Rooster behavior??

[hershy5252]

I have 20 chickens . 3 are silkies 2 of the 3 are roosters. Now my problem is that the 1 Silkie hen seems to be the stinky kid of the group. No one really wants to be around her. I found her the other day with her head all bloody and her comb torn . So I separated her and when I tryed to put her back In after healed a little. That's when I noticed one of the Roos being mean to her.The Roos have totally avoided her untill now , one of them is attacking her. And it's not mating , he mates all the other hens. Which are wyandottes . He is behaving towards her like she is a rooster. I know for sure she's not because she lays eggs . I really don't want to get rid of any of my chickens. Can anyone give me any insight on this?? Oh and Wilson the Silkie hen is a doll , so sweet to all the other chickens.

 

[azygous]

I doubt anyone can guess why this Silkie hen is being assaulted by one of the Silkie roos. It may be she's resisting his advances and getting her comb torn because she refuses to submit, fighting him off instead.

If he follows her around and attacks her repeatedly, you need to take him out of the mix somehow. A lot of us have a partitioned off section in our runs we use as a "jail". It isolates a trouble maker for a period of time, a few days to a week, and gives him/her time to forget the fixation of going after and bullying a victim. They still remain insight of the flock, so re-entry into the flock isn't as difficult as segregating out of sight.

With bad chicken behavior, sometimes interrupting it for a period is all that's necessary to get it to stop. When/if he resumes the bad behavior, back to jail he goes to serve another stretch. Eventually, the bad behavior should stop.

If it continues after all of this jail time, then it's time to think about re-homing the little brat.

 

[Ridgerunner]

How old are they? If they are still fairly young (less than a year) that might have a bearing. Is it only one rooster or is it more than one of the others?

One rare occasions sometimes a chicken just takes a strong dislike toward another specific chicken, strong enough to want it dead. Sometimes it’s a mystery why. Chicken society can be pretty complex.

Maybe that rooster has decided that Silkie is a threat to his flock. He may perceive her to be sick and he wants to protect his flock by driving her away or killing her. It doesn’t mean she is sick or that anything is wrong with her, just that he might perceive her to be.

I’ve seen a cockerel beat a hen into submission. The cockerel was growing up in a flock of older hens and pullets his age but without a dominant rooster in the flock. Most of the pullets and even the older hens gradually succumbed to his charms as he matured, but the dominant hen resisted him. She would not accept that he was now dominant, so for two days he chased her, pecked her, and occasionally force-mated her. He was pretty brutal but I never saw blood so I left them alone. After two days of this she accepted his dominance and they became best buddies.

You were right to separate her since you saw blood. Usually when I separate a hen from the flock for even just a short while the first thing the dominant rooster does when I put her back is that he mates her to show he is dominant. That may have played a part in what you saw but I’ll trust you that it was more than just mating her.

I agree with Azygous’s recommendations. Separate that cockerel/rooster for a while. That might disrupt flock dynamics enough that he stops picking on her. But this could also lead to your two roosters fighting over flock dominance. People do this kind of thing all the time, especially during breeding season when they want a certain rooster to father chicks from certain hens, then put the rooster back with the main flock. Usually the two roosters sort thing out pretty quickly without either rooster being harmed but prepare to see a little fighting or chasing between roosters.

At some point you may need to decide if you want to keep the rooster or keep the hen. But try the separation before you do anything dramatic.

 

[hershy5252]

Very good advice, I do have a sectioned of place and was putting the hen in it to separate her. I will switch them out . Thank you. They are less than a year old . And all that you both said makes sense.