I have a bully hen, should I get a rooster?

[rccola7]

I have four hens. One is blind but gets around well. Our biggest hen has started to bully the other three hens, and I was told that if I get a rooster, he helps to keep the peace between the girls (Also, I would like to have new chicks). My question is, do you think he would hurt my blind chicken? And are they really that helpful in stopping the squabbling? I know all roosters are different, but I have NO experience with a rooster so I'm just trying to get a general idea of how it might be.

 

[lightchick]

I think it'd be OK to get a rooster.......I don't have that much experience with roos.

 

[Ciqala]

I have a really great rooster {his "brother" was an S.O.B. and is gone now, same breed bought & raised together} in with 9 adult hens, 6 ten week olds and 4 eight week old pullets. He'll run over to any ruckus that goes on, but I can't say he steps in in any way, shape or form to stop any hen drama. And with the recent addition of 10 pullets, there's a fair amount of hen drama going on lol. I wish he would step in and put a stop to it sometimes. Some where along the line he learned to call the hens when I ask him enough "Zorro, call your girls" and it's usually to the opposite side of their yard than where the drama's going on. But I've never seen him interfere with whatever the head hen is doing.

Some days I wonder how he hasn't gone completely grey yet from all his crazy ladies, lol, the poor sweet guy. He's a black australorp, and like I said he had a "brother" who they were bought and raised together yet couldn't have been more opposite. I think for you it'd really depend on the rooster and if he respected being turned down by his hens where the blind one is concerned.

 

[donrae]

That's one of those things that you can't say for sure. I've had roosters that physically block hens from pecking at each other, and I've had roosters that couldn't care less what the hens do. I've never had a blind bird, so not sure how that would work. I'm thinking adding a rooster would stress the flock dynamic, though, and that's not a good thing to do without a good reason. Have you tried removing the problem hen for a while? Addressing space, etc? Lots of advice on here about dealing with mean hens.

 

[rccola7]

Sounds like I need to try some other methods to stop the bullying first. They are free range chickens, so I know it's not a space problem, but I will do some reading on here to see what other people have tried. The only roosters I've been around were at the fair in a cage, but my husband said they can be loose cannons...sometimes they attack children,or other pets (my dog roams around with our chickens), or they won't let the hens alone. You just don't know until you have one. I am trying to get more of a "farmer" mentality, trying to be more practical regarding them...right now they are my sweet pet chickens and I'm very attached to them, but from reading other threads, I'm going to have to toughen up a bit because sometimes they have to be culled, etc. I wonder if that subject might also be a topic on this site--I would like to know whether more people treat their chickens like pets, or like an animal raised for food.

 

[Chilali]

It may help, but keep in mind that not all roosters are very good at the task of dealing with aggressive hens. I've seen a rooster separate fighting hens and physically hold down the aggressor until she stops struggling, but I also have a game fowl rooster I keep because I got attached to him after I saved him from freezing to death when he was young, and he's just not aggressive enough to separate hens that are legitimately fighting. I've got one bully hen that's so bad that she tears up the other girls' combs and faces if I let her get into the flock. Worse than any rooster I've ever seen, and that's saying a lot since there are four game fowl roosters on the property (all separated, but an occasional escapee results in a minor issue through the side of the pen). I've heard that separating an aggressive hen so that she's completely out of sight of the rest of the flock for a week and then reintroducing her can sometimes work, but I haven't tried it with my girl yet because I'm not willing to take the risk of reintroducing her right now anyway with youngsters in the flock.