tviss711
Songster
- Apr 12, 2024
- 300
- 820
- 186
Hi all. I will try to give as much context as possible here, I’ve never experienced this degree of targeting.
Our flock consists of 3 older hens, 6 pullets and one young rooster (5 months). He is the son of our original rooster Hawkeye and we kept him out of all the boys because he had the best temperament toward us and the girls. I know young Roos are hormonal and can be aggressive as they come into their own before leveling out. I’m hoping what we are experiencing is that and he will simmer down with time.
Positives: he dances for all the ladies, tidbits, tidies up nesting boxes and settles disputes between the girls fairly. He immediately runs toward any hen that is squawking in distress. All the younger hens submit to him, and all my older hens now do except for one, my 11 year old olive egger. Surprisingly, that isn’t actually the hen he has been bullying. He has been bullying our sole surviving hen from the dog attack several months ago, Dottie.
She is a golden sex link and has been squatting for him regularly, so this isn’t a failure to comply with mating type of aggression. He will chase her down, peck and peck and peck at her, and he has been so aggressive that he actually partially tore her comb off one morning and now it is healing, but it won’t heal reattached so it’s kind of flipped over. When he does this, he doesn’t even mate with her, it is just aggression.
Her comb still has blood flow and the injury isn’t impeding her in any way. It’s not infected and is doing its thing. I just felt so bad for her. We have her and the older hen separated from him so she would not be alone and they get along very well. He was separated for the day when we discovered the initial injury. I already know you are supposed to remove the aggressor and not the “victim”, but right now we removed her to allow her comb to heal without him bullying her, or the younger girls curiously pecking at her injury. He is with the younger hens and one of the older hens. We have two coops so we can keep them permanently separate if we need, but I’d like to have one flock.
Just seeking advice, aside from his issue with our one hen he has been a good rooster so far. I’d like to keep them both and I won’t get rid of Dottie, she was here first and was one of our first birds. But I don’t want her living in misery. I’d rather keep them permanently apart than rehome either.
Our only other thought was that Dottie has spurs, so perhaps he is confused and thinks she is a rooster? Would trimming her spurs down help? They are long and sharp but I don’t think she even is aware she has them otherwise our rooster would probably be the injured one. Is it possible that is the problem here? Or unlikely? I’ve never trimmed spurs before but feel I could do it carefully after watching a video. She is easy to handle.
We are hoping that once she heals up, and his hormones start to calm down (he is 5 months old), that they could be reintroduced without major issue. Before reintroducing we would probably separate our rooster for a few days, reintegrate the older hens, and then reintroduce the rooster to all the girls.
Any advice is appreciated. I know some people have hard and fast rules for roosters (like one problem arises and they are soup), but I want to give him a chance as he is one of only two babies that I was able to keep that hatched from our original flock that was killed, and aside from this he has been the ideal rooster. It’s really been a bummer as he’s fantastic in every other way.
Our flock consists of 3 older hens, 6 pullets and one young rooster (5 months). He is the son of our original rooster Hawkeye and we kept him out of all the boys because he had the best temperament toward us and the girls. I know young Roos are hormonal and can be aggressive as they come into their own before leveling out. I’m hoping what we are experiencing is that and he will simmer down with time.
Positives: he dances for all the ladies, tidbits, tidies up nesting boxes and settles disputes between the girls fairly. He immediately runs toward any hen that is squawking in distress. All the younger hens submit to him, and all my older hens now do except for one, my 11 year old olive egger. Surprisingly, that isn’t actually the hen he has been bullying. He has been bullying our sole surviving hen from the dog attack several months ago, Dottie.
She is a golden sex link and has been squatting for him regularly, so this isn’t a failure to comply with mating type of aggression. He will chase her down, peck and peck and peck at her, and he has been so aggressive that he actually partially tore her comb off one morning and now it is healing, but it won’t heal reattached so it’s kind of flipped over. When he does this, he doesn’t even mate with her, it is just aggression.
Her comb still has blood flow and the injury isn’t impeding her in any way. It’s not infected and is doing its thing. I just felt so bad for her. We have her and the older hen separated from him so she would not be alone and they get along very well. He was separated for the day when we discovered the initial injury. I already know you are supposed to remove the aggressor and not the “victim”, but right now we removed her to allow her comb to heal without him bullying her, or the younger girls curiously pecking at her injury. He is with the younger hens and one of the older hens. We have two coops so we can keep them permanently separate if we need, but I’d like to have one flock.
Just seeking advice, aside from his issue with our one hen he has been a good rooster so far. I’d like to keep them both and I won’t get rid of Dottie, she was here first and was one of our first birds. But I don’t want her living in misery. I’d rather keep them permanently apart than rehome either.
Our only other thought was that Dottie has spurs, so perhaps he is confused and thinks she is a rooster? Would trimming her spurs down help? They are long and sharp but I don’t think she even is aware she has them otherwise our rooster would probably be the injured one. Is it possible that is the problem here? Or unlikely? I’ve never trimmed spurs before but feel I could do it carefully after watching a video. She is easy to handle.
We are hoping that once she heals up, and his hormones start to calm down (he is 5 months old), that they could be reintroduced without major issue. Before reintroducing we would probably separate our rooster for a few days, reintegrate the older hens, and then reintroduce the rooster to all the girls.
Any advice is appreciated. I know some people have hard and fast rules for roosters (like one problem arises and they are soup), but I want to give him a chance as he is one of only two babies that I was able to keep that hatched from our original flock that was killed, and aside from this he has been the ideal rooster. It’s really been a bummer as he’s fantastic in every other way.
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