one poor hen

[neighborgirl]

we have two flocks now, free range during the day and together in a chicken house at night. The second flock came about when one hen ...a naked neck bantam hen and another bantam shared sitting on eggs...we hatched one rooster and 3 hens.

So now we have two roosters, but two seperate flocks with the baby rooster with his sisters keeping seperate during the day and seem to be ok during the night/I had to place a seperate roost in the house as "dad" didnt want to share his roost with the newbies.

My problem is this, all of a sudden our adult rooster has chased the bare necked bantam and abused her to the point where she is dissapearing for days on end. When she dares to come back he chases her away again. She doesnt "belong" anymore and its so sad. Will it change? I found her this am, and I left her in the henhouse alone with food and water. She roosted immediately and seemed content.

Shall I let her be, alone to herself all the time?
HLP!

 

[sourland]

As long as she is not being physically injured and you can assure that she gets food and water, try to let them work things out. Removing therooster from the flock for a period of time and allowing the hen to reintegrate might work.

 

[neighborgirl]

hmmm..I am new at this. we love this rooster, he is so sweet and more of a pet so it seems so sad when he is cruel to the hens. So if I remove him and keep him penned....for how long? A day, a month?

 

[1muttsfan]

Certainly for 3-4 days, to allow her to reintegrate. He may, though, continue rejecting her even after a separation. Could you give her and maybe a companion or two a separate area next to the rest of the birds for a while?

 

[neighborgirl]

Well its been over a year and we have had changes, one big fight with the two roosters, resulting in one rooster losing his spurs and the other bloody. That was over a month ago. My neighbor also refused to take an egg from a hen and let it hatch and now we have three roosters and 5 hens. Big problem, but they are dealing with it. I have enclosed their pen so its about 40x20 since our older rooster, he is about 3, lost his favorite hen to a predator, which I think he witnessed. This was two months ago and he hasn't been the same. Sad, no interest in anything, I never see him breed, and now he seems to have been ostersized from the flock. This is my question. He didn't go in the house last night and roosted in a tree on a cold night, couldn't find him at bed time...but he was crowing at my door this morning and is now hanging out all by himself. So sad because he is a very docile rooster, he is so smart, and was such a good protector of his girls, always let them eat first and took such good care of them. I'm upset that they don't seem to care about him anymore. Will hens reject him for some reason? Maybe he is ill and they are rejecting him to protect the flock? What can I do?He doest want to go in the henhouse tonight so I let him sleep in with the ducks tonight. I don't know what to do.

 

[keesmom]

I suspect one or both of your younger males aren't allowing him in the coop, or allowing him to breed. Three males seems a lot for just 5 hens.

 

[neighborgirl]

I know it is a lot my neighbor is the owner and she keeps wanting to hatch new chicks and twice they have hatched roosters. And we don't know what to do with them. He spent the day by himself again, neighbor brought him in the house and he spent the whole time next to her. He is the pet of the flock, loves people. We put him in with the hens last night and put the two other boys in with the ducks so maybe this will help. He is eating and drinking, and from what I saw the other two roosters are not threatening him visibly, he just cant wait to try and get out of the pen. Trying to find homes for the other roosters.

 

[keesmom]

Try craigslist, an ad at your local feed store or newspaper for free roosters. Hopefully your neighbor will stop hatching until she has a way of disposing of the surplus cockerels, or learns to process them.

 

[neighborgirl]

Thanks. I had not thought of craigslist.

I have also contacted our area nature centers, one has a large farm...keep your fingers crossed. And I am now in charge of all eggs and I we aren't hatching any more.