Caught my normally sweet rooster being rude to my head hen?

[shannon84]

Is this normal behavior? He is super sweet and gentle with the ladies, but I caught him giving her a real hard peck on the head while she was eating. She's head of pecking order and she's rude as hell to the other hens but I was shocked to see him do that!

 

[nuthatched]

Perhaps she was being sassy? It's called the pecking order for a reason.

 

[shannon84]

Perhaps she was being sassy? It's called the pecking order for a reason.

I was just concerned because other people on here had roosters almost kill hens before. But like I said he is a sweet gentle rooster. I guess maybe he was making sure she wasn't hogging the food.

 

[nuthatched]

I was just concerned because other people on here had roosters almost kill hens before. But like I said he is a sweet gentle rooster. I guess maybe he was making sure she wasn't hogging the food.

I wouldn't read into it, most threads on here supposing that a rooster killed their hens is because they found dead birds with "broken" necks. All dead birds have floppy necks.