Dead rooster strange circumstance

[Lindsey F]

So yesterday afternoon about 4 I went out to feed my chickens. I have 2 different pens in the first pen are 3 Rhode island crosses and a sex link roo. He's always been a bit aggressive and he's newish I introduced him a month or so ago. Anyway I noticed he and the lead hen have been getting more and more aggressive in general. They aggregate each other and peck at everyone and anyone who tries to feed them and my girls have totally stopped laying and I'm in GA so that's unusual because the weather is still nice this time of year. Then yesterday I found the roo dead as a door nail face down it looked like he has been attacked from behind all the feathers on the back of his neck were plucked and a small portion on his back and the feathers were all over the pen and only in the pen. I checked the pen there's no holes or broken boards and I checked him out pretty good and I found no bite marks or open wounds and my girls were and are totally fine. My hens are roughly the same size as the rooster was, is it possible my lead hen did it. She's killed before and I had to remove 3 other hens from her run because she was aggressively bullying 2 and I caught her trying to kill a 3rd. Is it possible she just got the better of the roo and killed him to?

 

[sourland]

Is there a roof on the pen. If so it is possible that she is the culprit.

 

[Tonyroo]

Why are you keeping such a dangerous hen? When she can flip her mood and go on a killing spree.

 

[cmom]

Years ago I had a couple of hens that were bully's. I tried to break them. One turned out ok, but the other, no way. When I introduced some pullets, she would attack them and get on them and beat them up. After several attempts to break her I finally took her to an auction and she probably became somebody's dinner. I have had a couple of bully males that went. Won't have that behavior. My last incident was a RIW cockerel. He was beat up pretty badly. I took him out and put him with my favorite bird. He couldn't walk so I fixed him a spot in her coop. At first she wasn't too fond of him sharing her coop, but eventually warmed up to him and actually she helped him and he would try to follow her. He did eventually walk again and followed Gladys around. He was doing good then out of nowhere he tried to spur me. When he tried to do it with my DH, he had to go, either into a pot or somewhere. A fellow contacted me looking for a Rhode Island White male. I told him about mine and he said he take him so I gave him to the fellow. I never heard anything so I don't know how he turned out.
Gladys with him.

 

[Lindsey F]

Why are you keeping such a dangerous hen? When she can flip her mood and go on a killing spree.

She wasn't always so aggressive and she's always been a good layer.

 

[Lindsey F]

She wasn't always so aggressive and she's always been a good layer.

She may be bound for the freezer

 

[Lindsey F]

Is there a roof on the pen. If so it is possible that she is the culprit.

There is a roof on the pen. Has to be we live pretty far out in the country and there are hawks and other climbing predators around.

 

[Lindsey F]

She may be bound for the freezer

To that end she gets along fine with the 2 hens she that have always been with her. She didn't start being a bully until I tried to introduce other birds and she really lost it when I introduced the rooster. She has always been the lead hen but she was not aggressive to us and like I said before she's always been a great layer. But when she started getting aggressive she also stopped laying but all that correlated with introducing the 3 new hens and the rooster.

 

[Lindsey F]

There is a roof on the pen. Has to be we live pretty far out in the country and there are hawks and other climbing predators around.

I introduced 3 new hens and a rooster to her pen I had to remove the hens she wasnt having that, and she got ok again. But things went really wonky when I introduced the rooster. Her production slowed way down then she stopped laying entirely.

 

[Lindsey F]

Years ago I had a couple of hens that were bully's. I tried to break them. One turned out ok, but the other, no way. When I introduced some pullets, she would attack them and get on them and beat them up. After several attempts to break her I finally took her to an auction and she probably became somebody's dinner. I have had a couple of bully males that went. Won't have that behavior. My last incident was a RIW cockerel. He was beat up pretty badly. I took him out and put him with my favorite bird. He couldn't walk so I fixed him a spot in her coop. At first she wasn't too fond of him sharing her coop, but eventually warmed up to him and actually she helped him and he would try to follow her. He did eventually walk again and followed Gladys around. He was doing good then out of nowhere he tried to spur me. When he tried to do it with my DH, he had to go, either into a pot or somewhere. A fellow contacted me looking for a Rhode Island White male. I told him about mine and he said he take him so I gave him to the fellow. I never heard anything so I don't know how he turned out.
Gladys with him.
View attachment 2382172View attachment 2382184

My girl hasn't always been this way. She's always been the head hen but not a bully and never aggressive toward people. Once the new girls were introduced she started the bullying and then killed one of the hens. I moved them. But it wasn't until I introduced the rooster that she became kind of crazy. She stopped laying and started being aggressive period. Not overly aggressive toward us but she'd peck my hand when I changed the waterer, not even really mean. She'd peck me once when I picked it up or put it down. Thinking about it now I guess she was telling me she was not happy. But she never pecked at the kids so I just ignored it. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about her if she keeps being aggressive AND won't lay I reckon she'll go to the freezer