Murderous Rooster?? (pics included. A little graphic)

[Chickenkeepr]

My husband and I got 3 "Bantams" from TSC this year. Well, our "Bantams" turned out to be just as big as our year old EE at 5 months! We wound up with 2 cockerels and a pullet. I came home from work yesterday to find our biggest cockerel (who is bigger than my full grown hens already) with the pullet trapped under a wheelbarrow just trying to chew her to pieces. They are free range during the day. Blood everywhere, and her ear lobe (?) split right in half. I quickly scooped her up and brought her in the house and doctored her up the best I could. She's not staying in the garage, in the brooder, away from all the others until she heals. My question is, is this a common occurrence? This is our 2nd year with chickens and our first with any roosters. We still have a silkie roo, and 3 EE roo's that are 2 months younger than the silkies. My husband culled him when he got home. We can't have a rooster around that acts like that. Also, when I go to reintroduce her, should I wait until they have all roosted for the night? Or turn her out with them in the morning. She's eating and drinking well so I think as long as I can prevent infection she will do fine. I packed the wound with neosporin last night after cleaning it and washing the blood off of her. She actually seemed to enjoy getting blow dried and lots of treats.

 

[GitaBooks]

The chicken should get better soon if the wound is kept clean. However, I'm sorry to say, that picture shows another rooster, not a pullet. That would explain why they were fighting.

Silkies can grow pretty large, depending on their strain, which is why the "bantams" turned out so large.

Best of luck!

 

[junebuggena]

I agree that the Silkie 'pullet' is actually a cockerel.

 

[keesmom]

The silkie pictured is a cockerel.

How many pullets and hens do you have? Six cockerels is a lot of testosterone.

 

[Chickenkeepr]

We now have 4 cockerels and 13 hens/pullets. When we decide which EE boy we want to keep the other 2 will go in the freezer. She's not a cockerel as far as I could tell. Whoops lol. All the other boys had started crowing, she did not and she acts very hen like. The other two also had very large, pronounced combs and spurs. The one in the pic doesn't have a hint of spurs coming in and get comb just started turning red in the last couple weeks. Here are a couple pics of them.

 

[Chickenkeepr]

Here is a picture of "it" from 2 days ago. It also has much smaller feet than the other 2.

 

[junebuggena]

Silkies can be very slow to mature. The presence of spurs is not an indicator of gender. Sometimes roosters don't ever develop spurs. Sometimes hens will grow spurs as large as any rooster. The injured bird is male. Pullets, even when fully mature, have barely noticable combs and small wattles.

 

[junebuggena]

The injured bird has a proper Silkie walnut comb. The other two boys have single combs. That might be why you didn't realize they were all boys.

 

[Chickenkeepr]

Darn. Not what I wanted to hear at all. It has never ever acted "boyish" like the other two. We would like to keep both silkies and 1 EE. Would that be too many roos for 13 hens?

 

[junebuggena]

It would depend entirely on the temperaments of the boys. As you have already witnessed, once their hormones start raging, they can be very aggressive. Usually, boys that are raised together get along. But it's not a for sure thing. The Silkies probably wouldn't be too hard on the girls. I would be more concerned with aggression both towards people and other chickens.