juvenile rooster problem

[Alace]

so i am new to chickens kinda.. raised them as a kid but its been along time, how ever i have a fair amount of knowledge with most all animals,. so heres a quick history, i posted on the help emergency page for a hen thats hurt from our dog, but i think i might have an idea why this happened,..

so Monday morning (today is Wednesday) our dog broke into the pen and killed 8 and hurt one very bad... now as i was cleaning and just comforting some of our girls we have left i had to break up a fight from what was post to be a jersey giant hen that we have come to believe is really a rooster. he has not crowed and has not started to bread anyone yet but his voice is starting to get pretty deep and crackly and has all the tail and back feathers not sure what they are all called but i am 100% sure its a rooster , anyways i had to pull him and a sweet little buff girl apart, at first i didn't know what happed and honestly though maybe he got hurt by the dog too and i just didnt see it and she was starting the fight cuz he was "weak" just from instinct,only though that because a few times he would go away from all the girls and just sit down with his back to everyone and look at the side of the house,.. but then it happened again and she was just peaking some food on the ground and he goes after her with his feet right for her head. and did it again in the coop. i'm really worried about her safty now. i had been excited to have a roo and hes friendly to us so far and all the girls except that one, she is in the middle of the pack as far as pecking order. i am thinking that maybe he went after her on Monday morning and thats what the dog heard and got him excited (doesn't make it ok at all) ... so i guess my question is .. why.. why is he picking on 1 girl only, why is it so bad? will he kill her? i am going to try and make a temporary area for him or her, not sure what one, but will this behavior stop soon , i was thinking also with all the struggles on Monday that maybe hes just overly excited and also right as hes trying to figure out his manhood.. i don't want to loose her too, we lost to many of our little girls on Monday already. what should i do.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Right now? I'd isolate him in a wire cage (in the coop, preferably--so he can see and interact, but not hurt them) and see if a week or two of that clears it up. It could just be hormones and temporary, but there's no sense letting him hurt your hens in the meantime.

Long-term... Do you have enough space for all of your birds? 4 sq. feet in the coop, and 10 sq. feet in the run for each chicken? Too little space is one of the main causes of inter-flock aggression issues.

 

[Alace]

ok i was thinking something like that.. and yes on the space... we have the chickens in the back and its a run thats 115 feet by 40 feet and then on the other side of the coop that they can free roam is 25 feet by about 80 feet. runs up the side of my house and past both directions. now most of the time they hang out at my back door tapping on the glass wanting someone to open it. i keep planning on putting up a fence so they cant get to my back door but thats a spring project . their coop itself is kinda on the small side i think but they all seem happy there.. its 14feet long by 8feet wide, with 8 nest boxes that do not take up floor space ( thay protrude out side of coop) and there are 2 8 foot perches and 2 others that are about 2 feet long. the 2 that are 8 foot long are stair stepped and most do not use the bottom the use the top one. is that big enough.. i have a pump house that has lots of space on the other side of one wall and its 14 by 14 and sometime they lay eggs over there , we have 16 chickens (now) but had 24... but 4 of them were little.. 2 silkies and 2 little things with feathers on their feet.. i just can't remember what they were called right now..

 

[sylviethecochin]

d'uccles?

 

[Alace]

i just looked them up.. they are cochin bantam chickens.. had one black one but she didnt make it threw the dog (just had lunch with my granddaughter at school to tell her) she stays a week with mom and week with her dad and shes in kindergarten.. so that was a hard one to do she carried her around every night after school .. anyways.. there was 2 of them and now just one and the other 2 are silkies. sorry i, really bad with the different kinds of breeds.. but think for the most part we do good at care just hoping to find a few little tricks and making sure i am doing the best that i can for them..