My young rooster just killed one of the hens

[Diannastarr]

nice to meet you Cardiff, glad to know its all going good..!!! your doing the right thing...!! take care & happy chicken trails, kindest regards Dianna : )

 

[sekeyslaks]

You should shoot that rooster before he does any more damage,I grew up knowing any animal that attacks each other or even worse people is not worth having around,a normal male animal shouldn't attack reproductive age females so fiercely!Other wise we would have no chickens!It would be terrible if he directed this same rage to a person...that rooster is dangerous!

 

[coop410silkies]

Yeah, I am so sorry for everyone's loss. It is not expected that a rooster will go berserkers and kill a hen. I recently saw my hatchery Speckled Sussex rooster attack and mug my eldest hen. It was for no apparent reason, and I thought he did it with an intent to kill; it was not his first attack on her, and I believe he was the reason she no longer went into the coop at night. She turned up lame one day, and I believe he was the cause. I have lost two hens in the last few months - not to predators or to anything obvious. I just found them dead, no blood, no missing feathers, no sign of disease. When I found the first one in the coop, the rooster followed me (as usual) over to her and started trying to mate with her lifeless body. (This is a rather euphemistic statement) He wouldn't stop and I ended up getting the eggs and leaving without her. The second dead hen I found a month or two later, again showing no obvious cause of death; I thought her neck had possibly been broken. Because I have seen this SS cock attack hens in the past, sometimes with the aid and in the company of his two SS sons, I suspected he might have killed my hens. Who knows? My Silkie Roos, too, gang up on their Queen Bee hen, so maybe this is just normal behavior for chickens kept in captivity. And of course accidents do happen. I ended up separating the cocks from the hens. The SS cocks, bold and aggressive toward humans as well, have since become dinner for the handy man. I don't know what is normal behavior for chickens anymore. I do have other Sussex Roos, different strains from three other Breeders, and much to each of their credits, not one of their roosters displays any human aggression or abusive behavior to their hens. IMO, roosters CAN have bad temperaments, and that temperament is heritable. Good Breeders help a lot by eliminating stock with behavior problems, and we all should follow their examples. Roosters mugging and killing hens is unacceptable.

 

[mairin49]

Hello this just happened to me as well. I have the meanest rooster he is just nasty and mean. I want to get rid of him but my son says there must be a good reason the rooster wants to kill the hens. Maybe they are sick (they don't appear sick) otherwise I have no idea for it. If you find out the answer please let me know. Thank you and good luck.

 

[Nupe]

Chickens will instinctively try and remove the weakest links within the flock. That said, some chicken's standards are higher than others, and in some cases, too high. I don't think there's any real fix for this other than removing him.

When having to decide which roo to remove from the flock, my best advice would be to choose the most dominant rooster you have as long as he's not human aggressive or overly aggressive towards his ladies. Any lower ranking roos are going to seem docile and sweet when they're not the guy in charge. Problem is, you have no idea how they'll behave when they're in charge. If the top rooster doesn't cut it with you, remove him and see what the next one does.

If none of your roosters make the cut, you can try introducing a young roo the next time you replenish your flock and let your mature hens thump some manners in him or you can get a free mature rooster from craigslist. Make sure he's at least one year old and is not human aggressive. You have to ask. A lot of people on craigslist think aggression is a normal rooster trait and won't always mention it in their ad.

 

[mairin49]

I am surprised that many ppl are shocked by your Roo killing the hen. This has just happened to me ... twice abiet the Roo didnt kill my hens ... yet! I don't know why this is happening but we need a chicken expect on side to tell us why.I am sure there are other out there that have experienced this as
well.

 

[shell shocked]

hi yer
very sorry for your loss i phoned a pal of mine who has been breeding and selling hens for a good many years in fact
i got my girls off him he recons a cockerel which i am sure you know is a male under 18 months old has its first adult molt and becomes
know as a cock that is in england anyway with out a cock to put him in his place he will try and mate with anything that moves
and will pick on the weakest one over and over the older girls will not have him trying it on with them but the young ones have no chance
of fighting him off
i hope this has been helpful
good luck

 

[shell shocked]

hi again
had another word with my pal if its just a cock bird you want and you do not want to breed pure breeds
try one of the heavier breeds maran rhode island red new hampshire red orpington plymouth rock or sussex are calm
placid and friendly and the extremely heavy breeds such as brahma and cochin also make great pets
good luck

 

[coop410silkies]

Hello this just happened  to me as well. I have the meanest rooster he is just nasty and mean. I want to get rid of him but my son says there must be a good reason the rooster wants to kill the hens. Maybe they are sick (they don't appear sick) otherwise I have no idea for it. If you find out the answer please let me know. Thank you and good luck.

More thoughts on why roosters kill some hens:

1) they are possessive and jealous. A number of my most abusive roos/cockerels started out as my special sweethearts; each one stood out from its hatch mates as a darling who loved, and couldn't be separated from, its caregiver. As they matured, they tolerated, less and less, other chickens encroaching on their territory (me/FOOD); their targets were smaller and weaker, older (and weaker), assertive eaters, favorites (mine), female. The nastiest punishings seemed to occur at feeding times, around their FOOD and (THEIR) provider. I could say the Roo was being territorial and asserting his dominance, but I am talking vicious here, more than territorial and dominant. I am talking ENRAGED. I DO NOT think this is normal, I think this happens because I spoil and mismanage my chicks, especially my most darling boys.

2) they are racists. OK, OK, but you must remember that chickens are VERY color sensitive. IN GENERAL, my SS Roos go after (as if to kill) my LS hens, and my LS cockerels do the same to the SS hens (and other dark hens.). Yesterday a Black Sex Link pullet came flying through the open patio door, with an LS cockerel in heated pursuit. I put her back out, and she was immediately attacked, not by just the one LS.cockerel, but by 3 or 4. So I let her back in, and she refused to go back out on her own all day; the LS cockerel ranted, paced, and flew at the door all day long trying to get at her. This was my sweet babydoll Roo who ADORES me! It did not look like amore to me. (And there is that rare exception).

Ok, so does this all sound a bit anthropomorphic? Maybe it is, but chickens are funny, funny, funny. What I am really trying to say here, though, is that chicken behavior may to some degree be a reflection of - or response to - our own ways of interacting with them. That is not to say they are "bad" and that I am "wrong" in my indulgence of them. The relationship between humans and chickens is ancient, it's not going to change, and neither am I. It just IS. What I can change is my management.

So for the present, I am separating the sexes. I made a large rooster coop for the roosters (they really do well together in a coop of their own) and, with the exception of breeders, all the hens are going into the layer coop. Supposing there is safety in numbers, the white fowl just MAY get along with the dark ones. (They segregate meticulously). And I am considering using Broodies instead of incubators to improve my stock. (I got a stellar BA mix Broodie from last year's hatch, and I've noticed that the chicks she broods are different in character from the ones I raise).

Roosters are strange IMO. It is really hard to figure them out. Here is one to figure: I have an LS roo who is obsessed with my big (huge) white and black Saint mutt female dog. She is a chicken chaser (?herder), but every evening she goes down to the gate to his pen, and he follows her everywhere. Then she lies down, he dances for her, nicely, and he hops on her back, grabs her neck fur, and treads on her back. She likes this Rooster! She will roll over and gently push him off, then come back and lie down again. I don't get it. Every evening they do this little game, a 7 lb. white and black rooster scratching and treading the back of a 130 lb. white and black dog. No animosity, no territorial ism, no bad vibes, just mutual acceptance. But don't let a Speckled Sussex get near - either of them.

Funny, funny, funny.

I do have a loner Roo or two that hates hens. They are Speckled Sussex, and seem to hate any hens getting near them or their territory, they don't go seeking them out for the most part. I can't imagine why they behave this way; maybe they'd be different with a flock of their own? I have read on a BYC thread that chickens get their dispositions from their mothers, so tossing a quirky Roo may not be effective as not hatching anymore of its dam's eggs. More interesting than TV!

 

[HensTeeth01]

This just happened to us yesterday. Still shocked. The rooster was hand raised by my sister. He is sweet, and has showed no signs of aggression. He doesn't even crow. He was younger then the hens, but now grown up, he has become the 'rooster' and and has been taking care of the hens fairly respectfully it has seemed. I let the chookies out to have some freedom, and up outside the house window right in view he brutally killed one of the hens. He held her down and pecked her face until she died. My partner saw it but did not reach her quick enough to save her. The rooster himself was covered in blood. It seemed her head was caught under the garden hose and I wondered if it might have been a mercy killing, but on inspection it would have been easy for her to get out. I am concerned he will do it again, and that we have a psychopathic wife bashing rooster on the loose. I am so confused because he was completely gentle, with us and the hens before this incident.