Hen pecking or eating alive roosters!...Why

[lady and her girls]

I bought eggs from a lady that had her hens kill the rooster this past summer and from what I gathered there may have been two killed. Why would hens do this?

 

[gsim]

Only thing I can think of is that the hens might have been a lot older and the roos just adolescents?

 

[sjarvis00]

If you have older more aggressive hens and a roo that doesnt take charge they will fight with him. The only other thing I can think of is vitamin or mineral deficiency. I had some young buff orpingtons that would kill one older chick a day, but if I fed them a package of hotdogs or some other meat a day then nobody got eaten.