Flock behaviour after re-homing one of the roosters, should I worry?

[chickenbike]

Sunday night we took one of our roosters over to a friend's. This leaves me with the dominant rooster and 2 hens. These 3 have been a bit morose the past couple of days. Is this normal?

When we caught the submissive rooster, there was a bit of a disturbance in the coop obviously, but nothing great and not for longer than a minute. These 4 were together since hatching and now these 3 just seem a little out of sorts. They didn't finish their yoghurt/oatmeal treat today....and didn't much care for a tomato....normally, both these would be eaten non-stop until gone.

Should I worry, or is this normal? Will they re-settle? Should I just keep the routine as per usual and see where they're at in another few days?

 

[sianara]

They've probably just noticed the loss of the other rooster since there are so few of them in the flock. They'll get back to normal shortly I'm sure.

In one of my flocks, the favorite hen of my rooster disappeared and I thought for sure the rooster would be sad (his flock is small too) but he didn't even seem to miss her or notice she was gone.

Years ago, two of my hens were best friends and one got sick. The second one protected her from the flock (and the second one was the lowest on the pecking order too) and when her friend died, she mourned her for days, there was no other word for her behavior.

So yeah, sometimes they show it and sometimes they don't. Just like people.

 

[chickenbike]

I hope you're right and it's just a matter of time. My husband says I shouldn't worry so much! It is a small flock (4 were all we had hatch I'm afraid), until I hatch more in the spring. Certainly the one hen (who was the re-homed rooster's girl) was really out of sorts yesterday. She is better today and the other hen is now sharing the remaining roo with her.