I think my adult rooster is killing our adolescent roosters... is this normal?

[centrarchid]

Finding carcasses does not mean they died of hunger or thirst or that they were in bad shape. It’s quite possible a predator did away with them. Killing one and dragging it under a building to eat it sounds like it could be many things, raccoons and bobcats for example. Totally free range birds are not likely to be fat and heavy. They are likely to be trim and fit, in good physical shape. Game birds are built this way to start with.

Centrarchid, would bringing in a less-aggressive breed rooster help with the offspring that much? Wouldn’t the offspring inherit aggressiveness and gameness from the mother as well as the father?

Gameness is heritable, very strongly so and comes from hen side as well as cock side. Gameness is easy to dilute by outcrossing with a nongame breed. I incorporated games into one of my American Dominique projects resulting in an immediate reduction of gameness to level suitable for multiple rooster flock. They still scrap a little more than pure American Dominiques. Less aggressive rooster himself will be easier on stags. I am not convinced losses of original concern where not caused by stags themselves. In most instances where I had similar problems the stags would not scrap with old rooster directly, rather they fought amongst themselves and only in later stages would the cock (old rooster) get involved.

 

[anthriel]

Thank you for your help.

 

[anthriel]

I think I may owe Daddy the Rooster an apology.

We lost two more chickens in the last two weeks... both of them with just their heads destroyed, both of them hens. In one case, the rooster's distinctive feathers were found at the site, originally seen as "evidence" that he was the culprit. However, since the dead chickens were hens, my theory of him killing off the young roosters was growing serious problems.

And then, on this last site of mayhem, we found the distinctive hand-like paw prints of a raccoon. Poor Daddy the Rooster may have been trying to defend his flock, which would account for the loss of his feathers. We don't know.

He did lose his favorite hen this week. RIP, Goldilocks. You were a pretty cool bird.

 

[centrarchid]

Either tighten up roost site or move birds pronto. Make certain other birds are not damaged by bites. If bitten, then watch carefully for infection. Get your trap out and make no assumption only one varmint is at play. Also interval between attacks if related to your postings is more consistent with opossum.

Are birds being pulled down from roost? Do you have any idea when attacks are occurring?

 

[anthriel]

I'm not sure there are opossum here in Arizona... and raccoon tracks are quite distinctive. Plus, our neighbor had all of his chickens killed by raccoons about a year ago. They have been around.

We do have a trap set, and apparently that's how they caught the raccoons before. Good call on checking for bites, though. I'll keep an eye on the chickens.

I don't know when they are being killed. Every time I have discovered a dead chicken, I just followed the trail of feathers. The chickens are killed in the same area every time; we have the trap set there.

Hopefully we can catch that little bugger!

 

[anthriel]

Our poor adult rooster, Daddy, the one I disparaged in this thread, was screaming his head off last night... my son saw a raccoon running across the yard with our poor chicken in his jaws. My son was able to run the beast off, and Daddy is alive today, but I think he's in a lot of pain.

Darned raccoons.

 

[centrarchid]

Make so raccoon cannot climb up to roost. Five feet is more than enough.

 

[Michael Apple]

Our poor adult rooster, Daddy, the one I disparaged in this thread, was screaming his head off last night... my son saw a raccoon running across the yard with our poor chicken in his jaws. My son was able to run the beast off, and Daddy is alive today, but I think he's in a lot of pain.

Darned raccoons.

Sorry for the rooster. Coons are worthless creatures. Now you know to keep birds in secure housing at night. Trap and cull predators every chance you get.

 

[anthriel]

Sorry for the rooster. Coons are worthless creatures. Now you know to keep birds in secure housing at night. Trap and cull predators every chance you get.

Now there you go. I can wholeheartedly agree with your thoughts here; I really HATE those coons.

We do have a henhouse, and Daddy spent three days in there... I locked him up at night, and opened the door during the day. He had feed and water, but I think the rest of the flock got most of that... he didn't even open his eyes for the first couple of days.

Yesterday, though, he left the henhouse, and last night he was back up in the tree where they roost. I am astonished at this bird! Tough little creature.

But yeah, I think I am going to try to lure those chickens into that henhouse at night. It'll be a tight fit, with 11 of them in there, but I think they can do it.


Darn raccoon.

 

[centrarchid]

Make sure that henhouse is coon tight. Chickens packed in one will be a powerful attractant. I have lost more confined chickens to coons than chickens in trees. You can make some trees more difficult to raccoons to climb by wrapping sheet metal around trunk. You will still have owl related problems.