Hen fought rooster and lost an eye

[fc]

This is bizarre- my Welsumer hen, Bon Qui Qui (aptly named, if you have seen the YouTube video), was fighting her rooster brother pretty often. Neck feathers were up, just like roosters fighting. Darndest thing. Too high testosterone maybe? Poor thing looked pretty bad. On closer inspection, gasp, one eye is gone! She's in solitary right now to recover. Has anybody seen hens fight like roosters?

 

[theoldchick]

Yep.

 

[ramirezframing]

my silkies do it all the time

good luck with your hens recovery

 

[CMV]

Dominant hens can be even more vicious than roosters. They have a lower center of gravity, so they can stay low, remain on their feet more easily, and fight dirty. I've seen my share of chicken kung-fu.

Your hen should be fine once she acclimates to her new situation. I think I might separate the sparring partners, though. Like your mother used to say-

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. This battle needs to be ended.

Good luck.

 

[ClareScifi]

I have a Barred Rock hen who comes up behind a rooster and pecks his rear end, causing him to jump sky-high. But she nearly pecked him to death when he hatched, so she hasn't liked him from the start.

I have seen another roo, younger than her, try to mate with her and she doesn't like it and squawks very loudly.

Now I am worried she might get blinded. How common is it for a hen to get blinded in this fashion? And once a chicken blinds a chicken, is there a good chance he might do it again? Do you think they go for the eyes, or was it just an accident? This is a worry I have never considered.

I hope your hen can reacclimate.

I did receive a message from a member a while back who had a blind chicken she loved who got lost in a terrible downpour, while free-ranging, which she loved to do, even though she was blind. The owner found her dead not terribly far from her coop after a time of searching for her. The owner had searched and searched for her, but it was chilly and muddy, and the grass was high and she couldn't see her. She felt terrible that her girl had been so very close to home and she hadn't found her. So those are the type of things to watch out for with a special needs chicken like your hen.

 

[centrarchid]

This is bizarre- my Welsumer hen, Bon Qui Qui (aptly named, if you have seen the YouTube video), was fighting her rooster brother pretty often. Neck feathers were up, just like roosters fighting. Darndest thing. Too high testosterone maybe? Poor thing looked pretty bad. On closer inspection, gasp, one eye is gone! She's in solitary right now to recover. Has anybody seen hens fight like roosters?

I have had many hundreds of game hens in my lifetime and most get into scraps at some point or another. Never observed eye loss that could be attributed directly to getting into a scrap. Eye may have been compromised by infection.

They do fight like roosters but stakes not so high as with males and serious injuries rare enough for me not to detect. Extent of injuries in my experience limited to very modest feather loss and manner cuts on head.

Fight duration seldom more than a few seconds. When longer, always involved me moving a dominant hen from a flock to another flocks territory. The dominant hens quickly found each other and decided who would remain boss.

If fight invovled a rooster, then he was just a cockerel. My hens can identify a full adult rooster by voice alone and will not fight him.

 

[fc]

Thanks, I've never seen this sort of behavior before. The hen is living separately right now, and, like feeble chickens do, she's not venturing out much. The eye was destroyed somehow in the fighting.