- Aug 29, 2010
- 42
- 0
- 32
Quick background - we rescued a fullgrown RIR hen who had mysteriously arrived and spent several weeks in our apple orchard this spring. Because of her, we resurrected our old chicken coop in our (semi residential, not farm) backyard. To keep her company, I bought three straight-run young chickens from a local breeder, two which ended up being roosters, so they ended up in the freezer.
To replace them, we bought a box of 'barnyard mix' young chickens from the auction, ended up being 5 hens and 2 roosters. The original RIR was clearly the top-hen and after the initial mild pecking they've all gotten along just fine, until today.
The dominant Rooster has started crowing in the past month but I haven't seen him really trying to mount the hens much, and he and the other rooster ( cockerol? I've never heard it crow) get along fine. Anyways, the dominant rooster today has started really attacking the older, original hen.
This morning when I went to outside she was lying on her side against the run fence, looking pretty much dead. Even after I distracted the other birds on the other side, she did not get up - only after I brought her some scratch. Since then the rooster has attacked her every time she is in in the run.
She has lost about a cm of feathers on her head, and has had a small amt of blood that I have put cornstarch on. She spent part of the day hiding in the coop, and then later I found her in the neighbor's yard - the chickens previously had not tested that side of the fence but she is so freaked out by this rooster that she managed to get through the one weakspot, high-up on their run. Right now she is free-ranging around the yard and the rest are in the run. Whenever I try to reintroduce her to the run, the rooster aggressively chases her, corners her, and pecks at her head. She is freaked out and if i even carry her near the run she gets stressed and tries to fly out of my arms. I am worried that she is going to get out on the (busy) road if I let her free-range too much seeing as our yard is not entirely secure.
These birds are more like pets to us, especially my daughter, and this hen is by far the calmest, cuddliest of the birds so I would hate for her to get pecked to death. We are still so new to chickens and thus far it has all been a fairly easy, pleasant experience.
I am curious if this is just a re-establishment of the pecking order as the rooster matures (he is not bothering any of the other hens), and if it will settle down in a day or two, or if separation is warranted, removal of the rooster, etc. We were hoping to keep the rooster and try for chicks in the spring, he is a really beautiful bird.
I am going to pick up some of that blue stuff to put on the hen's sores, but beyond that I don't really know what to do. thanks in advance,
To replace them, we bought a box of 'barnyard mix' young chickens from the auction, ended up being 5 hens and 2 roosters. The original RIR was clearly the top-hen and after the initial mild pecking they've all gotten along just fine, until today.
The dominant Rooster has started crowing in the past month but I haven't seen him really trying to mount the hens much, and he and the other rooster ( cockerol? I've never heard it crow) get along fine. Anyways, the dominant rooster today has started really attacking the older, original hen.
This morning when I went to outside she was lying on her side against the run fence, looking pretty much dead. Even after I distracted the other birds on the other side, she did not get up - only after I brought her some scratch. Since then the rooster has attacked her every time she is in in the run.
She has lost about a cm of feathers on her head, and has had a small amt of blood that I have put cornstarch on. She spent part of the day hiding in the coop, and then later I found her in the neighbor's yard - the chickens previously had not tested that side of the fence but she is so freaked out by this rooster that she managed to get through the one weakspot, high-up on their run. Right now she is free-ranging around the yard and the rest are in the run. Whenever I try to reintroduce her to the run, the rooster aggressively chases her, corners her, and pecks at her head. She is freaked out and if i even carry her near the run she gets stressed and tries to fly out of my arms. I am worried that she is going to get out on the (busy) road if I let her free-range too much seeing as our yard is not entirely secure.
These birds are more like pets to us, especially my daughter, and this hen is by far the calmest, cuddliest of the birds so I would hate for her to get pecked to death. We are still so new to chickens and thus far it has all been a fairly easy, pleasant experience.
I am curious if this is just a re-establishment of the pecking order as the rooster matures (he is not bothering any of the other hens), and if it will settle down in a day or two, or if separation is warranted, removal of the rooster, etc. We were hoping to keep the rooster and try for chicks in the spring, he is a really beautiful bird.
I am going to pick up some of that blue stuff to put on the hen's sores, but beyond that I don't really know what to do. thanks in advance,