Hen picking on roo

[chalynm]

I just caught one of our hens picking on the roo. She was following him fairly aggressively and going for his comb. By the time I got out to the run, she had already drawn blood in two small places. Several times she cornered him, and when he ducked his head, she would peck at his neck and scratch at his head. I've only seen the one do it, although two of the other hens did puff up and flap their wings a bit in his direction when he came towards them trying to get away from the first. I was very surprised, not only by the behavior, but by which hen it was. She's the only one laying at the moment, and she just started a week ago tomorrow. I did have some trouble with her biting me a couple of weeks ago, but she's been especially docile and friendly since she started laying. Is this something I should worry about? Thanks!

 

[heather112588]

quick question- how old is your roo? It could be a dominance thing.

 

[chalynm]

I don't know. We rescued him from a neighbor (bloody comb, scaly leg mites, patchy feathers when we got him).

We also have a 6-mo-old cat that lives in the coop. When we first put Lloyd out with the hens, Chicken Boo immediately wanted to sniff him out, and Lloyd showed similar behavior, ducking his head into the corner of the run with his butt feather exposed for several minutes at a time. Chicken Boo was never aggressive though, just curious.