I have a roo that I think is plucking the feathers off 2 of my hens. The last time I went down there all the feathers wsa gone off of her neck and her comb was gone. The other one her feathers and all was off of her back. The one with the comb gone is the one that lays on all the eggs and she did have 5 chicks this year. The 2nd time the babies didn't make it. What is up with him? Can I kill him yet?
Please help before I kill him
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I would cull him, it's not natural for a rooster to harm a hen. He will not grow out of it, his mentality is aberrant.
He will most likely produce sons who also harm hens if you breed him. Hens can hemorrhage to death by having their crests removed.
He is attacking them, not just getting over excited. Normal mating behavior does not involve violence at all. If a male harms a female he is severely decreasing his chances of getting offspring, so males who are violent to females tend to eradicate themselves from the gene pool --- unless humans intervene and make sure he passes on that attitude.
My roosters are very gentle and careful with my hens, never remove a feather, certainly never harm them. I did have some vicious males who liked to harm them while mating but I culled them, and the good roosters bred good sons who also treat the hens carefully.
Some will tell you 'it's because his drive is so high' etc but that is simply not true. A good male has a high drive too; he doesn't brutalize females or young though. Yours not careless or 'having accidents', he is being violent.
Please, get rid of this piece of crap and get a good rooster. Your hens are serving you, they deserve a peaceful life while they do it. Is he worth more than the hens, despite not giving you anything? A good rooster is a joy to have around, for the hens and for you. Vicious roosters tend to breed more of the same. It will distress the whole flock, and waste money due to injuries etc. He's a waste of food as a breeder, but not a waste as a meal for you.
Best wishes.
He will most likely produce sons who also harm hens if you breed him. Hens can hemorrhage to death by having their crests removed.
He is attacking them, not just getting over excited. Normal mating behavior does not involve violence at all. If a male harms a female he is severely decreasing his chances of getting offspring, so males who are violent to females tend to eradicate themselves from the gene pool --- unless humans intervene and make sure he passes on that attitude.
My roosters are very gentle and careful with my hens, never remove a feather, certainly never harm them. I did have some vicious males who liked to harm them while mating but I culled them, and the good roosters bred good sons who also treat the hens carefully.
Some will tell you 'it's because his drive is so high' etc but that is simply not true. A good male has a high drive too; he doesn't brutalize females or young though. Yours not careless or 'having accidents', he is being violent.
Please, get rid of this piece of crap and get a good rooster. Your hens are serving you, they deserve a peaceful life while they do it. Is he worth more than the hens, despite not giving you anything? A good rooster is a joy to have around, for the hens and for you. Vicious roosters tend to breed more of the same. It will distress the whole flock, and waste money due to injuries etc. He's a waste of food as a breeder, but not a waste as a meal for you.
Best wishes.
How old is he?
What is your ratio of hens to the roo?
It sounds like he is overly aggressive in mating them. When a roo mates a hen he digs in to her back and uses his beak to grab her by the back of the neck or sometimes her comb. Young roos get excited and can hurt the hens. If there are not enough hens,some of them can get the brunt of his hormones.
What is your ratio of hens to the roo?
It sounds like he is overly aggressive in mating them. When a roo mates a hen he digs in to her back and uses his beak to grab her by the back of the neck or sometimes her comb. Young roos get excited and can hurt the hens. If there are not enough hens,some of them can get the brunt of his hormones.
In my experience a violent rooster will breed more like that. A good rooster has the same hormone levels as a bad one, the difference is one does harm, the other doesn't --- the rooster you're describing is deliberately violent.
Some accidents may happen where an inexperienced roo removes a feather or accidentally spur-scratches a hen (usually because his spurs face inwards more than they should) but what you're describing is a boy who has no concern for harming females and enjoys it. I think his fighting and mating instincts are mixed.
My cockerels run freeranging with the females and chicks of all ages, as well as the roosters, and I don't have these issues because I don't breed any roo who harms females deliberately. They don't actually 'dig in to the hen's back' --- if you ever see a careful rooster mate, he stands on her back and curls his toes over her wings, and does not grab onto her crest, but rather onto her neck feathers (if at all --- some are so skillful at being careful they don't even need to hold on with their beaks, lol). If the hen is not fearing abuse she will be quite cooperative.
Roosters do not automatically harm females because of their hormones, nor do they go through a stage of harming females as a normal part of puberty. That is caused by a certain mentality, and nothing else.
These are traits we bred into them, largely by keeping them separate from one another until breeding time, which is an issue because they are very social birds and the males remain with the females all the time in a natural environment. If you keep a violent rooster, you are likely to face this 'messed-up hens' issue constantly or regularly from both him and his descendants.
Humans have developed some breeds of chickens (etc) who do not recognize what the other gender is anymore because for generations they have been kept separate except for brief mating meetings at best, but mating was often done by artificial insemination; likewise we've bred hens who have no mothering instinct because for generations of their ancestry they were not allowed to mother, it was done artificially or by other hens. These sorts of roosters often view females as other males. Homosexual activity does often occur among various species especially domestics. In homosexual male sheep it's fairly common for them to transmit an infection that is painful and sterilizing, due to males mating with other males because they are kept separate from females. They may also be aggressive to females and young because of this bred-out instinct issue. I would expect your rooster to kill chicks or try to mate with them. This sort of violent behavior usually goes hand in glove with that as well.
Some say it's just because he's male, I say it's because he's a bad male (and there are plenty of good males to prove it) but at the end of the day it's what you're willing to tolerate. It's the same as the difference between a hen who kills her chicks and a hen who looks after them --- we don't say the hen automatically kills her chicks because she's over excited or hormonal, do we? lol. We don't tend to give her a chance to 'grow out of it' either. Double standards which are not based in fact, in my experience, but I accept that other's experiences may differ. Whatever your decision is, I hope it works out. Whatever you believe is best, I wish you all the best with.
Who knows, he may turn into a good rooster... Nothing I've seen happen before, but some people reckon it has, though we have different ideas of what a 'good' rooster is, so really it's something you would have to define for yourself.
Some accidents may happen where an inexperienced roo removes a feather or accidentally spur-scratches a hen (usually because his spurs face inwards more than they should) but what you're describing is a boy who has no concern for harming females and enjoys it. I think his fighting and mating instincts are mixed.
My cockerels run freeranging with the females and chicks of all ages, as well as the roosters, and I don't have these issues because I don't breed any roo who harms females deliberately. They don't actually 'dig in to the hen's back' --- if you ever see a careful rooster mate, he stands on her back and curls his toes over her wings, and does not grab onto her crest, but rather onto her neck feathers (if at all --- some are so skillful at being careful they don't even need to hold on with their beaks, lol). If the hen is not fearing abuse she will be quite cooperative.
Roosters do not automatically harm females because of their hormones, nor do they go through a stage of harming females as a normal part of puberty. That is caused by a certain mentality, and nothing else.
These are traits we bred into them, largely by keeping them separate from one another until breeding time, which is an issue because they are very social birds and the males remain with the females all the time in a natural environment. If you keep a violent rooster, you are likely to face this 'messed-up hens' issue constantly or regularly from both him and his descendants.
Humans have developed some breeds of chickens (etc) who do not recognize what the other gender is anymore because for generations they have been kept separate except for brief mating meetings at best, but mating was often done by artificial insemination; likewise we've bred hens who have no mothering instinct because for generations of their ancestry they were not allowed to mother, it was done artificially or by other hens. These sorts of roosters often view females as other males. Homosexual activity does often occur among various species especially domestics. In homosexual male sheep it's fairly common for them to transmit an infection that is painful and sterilizing, due to males mating with other males because they are kept separate from females. They may also be aggressive to females and young because of this bred-out instinct issue. I would expect your rooster to kill chicks or try to mate with them. This sort of violent behavior usually goes hand in glove with that as well.
Some say it's just because he's male, I say it's because he's a bad male (and there are plenty of good males to prove it) but at the end of the day it's what you're willing to tolerate. It's the same as the difference between a hen who kills her chicks and a hen who looks after them --- we don't say the hen automatically kills her chicks because she's over excited or hormonal, do we? lol. We don't tend to give her a chance to 'grow out of it' either. Double standards which are not based in fact, in my experience, but I accept that other's experiences may differ. Whatever your decision is, I hope it works out. Whatever you believe is best, I wish you all the best with.
Who knows, he may turn into a good rooster... Nothing I've seen happen before, but some people reckon it has, though we have different ideas of what a 'good' rooster is, so really it's something you would have to define for yourself.
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