Rooster doesn't like insubordinate hen

[FoggyFowl1719]

I moved around one of my flocks about 2 to 3 months ago. One of the hens is bossy and doesn't take crap from any of the other chickens. I have noticed that when I go to close up the coop at night, she is always sleeping outside and whenever I put her in the coop, the rooster starts to bite her and chase her out. He is a bit bigger than her. But she is our biggest hen. Could he be attacking her because she refuses to be subordinate? She can take even my biggest roo and has beaten up 2 cats at once. I don't understand why she lets him bully her. They are fine during the day. The problem seems to only be happening at bedtime. Any advice?

 

[aart]

How old are these birds, in weeks or months?

Roost time is the most contentious time of the day.
More space can help ease the RoostTimeRumble.

 

[azygous]

Chickens can have personality conflicts just as people do. Rooster/hen conflicts have the potential of turning very ugly. I had such a duo in my flock a few years ago. The younger of my two roosters would get so enraged with an older hen that he would attack her through the run fence, even getting shocked by the hot wire running around the outside.

Before I finally decided to remove her from the flock proper, giving her and another hen their own run and coop space, this rooster tried to force her to mate and when she tried to evade him, he trapped her in the coop and tore her scalp from her head, a real blood bath.

This isn't to say something similar is in the future between your hen and roo, but there is that possibility. For now, you might be able to make roosting easier for this hen if you referee roosting. I've found that placing partitions on the roosting perch at intervals helps greatly to reduce friction among the chickens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

They are fine during the day. The problem seems to only be happening at bedtime.

The dominant chicken gets to sleep wherever they want. The less dominant has to make do with what's left. As Aart said, when they settle down to sleep can be the roughest time of the day. You'd think they'd learn where they are going to wind up to sleep but some seem to want to challenge that every day. This might be what is going on.

Some hens just won't accept a rooster as dominant. This is especially true when the boys are not totally grown up and the hen is older so how old are they is a legitimate question. I don't know what our facilities look like or how big they are, but they may be able to stay apart during the day where they can't in your coop. So it is possible some of this is due to her not accepting his dominance. I've seen that play out before but that was during the day, not as they settled in to sleep. But each flock is different and each of us have different facilities. How long has this been going on? Mine worked it out in a few days.

If mine are not getting injured I don't worry about it but your hen is not putting herself to bed in there. I don't know what your sleeping arrangements are but if you can fit in another roost that might (or might not) help.

 

[FoggyFowl1719]

The dominant chicken gets to sleep wherever they want. The less dominant has to make do with what's left. As Aart said, when they settle down to sleep can be the roughest time of the day. You'd think they'd learn where they are going to wind up to sleep but some seem to want to challenge that every day. This might be what is going on.

Some hens just won't accept a rooster as dominant. This is especially true when the boys are not totally grown up and the hen is older so how old are they is a legitimate question. I don't know what our facilities look like or how big they are, but they may be able to stay apart during the day where they can't in your coop. So it is possible some of this is due to her not accepting his dominance. I've seen that play out before but that was during the day, not as they settled in to sleep. But each flock is different and each of us have different facilities. How long has this been going on? Mine worked it out in a few days.

If mine are not getting injured I don't worry about it but your hen is not putting herself to bed in there. I don't know what your sleeping arrangements are but if you can fit in another roost that might (or might not) help.

The hen is 3 and she has always been queen of the flock. I previously had her and her 4 younger sisters in with my Ayam Cemanis. But when I ended up with 4 RIR roosters (even though I bought them as pullets from TSC) I decided to keep the cemani flock pure and move the red sexlinks(dominant hen's breed) into the big coop. I also took out my old RIR and SL Wyandottes which are the parents of the sexlinks. So now the big flock is comprised of 1 RIR rooster who is about 14 months old, 1 RIR hen of the same age, the 3 year old red sexlink, her 3 sisters who are 2 years old, 3 cukoo marans who just started clucking, and a 3 year old barred rock. I know the flock is a bit hen heavy but I have 2 other 14 month old RIR roos in another pen and might give the marans to one of them.

Last night there wasn't an issue. The dominant hen slept on the roost next to the barred rock. To be fair, I have been putting her in that spot for the past few nights. And all my chickens know that I'm the "big rooster" so they don't challenge me. But she put herself there last night and the rooster didn't seem to mind. Also, I was very happy to find my first egg in months this morning. I also witnessed the rooster breeding one of the younger sexlinks today so maybe they all finally worked it out.

The big coop is an 8ft by 9.5ft insulated shed. I have 12 nesting boxes that are built like a movable shelf with the boxes 4 wide by 3 high on feet so none of the boxes are on the floor. There are also roosts along the front of each row of boxes. The yard for that coop is 12ft by 17ft with chain link sides and chicken wire over the top and sides. I keep up with the weeds too so no predators can get in.