My rooster is killing his "favorite" hen. Is this common?

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susanatull said:
Hello everyone, and thank you for all your responses, I do appreciate each one of them.
We started our flock with 8 hens and the rooster was number 9. But the number was reduced to 6 and almost to 5.
My husband and I decided even before we read your answers that the best for our ladies was to be without an aggressive male until we can research a little more about a nice rooster breed. We also need more hens for the ration of 1 rooster for 6 hens was not working, specially the ones that he "liked " the best. Our chicken area is pretty large, shaded by pine and oak trees and some bushes for them to hide from hawks and such. The coop has six boxes for them to lay eegs and enough space for 15 hens to roost safely at night. I feed them scraps from the garden, our table plus hen layer food from our local supplier. We will have a nice supper tonight, and will continue learning about the best way to keep our backyard flock happy.
Thank you again,
Happy easter, God bless you all.
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I'm glad you came to that decision. I have to say I'm really pleased with my Standard Black Cochin rooster. He is calm, non-aggressive and very easy going.
 
lazy gardener said:
Susanna, that is totally unacceptable behavior. You need to immediately separate that roo from the hens. You need to keep him separated until you either kill him and eat him, have some one else kill him, or kill him and bury him, preferably planting a lovely rose bush over the spot. Occasionally, a roo or other flock members will drive a sick bird out of the flock. But for him to kill her, that goes into the realm of truly deranged. Tell me a bit about your set up. How many birds, total. What are the dimensions of your coop and your run? It may be possible that if your birds are shut in a coop/run situation, the hen can't escape the roo. No matter what the coop and run size. That roo needs to be killed. He is a killer, and should not be allowed near ANY flock.
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Welcome! It sounds like you made the right decision. I have a BBRed bantam roo that I've had to separate. He and his ladies were picking on EVERYONE! My most docile is my Chocolate Orpington. But my best is my Amerecauna. He takes in all the ladies, it's so funny to watch him take them for a stroll. He is watchful over them as they walk likes a group of ladies broke into pairs chatting and mulching on worms and such. And he won't leave one behind or let them wander too far. Plus he is a gentleman about his business and my kids can pick him up! It's just a matter of having the Right roo. here is a pic of our "king chicken"
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And the black hen on the left is his "wife" they finally had some babies. The chocolate is Fancy, Frankenstein's"wife". So far they have only bred out two boys. We had an issue with our youngest fudging the incubator temps and most of our eggs failed. The fluffy butt in the corner is a plain run of the mill production red named "red". She is our "butch" hen. She has spurs and will fight when in a pissy mood but over all I think she's just a feisty ol redhead like me....:eek:
 

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