One of my girls hates my rooster

[MarlaMac]

I have a hen. She is probably one of my original gals; that would make her 15 month. Rooster is just at 1 year old.

This particular girl hates him. She will find a place to hide all day from him - not really distancing herself from the flock, but she doesn't readily move with everyone either. She comes out in the morning with the flock, follows them over to eat and then find their favorite spot under some trees and bushes. Then she stays there. I usually have to flush her out in the evening to come back to the run.

Whenever rooster sees her he chases her down to mount her. She will run from him, but finally submit when she see that running is futile. Tonight when rooster saw her the same thing happened. When she had a chance she ran into the coop. Rooster chased her into the coop. This is when I intervened. I locked roost out of the run to give the girl a chance to eat and drink. Rooster paced back and forth and made her extremely nervous. We made him leave the area and got him involved with the flock a distance away. This girl kept herself low to the ground as she walked around the run eating and drinking. Every time rooster would show up she would sink to the ground, panting. I don't think rooster is being mean, but he is aggressively trying to dominate her.

Finally, my husband picked her up and hand fed her some wet food and she sat on his lap calmly as long as we kept rooster away.

We now have her pinned with my gal, LC, recovering from hawk attack. I plan on keeping her separated from rooster for a bit. We will put her in with LC - LC comes in the house at night, but spends the day outside on the grass in a makeshift run/coop. Rooster and the others can see and spend time with her, but without "touching".

This hen is otherwise doing well. Her comb/wattles are nicely red. She eats and drinks well. Crop does what it is suppose to. And she gives us about 6/7 eggs a week. She laid an egg today.

I am going to move up our coop extension and create a separate area for our new cockerel and his gals to sleep lay. They free range all day. We have 60 acres - they utilize about 2 of them. My hopes is perhaps this girl will find the new guy more tolerable.

What else can I do? I am a little worried that she is not eating/drinking during the day and with the hot days coming I am sure this will progress into something more troublesome.

Thank you for any advice you might have.

 

[maceleneo]

I don't really have any advice, hens have their likes and dislikes and introducing a younger rooster to older hens can make things harder in this respect.
My flock started with 5 pullets and when I added a cockerel (6 months later) all the girls patronized him because he was younger. When they all grew up, hens started treating him with some respect but one hen really hated him and she had some of the problems that you mentioned. I was scared something bad could happen to her, because when they were free ranging, she used to stay far from the flock to avoid him, she didn't want to come back to the coop in the evening and so on.
I used to intervene when he scared her and it took a loooong time for things to change . My rooster isn't mean, he's a real gentlemen, however he wasn't amused with this hen running away from him. It took 2 years before he could mate her. Eventually she realized he's not that bad. Had I had the chance to divide them, I would have done it... but now I'm happy I didn't, because now they all get along and it's easier this way!

 

[Farmgirl283420]

Two of my hens did this I was not sure why turns out he was slicing under their wings the hens are now healed since we gave him away

 

[azygous]

it's not very often I encounter such perception and good instincts. You have them. Trust them.

Humans have preconceived ideas as to how things should be. Hens in a flock happily submitting to the rooster is one of them. That's not how things work in real life. In real life, higher life forms have "agency", meaning they make decisions to optimize their survival. Their individual perceptions guide them. Chickens do this.

If we try to force our "rules" onto our chickens and ignore their decisions as to what is best for their survival, we can cause problems or aggravate problems that might otherwise be resolved by our chickens. Some hens simply do not like the rooster and they become very stressed when forced to submit to a rooster that they feel does not respect them. Not all roosters have the hens' best interests in mind. Some are real jerks.

And occasionally, a rooster can turn into a psychopath and do real harm to a hen who rejects his advances. I had this happen in my flock. Even though I had been aware that this one hen absolutely refused to allow one of my roosters to mate her and I had her in her own run, one day I wasn't paying attention and tragedy struck.

She was out free ranging at the same time I let this rooster out. He wouldn't take "no" as an answer when he attempted to mate her, and instead followed her into her run and then pursued her into her coop where he cornered her. In the struggle, her resisting and him trying to get her under control, he scalped her, and I mean her scalp was entirely flayed from her head. The blood splatter made for a very gory scene, indication the hen had been severely injured.

After than, I kept her penned, rarely letting her out. In spite of that, this rooster would attack her through the fencing, working himself into such a rage that he ignored the 10,000 volt shocks her was subjecting himself to as he was throwing himself at the fence.

Why didn't get rid of this guy? Because he was a perfect gentleman with all the other hens, and this hen didn't live much longer after this incident occurred, as she was getting on in years.

I urge you to listen to your instincts and try to accommodate your hen's desire not to be assaulted by this rooster. Don't risk a tragedy as I had.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Your story does not quite fit what I've seen. Close but not quite. What I'm more used to is that a cockerel is subservient until he matures enough to take over. Some hens will submit much easier than others. Most of the time this whole process is pretty peaceful but will usually involve some of the hens running away and being chased. As long as no one is hurt it works out OK. It is just part of them working out their flock dynamics.

I have seen where the dominant hen will not give up her position without a fight. It's more than just the hen running away, it is fighting and aggression. This can get very vicious. Often this is a combination or a very strong-willed hen and a fairly weak cockerel. What you are describing doesn't sound quite like this.

What I understand is that she will not submit to him unless he chases her down, and then she will. But the next time she will not without a chase. A little different is that whenever he sees her he chases her down. Usually the boy is not that consistent every time. What I think might be happening is that he cannot do his job as flock master unless all of the flock will submit to him and she just won't do it. She is not fighting back, just trying to avoid him. He's not trying to beat her into submission but is trying to dominate her. They each have their own personality and you can have personality clashes. I have seen chickens act like they just don't like each other.

How long has this been going on? Has it just started or is this old news?

So what can you do? If it has just started you can try giving them some time and see if they can work it out. It's possible all she has to do is to stop running away and submit. But observe and be ready to intervene if you see any injury. There is some danger here. If it has been going on for a week or more it has not just started. It sounds like you have a lot of room which could help.

When a chicken is disturbing the peace and tranquility of my flock I remove them. I raise mine to eat so that decision is fairly easy for me. For you removing them could be to house separately, give one away, or sell one. I understand how unsettling this can be for some people but I have been known to eat a hen that is causing trouble. You may need to decide between the two of them.

 

[TropicalBabies]

I had a rooster who was a good boy and who made pretty babies but did not like my barred rocks. He would flog them no mater how much time out or whatever dance I did to try and keep the peace. I rehomed him, tried a few more boys till I found their prince. All the girls excepted and then swooned over him fairly quickly. Ya know when you know you have a good fit. Maybe you can raise one of his boys and rehome him? Or try again with a young cockerel.
I think it is great that you are aware of this and intuned with your flock.

 

[Farmgirl283420]

My hen always would squat and stay still she was in a lot of pain as she would just stay their frozen after he had mated he was very nice just super big I mean very very big with long sharp toenails

 

[MarlaMac]

it's not very often I encounter such perception and good instincts. You have them. Trust them.

Humans have preconceived ideas as to how things should be. Hens in a flock happily submitting to the rooster is one of them. That's not how things work in real life. In real life, higher life forms have "agency", meaning they make decisions to optimize their survival. Their individual perceptions guide them. Chickens do this.

If we try to force our "rules" onto our chickens and ignore their decisions as to what is best for their survival, we can cause problems or aggravate problems that might otherwise be resolved by our chickens. Some hens simply do not like the rooster and they become very stressed when forced to submit to a rooster that they feel does not respect them. Not all roosters have the hens' best interests in mind. Some are real jerks.

And occasionally, a rooster can turn into a psychopath and do real harm to a hen who rejects his advances. I had this happen in my flock. Even though I had been aware that this one hen absolutely refused to allow one of my roosters to mate her and I had her in her own run, one day I wasn't paying attention and tragedy struck.

She was out free ranging at the same time I let this rooster out. He wouldn't take "no" as an answer when he attempted to mate her, and instead followed her into her run and then pursued her into her coop where he cornered her. In the struggle, her resisting and him trying to get her under control, he scalped her, and I mean her scalp was entirely flayed from her head. The blood splatter made for a very gory scene, indication the hen had been severely injured.

After than, I kept her penned, rarely letting her out. In spite of that, this rooster would attack her through the fencing, working himself into such a rage that he ignored the 10,000 volt shocks her was subjecting himself to as he was throwing himself at the fence.

Why didn't get rid of this guy? Because he was a perfect gentleman with all the other hens, and this hen didn't live much longer after this incident occurred, as she was getting on in years.

I urge you to listen to your instincts and try to accommodate your hen's desire not to be assaulted by this rooster. Don't risk a tragedy as I had.

Thank you for the in depth reply. Sorry about your hen.

My plan is to keep her separated for another couple weeks and then do a supervised outing. I will plan on letter her out at the same time I let LC back out with the flock. Currently waiting for her scab to fall off and then figure out a way to protect her neck b/c her feathers are not growing back in - she was quite damaged. Maybe the feathers will pop in soon...who knows...but got to have another plan just in case.

Question: I am expanding my coop. I am adding a 12x4 open air extension with several nest boxes and the ability to close the open air "windows" when the colder weather comes in. My initial plan was to separate the 12 foot sections into two 6 ft sections and giving the new cockerel and his girls their own pad/run. I only use the run to close them in at sunset before they all go into the secure coop at last light. The run is not predator proof, but gives me some time after sunset to do other things before making sure all is buttoned up after last light. However, I have read, here and other places that I might not need to separate if the roosters get along. The new cockerel is the son of our current rooster. What do you think? I could start off with it not separated and build it so that a separation is quick and easy if need be.

Thanks for your input.

 

[azygous]

If you have the space, partitioned off sections in the run are invaluable for so many purposes. I have a 4 x 6 section in my run. I also have a larger sectioned off area 12 x 8. Both of these enclosures have gates that enable me to corral chickens for any reason, and the reasons can crop up unexpectedly. It's so handy to have them.

Today, for example, I have one of my two roosters spending the day in the smaller space because he has a sore leg and doesn't feel like free ranging. So he is hanging out there talking to the hens. I don't want him in with the hens because they pluck his neck feathers. See how this works?

When the spaces aren't in use, the gates are open, and the chickens use them at will.

 

[TropicalBabies]

If you have the space, partitioned off sections in the run are invaluable for so many purposes. I have a 4 x 6 section in my run. I also have a larger sectioned off area 12 x 8. Both of these enclosures have gates that enable me to corral chickens for any reason, and the reasons can crop up unexpectedly. It's so handy to have them.

Today, for example, I have one of my two roosters spending the day in the smaller space because he has a sore leg and doesn't feel like free ranging. So he is hanging out there talking to the hens. I don't want him in with the hens because they pluck his neck feathers. See how this works?

When the spaces aren't in use, the gates are open, and the chickens use them at will.

X2!