Racist Roo?

[mindy72]

Need help! We have a flock of 12, 11 hens and 1 roo. All but 2 hens are easter eggers like the roo. The other two hens are speckled barred rocks.
Here is the problem. Our roo has already murdered one of our other barred rock hens by clubing her to death and has now started the same behavior toward the other two remaing ones. I have cooped them up in our pen so he can't get at them, but it seems so unfair. I guess my question is if he just doesn't like it that they are a different breed? The other easter egg hens are of different colors than he, so I don't know if that is the problem. He is a beautiful roo and is kind to all the other girls. He just seems to not like the barred rock hens and is doing his best to kill them off. This behavior started just a few months ago and he has been with the same girls since birth spring of 2009.
I can't decide if it is best to get rid of him or the hens? Hate to lose either!

 

[turtlebird]

Are you able to separate him from the hens for a bit(oh, I see that you are already doing that)? Let things settle down? Do you think there is something wrong with the rocks that he is attacking them? Are they at the bottom of the pecking order? Top? Could they possibly be roos? Just grabbing at straws here. I hope there are no more losses.

 

[turtlebird]

BTW what is a speckled barred rock? I have never seen one of those. Do you have a picture?

 

[speckledhen]

Can we see pics? There is no such thing as a speckled Barred Rock, so I'm wondering what you have. A rooster has favorites and some he may not like. My BR rooster, Hawkeye, never mated the Wyandotte hens, who have him grief when he came here. Also, birds of the same breed and/or color tend to hang together. Haven't you heard the expression "Birds of a feather flock together"? It's true.

 

[mindy72]

Sorry, they are jus the "barred rock" hens. We always refer to them as the speckled ones as they are black with white speckles. I am not really sure if they are at the bottom of the pecking order. We had bought 12 new girls and raised them this spring. Lost seven to what we finally figured out was a momma raccoon, now deceased. Three of the newest are easter eggers, two are wheaten and one is a red/brown/black, he doesn't seem to bother. It is only the two barred plymouth rock hens that he seems to hate and wants to kill.
The first one that he did manage to kill was a barred rock hen that he was raised up with from birth. She somehow, I suspect the neighbor kid, escaped the pen we had her in for her own protection and we found her dead when we came home that night and went to lock them in their coop. He had been chasing her away and clubbing her when he could catch her when they were out free ranging. It was shortly after we had introduced the newest hens to the flock and at that point he was not even interested in the young barreds.
I am really stumped. All the other easter egg girls are of various colors and such. One is even solid black. I am begining to think that I am just not allowed to have the barred rocks. Maybe I should give those girls away for their own safety.

 

[sourland]

Since the barred rocks probably have upright more "rooster-like" combs, he may perceive them as male rather than female. If that is the case, he will never accept them. By the way, they are not racist. We humans have a lock on that behavior.

 

[redhen]

If my rooster started to kill my hens..he would have to go ....

 

[CalebtheChicken]

One of my roos killed a hen, he made a good Sunday dinner.

 

[clayhill]

We started out with one Barred Rock roo and 13 barred rock hens, bought one Rhode Island Red hen for a friend. These were 2-3 month olds and we had to seperate the rir hen to keep her from being killed. I know that chickens either see a difference in breed or possibly just an outsider in their flock. These chickens all came from the same breeder, but the rir's were in a seperate pen next door to the barred rocks. I never would have thought they would have been so territorial at such a young age.

 

[mstricer]

EE roo's are nasty I haven't found one yet that is nice to the hens and me. I've culled all. They are noisy to to. I don't think I will ever have another one.