Chickens upset with me!!!

[MamaChik]

Ok, So I have two 9 month old girls and then I got 3 other chicks that are now 7 months old. One of those turned out to be a rooster. I am moving in the next month and was not able to keep the rooster. Not to mention he was starting to pull the feathers out of my big girls heads trying to mount them. He is a lot smaller than the two older girls. Well I was able to find him a good home and thought they would all be ok with him gone. But I was really wrong. My two youngest who were the most docile and lovable girls, now the one who was the sweetest, bit my lip and made me bleed and wont let me put her anywhere near my face, The other young one is talking up a storm like she is lost with out her rooster. And one of the older girls who was getting the worse of the feather pulling is now pulling out her tail feathers herself... I feel soooo bad.. I was not able to keep him anyway since I am moving but how long will this devastation of my girls last??? Will they ever love me again?? Will they ever be happy or will they hold a grudge???

What did I do to my happy flock....

 

[HouseCat]

Holding any chicken close to your face isn't the wisest thing you could do- especially when they're under stress. I would assume that over time, they'll calm down. I'm sure having their "protector" gone is very unsettling to them.

 

[Mrs. K]

give them 3-7 days and they will forget all. Chickens really do not have long memories

 

[harleyguy927]

Wow, my flock of hens has never been around a rooster. So somehow one of them has become the leader of the pack. She keeps the others in line and makes sure they all make it to the coop at night. And she makes a strange noise when I walk into the run. Not a crowing or clucking, but like a deep but loud growl. It intimidates my 200lb. Mastiff..lol

 

[PuffyChick]

And she makes a strange noise when I walk into the run. Not a crowing or clucking, but like a deep but loud growl. It intimidates my 200lb. Mastiff..lol

One of my girls does this too. No rooster.

She sounds down right scary when she does her growl.
I have taken to calling her "Cluck-A-Holic" cause all she does is talk talk talk and it is not the sweet little peep peep.

 

[Volkova]

Hi there, I have a Silkie Hen and a Silkie Rooster in my orchard. They are like a newly-married couple, always together, they share their food, sunbathe next to each other and take dust baths together! I was going to get rid of him and send him to someone who would like a cockerel to fertilize their eggs with. However, I rejected the offer after watching them all day.

When I decided to let them out for the day (Wednesdays and Saturdays are play days!) they went off together. I checked on them later, the Cockerel was quickly running off from a Star Hen. The Silkie just sat there (she is bit dipsy) then once she realised the cockerel had run off.....

She cried and let out her shrieky side, not a nice side of her I must admit. Luckily, I managed to reunite the pair and they lived happily ever after. The End.

My advice: Don't worry if they play up on you, they have lost a friend! Chickens will soon shake it off them though and learn to adapt into "feminist chickens - we don't need no rooster!" like my hybrids did. I even had one hen that started behaving like a rooster, crowing and marching around the coop. Time will sort them out, try to take their mind off it with a distraction (treat or a new item in the coop) and that usually works.