Hens beating up Rooste

[BonRae67]

Back in November the big leghorn rooster(king of the hen pen) was pecked at and they tore up his waddle pretty bad. Put him in the chicken hospital( special healing area for hurt and sick birds) he was healed. He had one little spot that was still white and we put peck no more on that and put him back in with the girls. 2 hours later they had him bloodied again 10 times worse than the first time. Back to the hospital and healing again. He has been in a pen with just chicken wire seperating him from his agressive hens.Today decided that he was completely healed and could go back with his girls. We put him in there and within 10 minutes they started to peck at his waddles again. Took him out again.
There are no other roosters just him and about 30 hens some sexlinks and the others leghorns like him. It is the leghorns that are going after him. Something we could put on him to make him not so appealing to peck.
Any ideas what we can do to get him back with the girls. We use him for breeding and we haven't had any fertile eggs since Thanksgiving. Makes it hard to hatch the new flock.

 

[justplainbatty]

Back in November the big leghorn rooster(king of the hen pen) was pecked at and they tore up his waddle pretty bad. Put him in the chicken hospital( special healing area for hurt and sick birds) he was healed. He had one little spot that was still white and we put peck no more on that and put him back in with the girls. 2 hours later they had him bloodied again 10 times worse than the first time. Back to the hospital and healing again. He has been in a pen with just chicken wire seperating him from his agressive hens.Today decided that he was completely healed and could go back with his girls. We put him in there and within 10 minutes they started to peck at his waddles again. Took him out again.
There are no other roosters just him and about 30 hens some sexlinks and the others leghorns like him. It is the leghorns that are going after him. Something we could put on him to make him not so appealing to peck.
Any ideas what we can do to get him back with the girls. We use him for breeding and we haven't had any fertile eggs since Thanksgiving. Makes it hard to hatch the new flock.

How old is the rooster? He may have trouble servicing that many hens if he's an older bird. A hen seems to have taken his place in the pecking order. Can you separate hens into two flocks and see if he can breed fertile eggs with the hens he gets along with? Might be time for a new rooster or a second one.

 

[BonRae67]

He is less than 2 years old. He had a flock of 15 when this started and the other 15 are youngsters, probably 6 or 7 months old. It is still his original girls that go after him. He is just to sweet and won't defend himself. We are working on gettin a new roo. I was hoping that he could be reunited with the girls.

 

[dekel18042]

X2 You could also put him in a smaller breeding pen if you have one with several of the more docile girls. At least you should get some fertile eggs that way. Or you could try pulling out the more aggressive hens and penning them separately and putting him in with the others to see what happens.
You might want to try and experiment putting him in with different hens and see who he gets among best with.

 

[justplainbatty]

He is less than 2 years old. He had a flock of 15 when this started and the other 15 are youngsters, probably 6 or 7 months old. It is still his original girls that go after him. He is just to sweet and won't defend himself. We are working on gettin a new roo. I was hoping that he could be reunited with the girls.

The original 15 hens were a good number that he could easily cover. Now, the whole pecking order has changed. He may not be paying enough attention to his original hens. They are vying for his attention and grabbing those oh so attractive big red wattles. The younger hens are fighting their way up the pecking order too and making a mess of the older gals' idea of a great situation. With a second roo, you could do an experiment to see which flock fits which rooster or at least if two roosters will settle things down.

 

[BonRae67]

Thank you justplainbatty, we need to do some rearranging of the flock to see if we can get some girls that want him. Maybe I could give him a few of the newer girls in a seperate pen to see if they are receptive.

 

[justplainbatty]

Thank you justplainbatty, we need to do some rearranging of the flock to see if we can get some girls that want him. Maybe I could give him a few of the newer girls in a seperate pen to see if they are receptive.

That might work out good. He has lost credibility with the older girls, He should be able to become dominant again over the younger hens. good luck!

 

[BonRae67]

Thank you. I will let you know if it works.

 

[GhettoRoo]

Put something untasty on those wattles + healing. ichtimol or smth.

 

[BonRae67]

Put something untasty on those wattles + healing. ichtimol or smth.

I was thinking vicks may work too. But I am thinking that if it wears off like over night and I dont make it to the farm til late morning then I would be back to the healing process again. What is smth. Won't ichtomol make the hens sick. It may not be what I am thinking it is.