Help! Roo killed a 3 month old chic

[pollitohenhouse]

I need some advice.
I have a small flock of 16 chickens. 4 are 2 years old all easter eggers (including the roo). 4 are from a spring hatch all ee. And 8 are a late spring hatch of silkie/ee.
The whole flock has been together since may,with not a single issue. The roo always brought everyone treats and protected the flock!
Then 2 days ago i noticed one of the older chic was staying away from the flock (weird for such a tight knit flock). Then i saw the roo chasing the chic very very aggressivly. The roo would chase it off every time it saw it! The hens didnt seem to care at all.
So when i finally said enough is enough and went to seperate the roo.... It was too late the chic was dead, hard to see what exactly happened but a large portion of its back feathers were pulled out.
Sooooo wtf? Why? What should i do? He hasnt done it to any others and he seems fine now. Wtf?

 

[Mrs. K]

Well keep an eye out, but I think something was wrong with the chick, that you missed. It is not uncommon for the flock to run off a sick bird.

 

[AmyJane725]

I agree with Mrs. K.

Also tossing it out there that maybe the chick was a cockerel and he did it for competitive reasons? Not sure though. Just a thought.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

At 3 months old... I'm guessing it was a cockerel and the rooster wasn't taking his advances.

EE cockerels have been some of my least favorite.

I'd probably invite him to dinner, especially if there's another incident.

Also, at 3 months... they aren't really chicks anymore. More like hormone enraged idiots.

Wish I could agree that there must have been a problem... I seriously doubt it was anything other than competition.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[DobieLover]

I recently read a thread here about a rooster killing off only the cockerel chicks.
And, yes, if there is something wrong with a chicken, the flock leaders will make efforts to rid the flock of that bird. It's a brutal thing to witness.

 

[Ridgerunner]

How old are your spring hatch chicks? Two months? Four months? I don't see where the OP actually gave a good age. If you are south of the equator they cold be a lot older. Was that chick a cockerel? Are any of the others his age males? I'll also ask how much room you have.

It's quite possible it was a cockerel that had hit puberty. The rooster saw it as a rival, especially if the cockerel was bothering the hens. Typically my roosters chase the cockerels away from the hens. The cockerel runs away and it is over. Did the cockerel have enough room to run away and get away? That said, I have had some roosters be more aggressive in the chase than others. If they have room, it is pretty normal for a rooster to run cockerels out of his flock when they hit a certain level of maturity.

When my cockerels and pullets are going through puberty they tend to stick together but stay away from the mature rooster and hens, except sometimes a cockerel tries to mate with an adult hen. Your talk about a tight knot flock with those age differences sounds a little strange to me. Mine typically separate by age. They mingle sometimes but are more often in sub-flocks. With that one being by itself it makes me wonder if something was wrong with it. That just doesn't sound right.

I have had a chicken take such an intense dislike to another one that it killed it, personality differences I guess. That's been more between siblings than a mature chicken against an immature one though.

I don't know what is going on, could be different things. If you have a fair amount of room and you see that happening again, maybe get rid if the rooster. But as of now, I don't see that he did anything wrong.

 

[AmyJane725]

I don't see where the OP actually gave a good age.

It's in the title of the thread.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's in the title of the thread.

Thanks, I missed that.

 

[AmyJane725]

Thanks, I missed that.

It's all good.

I've had the same thing happen where people say something in the title that they don't mention in their actual post and I'm like, what did I miss?

 

[pollitohenhouse]

The spring hatch was from april, the late spring hatch was just before june.
And the rooster did it again yesterday, and this time it was one of the young silkies! I cant tell yet which are roos or not out of both batches lol. I have him seperated now and hes not liking it.
And i should have plenty of room for them. The coop is shed style 12ftx10ft. The run is a covered 14ftx12ft. And they all free range my 20acre lot all they want