Is my rooster too much stress on my hen?

[Hep44]

We have a hen that is not particularly nice to the rest of the flock (my daughter named her "Bad Chicken", because this has always been her demeanor.) We have noticed our rooster is a little more rough with her, both with mating and when she picks on the other hens. We gave her a chicken saddle to help with the mating situation, but I noticed yesterday that she has broken wing feathers and looked like she had a scratch or something on her wing. She has always looked pretty disheveled, but I feel like it has been worse lately. Should we rehome her? Do you think something else is wrong with her? Not sure what to do here.

 

[sourland]

That's a big rooster. All of your hens are showing some wear and tear. Judging by comb color she is in apparent good health.

 

[Hep44]

That's a big rooster. All of your hens are showing some wear and tear. Judging by comb color she is in apparent good health.

So you think it's just him? We have saddles on almost all of the girls, he is huge because he's a brahma, but he's usually pretty gentle with them

 

[MadamContrary]

I'm no expert but from your saying she's always looked rumpled and has a bad attitude that she may have brittle feathers, having new feathers grow in is uncomfortable, perhaps she looks like she gets rougher handling from the Rooster because of weaker feathers? Wouldn't hurt to offer her some extra protein to see if that helps.

 

[3KillerBs]

I've never done it myself, but I've seen it recommended to trim the rooster's toenails if the hens are getting a lot of wear.

I had a Brahma rooster with mixed hens and I found that the non-Brahma girls were always in rougher shape -- I guess those thick Brahma feathers gave the ladies a lot of protection from a huge rooster.