Rooster attacking former head hen?

[firechicken76]

Hi all,

Looking for advice. Hatched out chicks with a broody in June. Flock has 20 hens and 2 roosters. Free range on about 2/3 acre during the day.

The former head hen seems to have been pushed out of the flock by the dominant rooster. She was starting to "mate" with the other hens before the roosters fully matured. Now, the dominant rooster chases her whenever he gets the chance and her comb has a pretty bad injury.

Not sure what the best course of action here is. Does the rooster go or the hen?

 

[Kiki]

I'd vote for the rooster to go.

 

[Kiki]

Are you sure she isn't sick?

 

[Debbie292d]

They are only five months old, so I'd pull the aggressive one out for a couple of weeks, or a month, then see what the dynamics of your flock are then.

her comb has a pretty bad injury.

How bad it is? If it's bleeding, they'll pick it. I'd put some triple antibiotic ointment (without painkiller) on it. You can either keep her out until it's healed or use some Blu-Kote or blue food coloring to hide the red.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's a familiar scenario. Cockerels are raised with the flock. When a cockerel matures to the point that he tries to take over as flock master, the head hen objects. They fight. Every year I have a new flock master, a cockerel raised in the flock. Most of the time the handover of flock master from the head hen to that maturing cockerel is pretty peaceful but every 6 to 8 years I see this scenario. He head hen refuses to give up her position so they fight.

Sometimes the cockerel is able to subdue the hen. It may take a day or two of fighting and violence but they work it out. Sometimes the cockerel drives the hen out of the flock, never to let her back in. He may even kill her. Sometimes the hen is absolutely brutal to the cockerel but as long as he survives he will almost certainly eventually win.

Not sure what the best course of action here is. Does the rooster go or the hen?

What do you want to happen? What are your goals concerning having males? I can suggest different courses of action but I cannot guarantee you any specific results.

Get rid of that cockerel. You can eat him, sell him, or give him away. As you can see, that is the immediate reaction of many people on this forum. You can also get rid if the second immature cockerel now if you wish but you do not yet know what will happen when he matures.

You can let them fight it out. It may be a fight to the death or they may work it out. If she is injured the rest of the flock may turn cannibal on her and attack her. Debbie had some good suggestions.

When the second cockerel matures he may fight with the flock master to determine who is the boss, whether it is the head hen or the other cockerel. Sometimes that is a fight to the death, sometimes it is really peaceful and they work out their standing with little, if any, violence.

You could get rid of that head hen and see how the rest of the flock reacts without her, including the other females and the two cockerels.

You can isolate either the one cockerel (or both) or isolate the head hen for a while and see what happens when you put them back together.

My goals and desires do not matter to you, only yours matter. If you can tell us what you want to happen, what facilities you have to work with, and the make-up of your flock maybe we can give better more detailed suggestions on how to try to achieve that. With living animals you don't get guarantees on behaviors but sometimes we can influence them.

Good luck!

 

[firechicken76]

Thanks for all the responses!

The main goal is a peaceful flock. Long term (next year or so), the goal is to reduce the flock and re-orient to production breeds only. Currently, the flock is very mixed but low egg production this year vs feed costs has made our purposes for keeping a flock very clear.

The roosters were a sort of accident (had homes that fell through) and they'd be worth keeping if they provided some utility - protection from predators and keeping peace in the flock. But we live in an area where we're not "supposed" to have them although the neighbors don't care and others also have roosters.

The head hen seems like she's going into her molt so she's looking a little pathetic. Also not sure how much shes been able to eat. We already took care of her comb and it didn't seem to be something the others were picking on.

The rooster seems to have overall calmed the flock down, but there was a lot of squabbling going on as they started to mature. So I'm not sure if it's actually calmer or just seems that way because the squabbling had increased so much. Now we have different hens becoming aggressive - particularly the mama hen that hatched them out.

So just a little lost as to what the best course of action is to have a peaceful flock again.

 

[Mrs. K]

If this is your first year, you are not supposed to have them, you didn’t want them and they eat more without producing eggs, and you don’t want these breeds in the future I would recommend culling both roosters.

Roosters often cause more problems and the more you have, the greater the chance of problems.

Sometimes people seem to think, well they accidentally got these roosters they are morally obligated to give them a shot. Even when it is not working for your goals. Just shift your goals a little bit to we will provide eggs and a bit of meat while giving the birds a good life and a responsible, quick end.

Mrs K