Chicken Fatality/ Feeling Awful

[Backyardexplorer]

This morning I went out to the coop and my favorite chicken was dead. Right in the center of the chicken run lay my 10 week old Buff Orpington, Butter.

We have 12 chickens, 6 are 20 weeks old and 6 are 10 weeks old. Our 10 week old chickens have been living in the chicken run inside of a large dog kennel for about 5 weeks. We removed the dog kennel and integrated the younger chicks in with the older chickens about a week ago. Zero problems, everyone free ranges all day and seemed to be co-existing happily. They are only confined together at night.

I am haunted by what happened to this poor chicken. It looks as if her ear was pecked or had some sort of severe trauma and her neck was broken.

I have one 20 week old rooster, yesterday he chased one of the older chickens and grabbed her by the neck. I assumed he is sexually maturing and this may have been his first attempt at mounting. The chicken got away and nothing else pursued.

Is this common behavior for roosters? Is it a high probability that he killed this 10 week old chicken? Could it have been some type of animal or freak incident with her ear? No other chickens were harmed in anyway. My rooster has shown zero signs of aggression and feel caught of guard by this death wondering if it was him.

I have a smaller coop I can move the 10 week olds to if they need to be separated longer. I feel confused and upset that this happened to my chicken and I’m not sure if it was a freak accident or attacked by one of the older chickens and could have been prevented.

Any insight?

 

[WingItRanch]

I'm sorry to hear that. I can't tell you what happened to your favorite chicken but I can tell you that your cockerel is making mating attempts. My cockerel started with grabbing the back of the pullet's necks. My guy is relatively gentle (so far) so he would let go immediately when they yelled. But they can be extremely aggressive. Since you have a cockerel that's twice as old as some of your pullets, this is dangerous to them.

I would highly recommend separating your cockerel until your pullets are more mature. Cockerels mature much earlier than pullets. Put your cockerel in that spare coop you have until your pullets start squatting. Or get rid of him if you don't want him for breeding purposes.

 

[Backyardexplorer]

I'm sorry to hear that. I can't tell you what happened to your favorite chicken but I can tell you that your cockerel is making mating attempts. My cockerel started with grabbing the back of the pullet's necks. My guy is relatively gentle (so far) so he would let go immediately when they yelled. But they can be extremely aggressive. Since you have a cockerel that's twice as old as some of your pullets, this is dangerous to them.

I would highly recommend separating your cockerel until your pullets are more mature. Cockerels mature much earlier than pullets. Put your cockerel in that spare coop you have until your pullets start squatting. Or get rid of him if you don't want him for breeding purposes.

Thank you for your response, I was curious if he neck grabbing was a common rooster mating ritual as I have never seen it mentioned. I can’t help but think it was him due to her neck being broken. I will get my smaller coop set up today to move the babies into until they are larger to keep them safe.

I was interested in trying to incubate a few eggs after the new year, that is the purpose of keeping our rooster. However, with this occurrence I’m not sure I want to move forward with egg incubation. We may need to reconsider keeping our rooster. I just feel awful this could potentially have been prevented.

 

[tlcmurphy]

I agree with @WingItRanch you should separate the cockerel not the younger pullets. The cockerel is likely to cause damage to any of the pullets until they are ready to lay.

 

[Backyardexplorer]

Should I separate just him from the whole flock even if 6 of my chickens are of similar age, 20ish weeks and similar in size? How do I know if my hens are ready for mating other than their age? Are there other signs to look? Thank you for your response.

 

[WingItRanch]

Should I separate just him from the whole flock even if 6 of my chickens are of similar age, 20ish weeks and similar in size? How do I know if my hens are ready for mating other than their age? Are there other signs to look? Thank you for your response.

Yes. He's likely to hurt the 20 week old ones too if they're not ready for mating. Are they all laying eggs or at least squatting? If not, they're not ready for mating.

He won't wait for them to be ready and he won't only attempt the ones that are squatting.

 

[WingItRanch]

I'd keep the 10 week old pullets with the 20 week old ones if they're integrated. Just pull the cockerel out.

That's what I would do, anything.

 

[tlcmurphy]

Yes, separating just him should do the trick. The pullets will start squatting for you when you hold your hand over their back when they are ready to mate/lay eggs.

 

[Backyardexplorer]

Thanks so much for the info,I have not noticed any of our hens squatting, nor have we received any eggs.

I truly appreciate everyone’s responses, I do not want to lose another chicken. I will make the appropriate accommodations and may consider rehoming our rooster. I will separate him from my flock for the time being.

 

[tlcmurphy]

Also, you should probably keep him separated until the 10 week old girls are ready to lay as well. I don’t know what other breeds you have, but my BOs laid at 5-5.5 months