- Aug 1, 2012
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I have a 14 chicken flock that has been happy until the last week or so. 12 hens (9 EEs, 1 Brahma, and two Barre Rocks), and 2 roosters (1 EE "Rocky", and 1 Brahma "Elton"). Elton is handicapped in that he has a limp from an unknown injury he suffered when he was a chick, but he gets along just fine otherwise. (Sidenote: My wife blames me for the injury since I was responsible for the design and implementation of our coop
)
Rocky and Elton have been getting along up until just recently as Elton was totally OK with Rocky being the boss. However, in the last week I have witnessed the result of Rocky's asocial behavior. He is chasing Elton around the yard and pulling out feathers when he catches him. There are patches of white feathers all over the yard. Yesterday, my wife felt threatened by him as he "flexed" his feathers and confronted her. Today, he did the same to me. He flexxes his feathers with the hens too. And now he's started digging holes; WTF?
I feel like he is a bad seed at this point. I was getting a dozen eggs a day for a long time, and just in the last week it's dropped to 9 or less. So I think he's also stressing the hens too. What to do? I've thought about isolating him indefinitely, keeping him in a cage by himself. But I also wouldn't miss him entirely, and could easily re-home him somewhere else. I would LIKE 2 roosters, but I don't NEED 2 roosters.
Any suggestions?

Rocky and Elton have been getting along up until just recently as Elton was totally OK with Rocky being the boss. However, in the last week I have witnessed the result of Rocky's asocial behavior. He is chasing Elton around the yard and pulling out feathers when he catches him. There are patches of white feathers all over the yard. Yesterday, my wife felt threatened by him as he "flexed" his feathers and confronted her. Today, he did the same to me. He flexxes his feathers with the hens too. And now he's started digging holes; WTF?
I feel like he is a bad seed at this point. I was getting a dozen eggs a day for a long time, and just in the last week it's dropped to 9 or less. So I think he's also stressing the hens too. What to do? I've thought about isolating him indefinitely, keeping him in a cage by himself. But I also wouldn't miss him entirely, and could easily re-home him somewhere else. I would LIKE 2 roosters, but I don't NEED 2 roosters.
Any suggestions?