Bully rooster

[tfrederick]

I have 10 hens and one rooster. The rooster is a beautiful leghorn, rhode island red mix. He was raised with two Buff hens and a Red hen. Last month I noticed he was attacking one of the Buffs. Literally attacking her and chasing her away. I watched and thought he may be mad b/c she was refusing to let him mount. Not sure if that was the case. A few weeks later, whenever he came near, she fluffed out and got mean. But he still attacked. She was acting broody and she ended up sitting on eggs in another coop for a few weeks (15 eggs and no chicks!?!) When she came out of her nesting coop, he saw her from the adjacent run and attacked through the fence!?! Now she is back with the flock and he is back to chasing her away. She spends the days in the coop and is losing weight. I moved her into an adjacent coop with six other younglings I am raising and she does well with them. I have tried to move her back to the flock and she is attacked!?! Is this the hen, or the Roo, or something else? Can anyone help??

 

[ashlierami]

I have 10 hens and one rooster. The rooster is a beautiful leghorn, rhode island red mix. He was raised with two Buff hens and a Red hen. Last month I noticed he was attacking one of the Buffs. Literally attacking her and chasing her away. I watched and thought he may be mad b/c she was refusing to let him mount. Not sure if that was the case. A few weeks later, whenever he came near, she fluffed out and got mean. But he still attacked. She was acting broody and she ended up sitting on eggs in another coop for a few weeks (15 eggs and no chicks!?!) When she came out of her nesting coop, he saw her from the adjacent run and attacked through the fence!?! Now she is back with the flock and he is back to chasing her away. She spends the days in the coop and is losing weight. I moved her into an adjacent coop with six other younglings I am raising and she does well with them. I have tried to move her back to the flock and she is attacked!?! Is this the hen, or the Roo, or something else? Can anyone help??

I would say it's the roo. Maybe he doesn't accept her since she's not submissive to him. I used to have the same problem. My favorite roo was very mean to an older hen I still have. He would peck her,chase her away from the food, kick her out of the roost at night. She wasn't his favorite hen but she was his first hen. She would also at times not let him mount her which is when I noticed he would be the meanest. I would keep them separate if you plan to keep both. He could really hurt her or tear out feathers and leave her bare. If she's happy with other playmates I would leave her there until things can be peaceful between them.

 

[aart]

I would say it's the hen......something is 'off' with her.
First it was that she was becoming broody....then it was reintroducing her after being separated from the flock while setting.

Why no chicks...did you have fertile eggs?
Did you candle them 5 days in to make sure they were developing?
Maybe this boy is not getting the job done and he was afraid she was going to 'tell on him'....(hahaha, totally kidding)

Hard to say what to do long term.
What are your plans to integrate the youngsters with the older flock?
I would leave 'problem' hen with youngsters and see what happens during integration.
How attached are you to this cock/erel...to the problem hen?
Might need to get rid of one or the other in the long run.


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