Rooster attacked hen

[KRack]

So our rooster is about 6 months old, and has shown no signs of aggression toward me. A week ago he attacked our one hen (our hens are 1.5 yo), who I assumed had just continued to refuse to submit to him. He plucked her feathers and bloodied her neck and I have no doubt would have killed her if I didn’t intervene.

She’s been healing in an extra coup we have, and has been rejected by the whole flock now, not just him. I was planning to wait until she was healed, then shut the rooster in the extra coup for a few days, to see if the other hens accepted her back in.

Today I’ve noticed the rooster is being sort of mean to another hen. He never really lets her around unless he’s trying to mate her, and she was hiding from him for a while today. When she finally came out, one of our other hens was aggressive with her too.

What’s happening?! Is this the time that I say enough is enough and end the rooster/rehome? I don’t really need him, he was just hatched and I thought it’d be nice to have fertilized eggs going forward.

I only have 5 hens, so I didn’t know if that could also be an issue. They free range on 2.5 acres, so have plenty of space. There seems to be no real trigger as far as I can tell. It’s never about food/water, he just seems like a jerk. Advice?

 

[sourland]

He's a cockerel, and his behavior may improve. If you decide to keep him, I would separate him from the flock until he is mature and then give him another try. If it were me, he would have to go.

 

[Mrs. K]

The thing is, regardless of how you try, some birds do not work together. The coop, the space is almost always the culprit. But with cockerels, the hormones can cause dangerous birds.
And the problem with hormones - yeah you got them, not going to make them go away, probably not going to change his behavior.

Some times age will cure - but a lot of times no. He'd be gone out of my world. I like to enjoy my chickens, watching cockfighting is not one of my entertainments.

Mrs K

 

[KRack]

I'm interested to hear if separating the rooster worked for you. I have run into the same problem with a ~6 month old Welsummer rooster. I have three ~2yo hens along with the other 6 ~6 month old hens with whom he was raised as a chick.

He has singled out one of the 2yo hens. I first thought they'd sorted it out, but today I saw he bloodied the back of her head pretty badly. He's by himself in a smaller run/coop now and I'm in the same boat you were...wondering how long I'll have to keep him separated to avoid him attacking that hen again. He doesn't attack the other hens like this, just the one.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can share.

It didn’t work unfortunately. I gave multiple chances, and ended up separating for months trying to give him time to mature. I tried to reintegrate him a few weeks ago and he was back to his same shenanigans. So we culled him.

 

[Bill1976]

Well, that sucks, sorry to hear that. It's going to probably take a month for the one hen he was after to heal up completely, so I'll keep him separated and then see how he acts. If he attacks her again, I guess I'll have to get rid of him.

Thank you both for the responses.

 

[KRack]

He's a cockerel, and his behavior may improve. If you decide to keep him, I would separate him from the flock until he is mature and then give him another try. If it were me, he would have to go.

Thank you! I may try to pull him inside so the others can’t really hear him as much, although listening to him crow in the house sounds like a nightmare.

I think I’ll try to put him somewhere and see if I can get the hen re-accepted to the flock. If I can, I’ll give him some time on time-out and give him one more chance. I’ve never had a rooster before (or cockerel, is the difference in terms just age?), when are they “mature”?

 

[aart]

Their coop is plenty big for them, and they’re only in it to sleep. They roam on 2.5 acres and always have access to food and water.

That can help but not always might depend on climate.

I agree, it must be his hormones. It seemed as though some people think they’ll mellow with a “time out”, I just wanted to know how long that was. I won’t keep him if he can’t change, but if I can give him one more chance, I’d like to.

There's no predicting a finite length of time, nor whether he'll change or not.
If you have no compelling desire to hatch new birds from your flock,
having a male might not be worth the effort.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll enter my guess. He's an immature cockerel hyped up on hormones. Until recently he was afraid of the older girls but his hormones are driving him to take over dominance of the flock. The older hen that was hurt was the dominant hen and was not having any of him taking over from her. They fought and she got hurt.

With her gone the pecking order was shaken up and the other hens are trying to reestablish who is in charge. The cockerel is still involved and doesn't want another hen to take over. The third hen is probably trying to take advantage of his disruption so she can take over herself.

I've seen this before but it wasn't this messy. Most of the time with my flock this transition is pretty peaceful but I have had some where the cockerel didn't have the attitude and personality to WOW! the hens and win them over until he was 11 months old. Also, most of the time the hens aren't that determined to hang onto the power but occasionally some are. The personality of the cockerel has a lot to do with this but the hens have their part to play also. I think you got a little unlucky in both these regards.

That cockerel will mature as he gets older. He could mature to the point that he wows the older hens with his magnificence and they accept him without fighting or force. The introduction of a mature rooster to a flock of mature hens is often very easy. But occasionally you get a rooster that just isn't that self-confident or a hen (usually the dominant hen) that just won't accept him. I don't know how yours will turn out.

So what can you do? How badly do you really want a rooster? One obvious answer is to get rid of him.

They mature at different rates. I can't tell you how long you need to keep him separated for it to workout, if it will. I'd give it at least a month before I tried again. See how it goes. If you need to, lock him up for another month. If it doesn't work out by the time he is 11 months old give up and get rid of him. Personally I would not have that much patience. And with him having the problems with the subordinent hens he may be lacking in the personality department and may not be able to overcome it.

 

[KRack]

When it’s suggested to separate the rooster/cockerel, about how long does that mean? A day, a week, a month?

 

[KRack]

The thing is, regardless of how you try, some birds do not work together. The coop, the space is almost always the culprit. But with cockerels, the hormones can cause dangerous birds.
And the problem with hormones - yeah you got them, not going to make them go away, probably not going to change his behavior.

Some times age will cure - but a lot of times no. He'd be gone out of my world. I like to enjoy my chickens, watching cockfighting is not one of my entertainments.

Mrs K

Their coop is plenty big for them, and they’re only in it to sleep. They roam on 2.5 acres and always have access to food and water.

I agree, it must be his hormones. It seemed as though some people think they’ll mellow with a “time out”, I just wanted to know how long that was. I won’t keep him if he can’t change, but if I can give him one more chance, I’d like to.