Chick killing rooster

[sakari26]

I have a rooster that went after a hen and her chicks. He killed one chick. Why would he do this? I am new to the chicken world. I inherited 2 roosters and 3 hens when their owner abandoned them. The 5 have since moved to my neighbor's place. She has the hen, 7 chicks(that includes the dead one) and 10 pullets. She said that the rooster just went after the hen and chicks and ran them into a fence, then killed the chick.

We are thinking of getting rid of the roosters but they are free-ranging. How do we catch them? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I really don't want to have to shoot the roosters but we can't have them killing the chicks.

 

[rooster-red]

Chicks need to be housed with the mama hen seperately from the flock until they are old enough to be able to get away from attackers, other hens will attack them too.

If you need to catch the roosters, wait until they roost at night, its easy then.

 

[sakari26]

Thanks for the info. I will let my neighbor know also.

 

[Charlie Chicken]

It sounds like you have several candidates for chicken soup.

Yes, chickens have terrible eyesight at night and after dark you can just walk right up to them.