms]

Thank you all. I have read the articles, but thank you again. Like I said this isn't my first time raising chickens, and I've had mean roosters before. But I've never had one that actually hurt the hens. All 13 of my hens have sores on their backs, necks and on the top of their heads. I think I'll just have to keep him separated and get another rooster. But then you have the problem of weather or not the flock will except him.

 

[trailrider330]

Welcome to the BYC flock! We are glad you joined us!

Wow! Sounds like you have an excessively aggressive rooster who needs to learn some manners. It may certainly be time to focus your energy and efforts on a rooster that already has some manners. Good luck!

 

[chickenpatch]

 

[drumstick diva]

Never a good reason to have a bad rooster. There is a glut of roosters desperate for a good home, many nice ones among them. You could get hen saddles to help protect your girls from more harm and allow some healing. But that won't protect you from his attacks.

 

[Tomahawk]

Chicken soup

 

[RGfarms]

This morning when I let them out he was only attacking the ducks. I don't understand him at all, he is on weird rooster.