Is Rooster Killing Hens?

[Candyjablonski]

All the girls have black dots on their combs which I believe are scabs possibly from him. We got him in our batch of chicks in July last year. So this is his first spring mating. He's on them a lot and the ones he's getting are losing their back feathers quickly, some completely bald and their heads bald and red. There are a few he hasn't seemed to have messed with. The alpha female. She's not having it. He's in the garage in a cage as of this morning. We're not keeping him. I can't risk losing another of my beautiful sweet ladies. I guess I'm trying to see if it could be anything else. If it was I would think their deaths would be closer together.

I have a problem with my rooster doing this and the girls losing all back feathers. I found a wound on one and he had cut her under her wing pretty bad. I have 2 in quarantine away from him and we are waiting for a friend to come cut his spurs off!! I don't know if I can cut his toenails off but I'm going to try to find out. It seems he's jumping on the same ones all the time and then they die? I'm very sorry . I hope you find an answer for your problem. I had to give one rooster away recently because they were fighting each other. I didn't want to do that but I had no other choice. Best of luck

 

[ChickChick2121]

I have a problem with my rooster doing this and the girls losing all back feathers. I found a wound on one and he had cut her under her wing pretty bad. I have 2 in quarantine away from him and we are waiting for a friend to come cut his spurs off!! I don't know if I can cut his toenails off but I'm going to try to find out. It seems he's jumping on the same ones all the time and then they die? I'm very sorry . I hope you find an answer for your problem. I had to give one rooster away recently because they were fighting each other. I didn't want to do that but I had no other choice. Best of luck

I'm sorry for your situation too.
I hope it gets easier

 

[ChickChick2121]

How cold does your area get in the winter?
If the rooster is a full-sized adult, without frizzle or silkie feathers, he will probably be warm enough just roosting in a spot with no wind at night, and being able to sit out of the wind in the daytime. So you might not need the heat.

For space, he definitely needs enough space for a feeder and waterer, and enough room to stretch his wings out. He should have room to dustbathe and scratch around a bit in his run.

The usual space quidelines seem awfully cramped when you scale them down fo one chicken. In addition to the space filled by the feeder and waterer, the minimum space required for one chicken is often considered to be:
4 square feet in the coop
10 square feet in the run
1 square foot of ventilation in the coop
1 linear foot of roost

One way to meet those guidelines for a single chicken:
Have an area 8 feet long and 2 feet wide, with the 2 or 3 feet at one end being the coop. Put a roost bar across the middle of the coop area, about 2 feet up. Roof the whole thing, and put solid back & sides on the coop part. Leave one side of the coop open, facing the run, to provide lots of ventilation.
If one long side is against the hens' run, he will have plenty of contact with them. Consider a windbreak on part of the other long side, depending on which way your wind usually blows.
The food & water could be in either the run or the coop portion, depending on weather and temperature (but don't put them under the roost!)

Thank you for all the info
He's a black Jersey Giant Rooster. Beautiful. He's a good boy. Just not much good for the hens.
Upstate NY near the Canadian border. We got around -20 this winter. I'll definitely be putting some supplemental heat in for him. His big ol comb will get frost bit. I'm thinking a 3x4 with mono slope roof coming off the side of the 8x8 hen house. Ventilation in the top of the peak and pop door. Would be on the side out of the direct wind. We can go pretty tall as the hen house is around 8' high before the ventilation at the top. I want to give him a roost in his little run and something out in his free range area.

 

[Candyjablonski]

I'm sorry for your situation too.
I hope it gets easier

Eventually it will and my girls will heal.

 

[NatJ]

I have a problem with my rooster....we are waiting for a friend to come cut his spurs off!! I don't know if I can cut his toenails off but I'm going to try to find out.

Cutting the spurs or the toenails completely off could cause problems.
They both have blood and nerves in the middle.

But you can certainly trim the ends to make them shorter, and you can shape the ends with a file to be more blunt instead of sharp. This works for both spurs and toenails. Of course, they will get longer and sharper again with time, so you would need to do this fairly regularly.

 

[Candyjablonski]

Cutting the spurs or the toenails completely off could cause problems.
They both have blood and nerves in the middle.

But you can certainly trim the ends to make them shorter, and you can shape the ends with a file to be more blunt instead of sharp. This works for both spurs and toenails. Of course, they will get longer and sharper again with time, so you would need to do this fairly regularly.

I definitely won't cut them off. He's had his spurs cut before so I'm confident he won't bleed. Thank you

 

[Candyjablonski]

I definitely won't cut them off. He's had his spurs cut before so I'm confident he won't bleed. Thank you

I definitely won't cut them off. He's had his spurs cut before so I'm confident he won't bleed. Thank you

And I wouldn't cut his. I should have said Trim

 

[NatJ]

Thank you for all the info
He's a black Jersey Giant Rooster. Beautiful. He's a good boy. Just not much good for the hens.
Upstate NY near the Canadian border. We got around -20 this winter. I'll definitely be putting some supplemental heat in for him. His big ol comb will get frost bit. I'm thinking a 3x4 with mono slope roof coming off the side of the 8x8 hen house. Ventilation in the top of the peak and pop door. Would be on the side out of the direct wind. We can go pretty tall as the hen house is around 8' high before the ventilation at the top. I want to give him a roost in his little run and something out in his free range area.

That sounds like it will work pretty well for your climate

If his coop is only 3x4 feet, don't put the roost too high-- you don't him to run into a wall when he jumps or flies off it. But I agree that making it tall will give plenty of space to put ventilation above his head!

 

[ChickChick2121]

Update.....
We separated him and he decided to attack me. So he's no longer with us. Once we removed him I had no more dead hens. I think he was jumping on them and they weren't expecting it.

 

[NatJ]

Update.....
We separated him and he decided to attack me. So he's no longer with us. Once we removed him I had no more dead hens. I think he was jumping on them and they weren't expecting it.

Thank you for the update! I'm glad the hens are fine now