Rooster injuring hen

[BackyardAR]

I have one male and one female white leghorn. They are five months old. I had been keeping them separated but put them back together a few days ago. The rooster began trying to mate with her immediately. That night I noticed the back, unattached, portion of the hens comb had been cut off. I imagined it was during the mating process. However, he keeps causing injury to her comb and she is my only egg layer. I would hate to lose her to infection.

My question is, is this perfectly normal and nothing to worry about, or is he being too rough and might cause her permanent injury?

 

[Johnn]

I think you need more ladies for him, one isn't enough. That's why she is getting damaged because he will be mating her a lot. If she gets feather damage you should get her a saddle. I'm not really sure what to say about the comb, maybes you could put some Vaseline on it to stop him getting grip.

 

[RockerHen]

I think you need more ladies for him, one isn't enough. That's why she is getting damaged because he will be mating her a lot. If she gets feather damage you should get her a saddle. I'm not really sure what to say about the comb, maybes you could put some Vaseline on it to stop him getting grip.

X2 a rooster's job basically all day is to protect his hens..and to mate. With just one hen, he is probably mating her very often, every chance he can get, throughout the day. Separating them and putting them together tends to increase the aggressive mating, as he feels he has to immediately make sure she is 'his' as soon as he gets the chance. With more hens, his attention is spread out and one hen isn't pestered all day. I have 2 roosters for my mixed egg laying flock of around 20 hens, and 1 rooster with 6 hens for my silkie flock.

 

[Johnn]

Even if you just got two or three more it would be a lot better! I have 2 cockerels with my 9 hens and the hens are in great condition, I did have more but they were killed so I plan to replace them this year.

 

[fiddlebanshee]

Just a word of warning. I had one rooster on 17 hens and about half my hens had feather damage from his mating. If you have one roo on 2 hens I can imagine what damage he may do. My word of caution is that in my case even 17 hens wasn't enough. I eventually harvested him because he was unstoppable. He was not aggressive perse - just very insistent. Also my hens at the time had nowhere to hide from him. I think the situation would probably have been better if he had free-roamed and the hens had been able to get away from him.

By the way, about the saddles == even if the rooster is gone, I still got saddles for the most damaged hens to protect them from skin burns. My dominique found a way to get the saddle off today.

. Clever chicken!

 

[Johnn]

Actually I have 2 roosters to 8 at the minute because one hen is sitting on eggs!