Hen is a rooster and now it's fight club...

[AlexDenmark]

Hi everyone,
I have a small flock of four Brahmas I got young, one silkie hen and one rooster (no idea what breed). It turns out one of my Brahmas is a rooster and he is HUGE. Albert the main rooster is much smaller than him but has been attacking the young dude non stop for the past two weeks. I was thinking of giving him away and keeping the Brahma rooster but tonight the Brahma dude attacked my little silkie hen and really hurt her and freaked her out. So do you think I should rehome him instead?

 

[nuthatched]

Remove both roosters.

 

[AlexDenmark]

Remove both roosters.

Do you think the girls would be better off rooster-less? Albert was never aggressive before the other one "became" a rooster.

 

[nuthatched]

Do you think the girls would be better off rooster-less? Albert was never aggressive before the other one "became" a rooster.

Unless you want fertile eggs, there's no reason to have one. Your hens can watch our for themselves. You really have too small of a flock for a rooster. Roosters take a certain learning curve and it's best to wait before you add a hormone driven critter to your flock.

 

[AlexDenmark]

Unless you want fertile eggs, there's no reason to have one. Your hens can watch our for themselves. You really have too small of a flock for a rooster. Roosters take a certain learning curve and it's best to wait before you add a hormone driven critter to your flock.

Thank you for the advice!

 

[Mrs. K]

I tend to agree with the above. If this is your first time with chickens, an all hen flock is a great way to start. Cockerels and roosters take some experience. If you really want a rooster, you can add one in the years to come. You have years to do all the aspects of this hobby, no need to try and do them all now.

And even though the one rooster was not a problem, once they become the problem they seldom go back.

Mrs K

 

[AidKD]

In my experience, when a new rooster is introduced into the flock with an already existing head rooster, the head rooster becomes more aggresive and mates the hens quite a bit more. I think the problem is that the head rooster doesn't like having a challenge and is gonna do everything in his power to maks sure that that new rooster knows who's boss. After I remove the new roosters from my flock the head rooster always mellows back out.