Dead beautiful Americana HEN! (:(:

Bagdad Chicken Mom

Songster
13 Years
Mar 28, 2009
60
26
121
Milton, Florida
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I have a nice size coop 12 by 16 feet with 9 hens, two roosters and 2 peacocks almost a year old. I have noticed my larger rooster really vigorously causing my hens to loose all the feathers off their backs and wing areas. One of my hens was dead in the coop today and she had not been sick yesterday, just a loss of the feathers. Has anyone had this happen? What is it? What should I do? Please help me for I love all my beautiful Americana girls & my Buff Orpington hen. My roosters are an Americana & a Bantam cochin.
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I say get rid of the aggressive roo. I had one who tore my girls up and he became chicken and dumplings. If he is that rough you may want to rehome or cull him. My neighbors have two Ameracauna roos and they are incredibly mean. Always attacking my hens, got in my coop tried to kill my broody hen, would tear her feathers out everytime they got in my coop. I had to quit free ranging my girls because they tore them up and injured one of my hens so bad she limped for 3 weeks. They are beautiful roos though. That's what I would do, if you are really attached there are ways to calm them down, maybe someone else will chime in. Yes, definitely roos can kill hens, if they are real aggressive. Sorry for you loss of your beautiful hen.
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I've started with Americaunas and my first rooster was too aggressive because he was so young. Fortunately, my Alpha Rooster quickly taught him to back down somehow. I would liken it to "Mother Hens." If this has been going on for a while, unfortunately you need to get rid of him. I would first try to give him to anyone with more than one Rooster and make sure you let them know what the situation is so they can make the decision. I would knowing what I went through but I have my own problems right now.

Be a good parent
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I agree with speckledhen, with this description it is impossible to know the exact cause of your hen's death.

Do you need a rooster at all? If not, and if he/they are aggressive to your hens, I would get rid of him/them pronto. There's no reason to tolerate pen drama.

Sorry about your hen.
 
Not sure about where you live but Jenski and I are almost neighbors..the heat index here has been around 110 every day.I have lost a few very healthy birds because of the heat.Even with 3 fans and watering the runs it is more than the chickens can handle.
You need at least 8 hens per roo if you want them to not loose as many feathers but the best thing would be a saddle on your ladies or if your not breeding let the roos go.
 
I do know that feather loss is normal with a roo doing his bit 'to much!' -
I was thinking maybe you should check your hen to see if her neck is brocken? She could have gotten spooked and bashed herself off the roof of the coop. Just a thought as I lost a beautiful big hen that way last year. Maybe she tried to get away from the Roo and hit herself off something and broke her own neck? Eleanor my Hen did just that - she was fine one night and in the morning she lay dead for no reason at all.

Oesdog -
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My Americana roo is so sweet and was hand raised as a chick with the hens. I have a real mean Buff Orpington that might hurt this roo, who is free ranging. I have one Rhode Island Red roo who is in a cage for his own protection for he is a weanie lol I let two other roos out of another cage and on has his space away from the other two roos. The mean roo is separated by his brother between fences with both pecking each other thru the fence, so they are free ranging too. Thank all of you for your responses.
 

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