Bullying? Bad roo? Peck order fighting?

[Jemdeenie]

Hi, I have a flock of 7 hens and 1 rooster who have always got along well. They have a large coop (we built it for 18 chickens), 3 nests, and a large fenced in yard. I normally put out one 3 gallon waterer and two feed bowls. I recently separated out one of my hens (white cochin, one of the bottom of the pecking order) because she is broody. My EE rooster has always mated with all my hens except one, my white EE. She is one of the bottom on the pecking order, she is fast. He would chase her around the yard but never seemed to be able to catch her. Recently I noticed her hiding from him a lot. She spent a lot of time on the nest or on the perch. Then one day I saw him catch up to her and pull out feather from her back. Then I saw him catch her and she finally submitted, he mounted her but instead of mating with her he just pecked her head and eventually let her go. I also noticed my partridge rock hen (also on the bottom of the pecking order) go after her once. I decided to add a feeder and waterer in the coop. The next morning I noticed that she had some red scabs on her head so I decided to set things up to separate her out. While I was doing that I heard squawking and my daughter saw the rooster and my partridge rock going after her. She ended up with a big gash on the side of her face, not sure which one did it. I have her separated now to heal up. What are your thoughts? Peck order fighting? Problem rooster? Other issues?

 

[Peaches Lee]

Well, there is peck order and then sometimes there just seems to be bullying. I've gotten to the point in chicken keeping where I'm just like, if the rooster is pulling feathers out, over mating one hen, he's gone.

I like peace in my flock. Rehoming the rooster may solve the problem, but it's hard to say. If it were me though, I would start with him.

 

[Jemdeenie]

Thank you for your input!

 

[aart]

Sounds like she was always a lower hen.
Separating her made it worse.
Did you use a break er crate...and was it in sight of the flock?
Also broodies act 'weird' and that can cause pecking attention.

 

[Jemdeenie]

Sounds like she was always a lower hen.
Separating her made it worse.
Did you use a break er crate...and was it in sight of the flock?
Also broodies act 'weird' and that can cause pecking attention.

The broody is my cochin and the rooster has always been good with her. She is still sitting on eggs in a brooding pen. Its my EE that the rooster goes after. The EE has never been separated out before. She is separated now due to her injuries. She is in sight of the flock.

 

[aart]

The broody is my cochin and the rooster has always been good with her. She is still sitting on eggs in a brooding pen. Its my EE that the rooster goes after. The EE has never been separated out before. She is separated now due to her injuries. She is in sight of the flock.

Sorry, I misread the story.

 

[Jemdeenie]

No problem, it is probably confusing the way I wrote it.

 

[aart]

How old are these birds?

 

[Jemdeenie]

They are almost a year old. We got them all last September as day old chicks. At first I was wondering if pulling the broody out caused some disruption to the pecking order but now I'm wondering if the main problem is that my rooster just has a thing against this particular hen and he has to go.

 

[Chickassan]

Sometimes a rooster just doesn't like a hen or sometimes there is an issue with her that we as humans can't see that would make her detrimental to the flock.
Not playing devils advocate here but it isn't always the rooster being a psycho although it sure looks that way to us.