Rooster is dividing our flock and picking on the original hens

[Grammy12]

We added 4 baby chicks to our 3 hens we have had for 1 1/2 years. One of the chicks turned out to be a rooster. As soon as he matured into his rooster self he started picking on our original 3. One lost quite a few feathers on her back and our one small breed had been pecked so many times on her head she was bare of feathers and bleeding. The original 3 are afraid of him and he only protects the new 3. Its like we have 2 separate flocks in one coop. How do I keep him from doing that?

 

[aart]

How old is the younger group?
How much space to they have in coop and run, in feet by feet?

 

[Upstate_chicks]

This is exactly what’s happening here. My rooster who is only 6 months old is being vicious towards one hen, one of my original 6, which is 11 months old.
He absolutely hates her. Pecked her neck raw. He’s in rooster jail right now and she is healing up nicely and has started laying again.
I let him out today to see if he still goes after her and he does. However, he’s not physically attacking right now.
It seems he just doesn’t want her to be a part of the flock. As long as she’s on the other side of the run, he’s ok.
He’s great with all the other hens…. I haven’t had a hawk attack since he matured into his rooster look. He even does his little dance for them.
But he just can’t stand this one hen. And she’s the sweetest little cream Legbar.
He’s going back into rooster jail to see if that helps him calm himself down.
Good luck with yours.

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

This is exactly what’s happening here. My rooster who is only 6 months old is being vicious towards one hen, one of my original 6, which is 11 months old.
He absolutely hates her. Pecked her neck raw. He’s in rooster jail right now and she is healing up nicely and has started laying again.
I let him out today to see if he still goes after her and he does. However, he’s not physically attacking right now.
It seems he just doesn’t want her to be a part of the flock. As long as she’s on the other side of the run, he’s ok.
He’s great with all the other hens…. I haven’t had a hawk attack since he matured into his rooster look. He even does his little dance for them.
But he just can’t stand this one hen. And she’s the sweetest little cream Legbar.
He’s going back into rooster jail to see if that helps him calm himself down.
Good luck with yours.

I had something similar happen in my flock and it turned out that the excluded hen had poultry lice and that was why she was being chased away. We treated everyone for lice and after they were gone she was not shunned anymore.

Give your hen a quick check, hopefully it’s something as easy to fix as my problem was!

 

[Upstate_chicks]

I had something similar happen in my flock and it turned out that the excluded hen had poultry lice and that was why she was being chased away. We treated everyone for lice and after they were gone she was not shunned anymore.

Give your hen a quick check, hopefully it’s something as easy to fix as my problem was!

Thanks. I’ll definitely check her again.

 

[Upstate_chicks]

I had something similar happen in my flock and it turned out that the excluded hen had poultry lice and that was why she was being chased away. We treated everyone for lice and after they were gone she was not shunned anymore.

Give your hen a quick check, hopefully it’s something as easy to fix as my problem was!

you know what! I think she has Favus! She’s got white spots on her comb which I didn’t think anything of until you said to check her again. No mites, lice or anything other than those spots (which she didn’t have before a few weeks ago), I’ll treat it today and see if that helps! Thanks so much.

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

Good luck!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

This is exactly what’s happening here. My rooster who is only 6 months old is being vicious towards one hen, one of my original 6, which is 11 months old.
He absolutely hates her. Pecked her neck raw. He’s in rooster jail right now and she is healing up nicely and has started laying again.
I let him out today to see if he still goes after her and he does. However, he’s not physically attacking right now.
It seems he just doesn’t want her to be a part of the flock. As long as she’s on the other side of the run, he’s ok.
He’s great with all the other hens…. I haven’t had a hawk attack since he matured into his rooster look. He even does his little dance for them.
But he just can’t stand this one hen. And she’s the sweetest little cream Legbar.
He’s going back into rooster jail to see if that helps him calm himself down.
Good luck with yours.

She might not be letting him breed, which can cause some males to become more aggressive towards that source of frustration