My male badly hurt one of my females!

[crimsonmama]

My male is with six females all to himself. Before he was with only one and I've never had any issues with him.
The female is sister with the other four hens and unrelated to the fifth female who was the original female with the male. She and the other four are 8 and a half weeks old. The male and original female are at least 6months old.
The female in question hasn't seemed very happy as she has desperately tried to escape when i open the aviary, escaping twice but I've caught her easily. When I've put her back in the males immediately grabbed her before I've even hardly let go as if punishing hector wanting to escape.

Well today I saw blood on his beak and a bloodstain on his chest feathers so i started checking the females. The one in question as a bloody bald head and a oozing bleeding 'hole' behind one eye, above her ear hole. I immediately brought her indoors. She seems deeply depressed. She sat on my kitchen table with no interest in escape although she will try to move away if you go to touch her. She has very limited interest in food, mealworms or lettuce. She is now in a bird cage resting and sleeping.

But does this mean she can't ever go back? I'm guessing there is no reason we can guess at for this? Other than personality clash or she's bottom of the pecking order or she is punished for not submitting to the male??
She could be kept as an indoor pet but if he does it to another female it might be him that has to go? I already have a pen of boys separate to the main aviary. I don't want too many separate pens!

 

[sourland]

Things like this can happen when immature females are enclosed with breeding age males. I would suggest moving him out of this pen until the females have matured or others may be injured.

 

[Ducks4us]

Agree. He needs seperated untill they are older. They are still babies at 8 1/2 weeks

 

[lomine]

He might be trying to mate her and she doesn't want to or she doesn't know yet what to do. She is still young and her hormones might not be kicking in yet. He might have gotten too rough with her while trying to mate and broke the skin. He would have kept picking at the blood and made it worse.She needs time to mature and he needs time to calm down a bit. I agree it be worthwhile to separate him (but where he is still visible) for a bit after the injured hen is back.

She might be a very flighty bird. It sounds like she is, based on her flying up when you open the cage. If the top of the cage is low she could have boinked. If she hit hard enough it could have bleed. Same issue of the male being attracted to the color. It might also account for the lethargic behavior. They can usually recover from this with rest. Vitamins or Nutri Drench in the water wouldn't be a bad idea either way. I don't know how your cage is set up but providing places for them to hide is a good way to reduce stress.

Are you looking to hatch eggs? If no, then I would just remove the male and have only hens. If you do want to hatch eggs and the aggressive behavior continues after they have had time to mature I would remove the male. Aggression can be hereditary. No sense in keeping a male that torments the hens. You could swap him with one of the more docile boys from your other pen.

 

[crimsonmama]

All very possible reasons! If it doesn't happen again to any others I guess she might just be a little less mature hormonally despite being same age. I could try to reintroduce her at a later stage when she's older. If it happens again i will definitely remove the male. Which is a shame. I am not hatching any more eggs just eating them lol. I do have a lovable docile male i could swap but after this I'm not sure i want any males in with my girls! If they are happier without?!

 

[rita2paul]

i know what you mean, i ditched all my males and kept only girls the last time i had quails and what a difference that made, they were so much happier without a male in their enclosure and laid loads and loads of eggs, no stress i suppose it kept them happy. if you get a more placid male it might work. good luck.

 

[crimsonmama]

That sounds nice! But i feel sad for my roo (even if he was mean for some reason!) as he does a good job trying to defend his girls and the eggs and have had him this long without issues. I wonder if he could move in with the other males or if having had females for so long he won't adapt to having just males around without fighting or stressing them out too?

 

[JaeG]

If you take him out he will call for them and the females that like him will yell back (they can get quite loud if they want to). Just be prepared for a bit of noise. I always choose a docile male to go with the girls as some are just too rough. Some girls really don't like that and will just keep trying to get away rather than submitting, which can lead to conflict. A good male should look after his girls by calling them over to eat, some will build a nest for their girls to lay in, and they should generally be a calming influence.

 

[madelines hens]

first separate your hens from your roosters. and if you could send me some pics of the injury it would help me with what you can use on it.