Help! Aggressive Roo when 7 hens added to flock??

[NewMomma2017]

Hi all,
So we just started having a problem with our rooster. Back story on the rooster first. We raised our starter flock from chicks. When they were ready they went to our coop and then were allowed to free range within a large net. The net is to keep predators out. The chickens can fly out whenever they like.. Anyway, we didn’t have a single rooster (luck of the draw!) and then one day a random rooster showed up in our coop. We assumed he was the neighbors but long story short no one claimed him. He was pretty young when he joined up with my girls. I don’t think he’s even 2 years old yet. His spurs are just now developing. He has been super sweet and doesn’t give the girls a hard time. Wasn’t rough with them. We added more chickens from a rescue and that brought our total to 19. He wasn’t aggressive at all with them either. He mounted easily, took care of business and left. So, another person needed us to rescue another flock and this brings our total hen count to 21. Now he is extremely aggressive to our new girls. If he has too many hens would that cause him to be aggressive towards the new ones? He attacks them. And I understand that there is a sequence of events that needs to happen for the chain of command but he is tossing them around and making the back of their necks bleed. It lasts for several minutes and he chases them EVERYWHERE until he catches them and then proceeds to bite their necks and so on. The hens are pretty sore afterwards too. They have started hiding places to escape his wrath.
I don’t know what to do with him. Is it normal?? Will it stop!?? Does he need to be removed from my flock?
Any help is greatly appreciated!!!!

 

[NewMomma2017]

Update... he just tore a hole down to the bone on one of the new ones. Didn’t witness what happened just the after math.

 

[tacothechicken]

I've actually never heard of this happening :/ but I assume the new hens are all adults. Most roos raised within the flock have to fight there way to the top from the lowest point and post that won't even manage to seduce a hen until they can dance and crow properly from what I've seen. Your boy sounds like having these new unknown hens about is driving him to assure his dominance so he isn't undermined. Is he breeding them? Some roos have favorite hens they'll drive to featherless whith rashes and sores from breeding also. Roos keep the flock at peace so I assume he's attempting his idea of 'exacting hierachial order' if he draws blood though I'd remove him for a few days to weeks and let he hens settle and find proper escape roots, gain confidence so when reintroduced they're not at a disadvantage. We had a Banty hen who'd jump into the goat area to distract our roos attention from chasing her and shed also run to hide whith our plucky orlof hen who he could never win over XD

 

[tacothechicken]

Update... he just tore a hole down to the bone on one of the new ones. Didn’t witness what happened just the after math.

That's awful and im so sorry if I if the other hens may be the cause because if I your new to old ratio and hens will happily butcher newcomers especially older birds you'll need a separate area but if it is the roo I advise freezer camp cause if this is a behavioral issue any chicks he rears may also carry it and you don't want overly mean birds! Try and find a 3 year or up male who is well mannered and coming in new he should deal whith all hens equally aka no overly injured hens cause he'll know all proper courtship behavior feed, dance, crow, etc and NO KILLING INTENT TO CERTAIN BIRDS! Hope you find and answer

 

[KikiLeigh02]

What kind of rooster do you have? How old are the new additions? Are you 100% sure none of the new ones are male? Did you give them an opportunity to see each other without being able to interact?

 

[sourland]

Generally when this sort of behavior happens the hens have challenged the rooster for dominance and he has decided to not accept them. Since he has been a good flock master if it were me, I would get rid of the two new hens. It is very doubtful that he will accept them.

 

[NewMomma2017]

That's awful and im so sorry if I if the other hens may be the cause because if I your new to old ratio and hens will happily butcher newcomers especially older birds you'll need a separate area but if it is the roo I advise freezer camp cause if this is a behavioral issue any chicks he rears may also carry it and you don't want overly mean birds! Try and find a 3 year or up male who is well mannered and coming in new he should deal whith all hens equally aka no overly injured hens cause he'll know all proper courtship behavior feed, dance, crow, etc and NO KILLING INTENT TO CERTAIN BIRDS! Hope you find and answer

Yes it is very odd... I don’t know why he is singling out the new birds. He isn’t even trying to mate with them just tearing them apart.
I think we will remove him premonitory and try again with a new one.
I just don’t understand. He was so good at first. He wasn’t aggressive towards us or the original crew. Makes me sad.

 

[NewMomma2017]

What kind of rooster do you have? How old are the new additions? Are you 100% sure none of the new ones are male? Did you give them an opportunity to see each other without being able to interact?

Yes, we kept them separated for 3 weeks. They were able to see each other and mingle but not able to attack each other. We added them into the coop over night which they all did fine the next day. But he just started attacking them these past two days.
I honestly have no idea his breed. I posted on a thread asking what other people thought and they said he was a mix/game bird??
The new hens are 6 months old expect for one she is 2 years old. They are all hens for sure.

 

[NewMomma2017]

Generally when this sort of behavior happens the hens have challenged the rooster for dominance and he has decided to not accept them. Since he has been a good flock master if it were me, I would get rid of the two new hens. It is very doubtful that he will accept them.

We added 6 new one and he has now attacked all of them. He even went after one of the existing hims from my original flock.

I think he’s gone mad!

 

[sourland]

Missed the number in the heading. I was going by your comment on flock size going from 19 to 21. If it is indeed 7 hens that is a totally different story. Time for him to go if you want to keep the new hens.