Rooster Damage. How to Manage Injured Hen or Eliminate Rooster?

[FarmFullOfFowl]

GRAPHIC PHOTO WARNING. PHOTOS BELOW TEXT​

I am looking for advice from those of you who have experience with Roosters. I have only been raising chickens for one year and the addition of roosters only came with the little ones we raised up last Spring. Our current flock consists of seven hens that I suspect to be about 23 months old, three hens that are 8 months old, one hen who is 6 months old, one rooster (8 months), and another subordinate rooster (6 months).

Two of my oldest hens have gotten their feather plucked out by rooster activity, one has managed and is not getting worse, but not better either. The other was almost killed. Since the original incident that opened the one hen’s head, we removed another 8 month old rooster (surprise) because he was not part of my breeding goals and seemed to be the source of the problems. She has been on a road to recovery since January and had to spend weeks apart from the flock healing up. Once her wound seemed to have closed well and the huge scab fell off, she has been spending the days in a dog crate with the flock and nights back in her hospital box apart from the flock. Things I have read, say they eventually need supervised interaction, so after about a week of being in the dog crate, I let her peck around a bit when I was there and she was thrilled to scratch and eat clover. The older rooster would try to get at her, but I kept him away. She went back in the crate when I had to leave. I was giving love to my favorite hen the other day when I was out there and while my back was turned, the rooster mated with her and drew fresh blood again on her head!! This was my mistake, but I did not think she was going to have her head wound hurt again!

Do I find a separate place for the hen to be full time? Do I just continue to have her confined to a dog crate indefinitely? Do I get rid of my rooster? Is there a hat she can wear?

The rooster is not causing harm to any of the other hens. The hen with the injury is slated to be culled this Fall when she’s around 30 months, but she is sweet as can be and I don’t want her suffering in the meantime!

When she was first attacked:

As she was healing:

I don't have a pic of her when her skin was much more healed.

And this is Poppy, the hen that gets pecked, but not bloodied:

 

[kerbotx]

I would not tolerate such violence in my flock, and I wouldn't breed it into the next generation, either.

 

[Silkie Princess]

I would not tolerate such violence in my flock, and I wouldn't breed it into the next generation, either.

I agree

 

[NatJ]

we removed another 8 month old rooster (surprise) because he was not part of my breeding goals and seemed to be the source of the problems.

If you remove all roosters, you will not have any more rooster-related problems.
But since you have "breeding goals," you are probably looking for other solutions

...Things I have read, say they eventually need supervised interaction, so after about a week of being in the dog crate, I let her peck around a bit when I was there ...

You discovered the reason for the supervision: you were able to intervene before she got too badly hurt. If you just turned her loose one morning and left her there all day, the results could have been much worse.

Do I find a separate place for the hen to be full time? Do I just continue to have her confined to a dog crate indefinitely? Do I get rid of my rooster? Is there a hat she can wear?

I don't know of any hat. The other ideas all sound like reasonable possibilities.

If you get rid of the rooster, you will still have to be sure no other rooster or hen bothers her-- she might be fine with the rest of the flock, but might not be.

The rooster is not causing harm to any of the other hens. The hen with the injury is slated to be culled this Fall when she’s around 30 months, but she is sweet as can be and I don’t want her suffering in the meantime!

If you want the rooster for breeding, and if he is not causing trouble with the other hens, I would suggest either culling this hen now (earlier than you planned), or arranging for her to live separately.

She could live alone in the dog crate or a pen (next to the others so she won't be too lonely). Or if you have a group of hens that will not be used for breeding, she and they may be able to live together with no roosters (depends on whether the hens peck her too, or if the problem is just the rooster.)

 

[sourland]

With two cockerels in a flock there tends to be competition breeding taking place to make sure they don't get knocked off the hen. I would remove both cockerels from the flock. Allow both hens to heal - it's only a matter of time until the second hen gets injured.. Then if I wanted fertile eggs I would reintroduce the most desirable cockerel to the flock. I would monitor interactions with the hens and if he continued to be over aggressive, there are great coq au vin recipes.

 

[Brooks_]

Above is good advice.

I would invite one to dinner right away (and hope I chose wisely).

 

[Mrs. K]

Always solve fore peace in the flock. People tend to get roosters and think they have to keep them. You don't. There ARE good roosters. But you have to try a few to find them. Right now, I have one, that I was planning on culling, because he doe not fit my goals, but he is the only rooster I have and is turning out so very nice that I am calling him Bye, cause so far he has a bye.

Thing is, there is other roosters out there, like him. Let both of these boys go. Roosters take quite a bit of experience, and the more roosters you have, need even more experience.

Personally, I am dang impressed you got that to heal up, I would have culled her, and him that day. I think that there might be more tension in your flock, than you are aware of. If you truly want to keep one of the roosters, but don't know which one, pick one, and remove one but keep him. Wait a week to see the dynamics of the flock, if your choice works, then cull, if not, cull the one in the flock and try this one. But truthfully, I would cull both of these, and start asking around.

There are nice roosters out there, but I don't think you have them.

Mrs K

 

[HappyClucker7]

I'm usually all for giving the rooster another chance. But that injury is very severe. I would not tolerate that. I would get rid of that rooster immediately.

 

[PasoRoblesEgger]

The injury to the one hen gave me chills. Goals or not - I personally would not keep a rooster who inflicted that kind of damage. I've culled two for far less aggressive acts.

 

[FarmFullOfFowl]

Thank you all.
I do believe that the initial wound was caused by the rooster that we already eliminated, but since Rupert is reopening her wound when he mates her, I believe we will end his life today. Hopefully Briggs, our other guy will be gentle with her. Or else, I guess we will just not have roosters right now.