My rooster is a bully

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old biddy

old biddy

Crowing
12 Years
Sep 30, 2010
466
355
291
Lamont, Florida
I recently had a rooster (Rooster Looster) that was picking on one of my older hens (Henny Penny). She would try to get away from him but he would follow her and be merciless, He was not just trying to mate. He was attacking her. I have 23 hens and she was the only one he did this with. I eventually put him out of the pen to free range because (and I am sorry to admit it) I loved her more than him. He only lasted a week free ranging - I think it was either a coyote or fox (I have seen both on my
wildlife camera). I was sorry to lose him but thought all was now well with my flock. Unfortunately, a young rooster (Pepper Roo) is now old enough to be in charge and has taken to bullying one of my white hens (Crystal). Again, she is the only one he attacks. I have created a partition inside the pen so that they are now separated. My question is: is this normal behavior? Does the rooster seek out the weakest hen of the flock and try to kill her? Does anyone have any first hand experience with this type of situation?
 
50-45-1 said:
Sounds to me it's time for pepper roo to spend some time in the other side of the fence.
Lots of good roosters are culled all the time for lack of a good home.
No need to keep one that does not fit your flock.
I also wonder if he was a blood relative to the previous rooster.
Click to expand...

Yes. He was son of the previous rooster. Chip off the old block I guess.
 
Cinnamon Roll said:
I had that happen and it turns out the picked-on hen was covered in lice. Have you checked the hens for health issues?

Since treating the lice we have a different rooster and he loves that particular hen
Click to expand...


No sign of lice in my flock. And he seems fine with the other hens, even though some of them refuse his advances.
 
I had a similar issue for a while. In spring my rooster Stew got really aggressive and picked out one hen that he picked on. We had him isolated for a while, then when we let him go the two just avoided each other. We have lots of space, and now that hen goes out of her way to avoid Stew. We added more girls to the flock and opened up more space and they haven't had any issue lately. No idea why he started or what was up.

We were actually going to cull him this fall but now he's behaving again.
He's protecting the chicks and pullets and even fought off a young hawk the other day so we're warming up to him again. Still... he's on thin ice for hurting this poor hen. We're keeping an eye out for an unrelated rooster to replace him.
 
You might have some replays here that tell you the rooster senses that there is something wrong with that particular hen. Like he has some special diagnosing power.....
No, wrong, I've had chickens for over 50 years. There are good ones, and there are bad ones that are just cocky idiots.
I myself have culled many a really nice rooster after many attempts to freely give him to a good home with no takers.
I just wont over winter with more than one.
I would never tolerate a bully to any of my hens.
 

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