Rooster tried to KILL 2 of my hens!!

[chicken stalker]

I walked into my coop and my rooster was beating the snot out of one of my hens. Definatly not the mating dance...he was holding her down literally peeking and ripping her feathers out. I shoo'd him away and as soon as she twitch he was back at her tearing her apart. I shoo'd him away again and I'd thought he killed her because she was laying on her side lifeless. I picked her up and she weakly clucked. As I was carring her out I noticed another hen laying "dead" in the bottom of the coop. Totally lifeless...I thought for sure she was dead. I touched her and she opened her eyes but didn't move. I picked her up and notice she was skin and bones. I immediatly rushed her indoors, cleaned her up and offered her some food/treats. She couldn't even stand and she didn't want the treats so put her in a kennel in my kitchen and after an hour she started trying to stand up. She ate like there was no tomorrow though she was very wobbly. She was fine yesterday...in fact she was the first one out in the run yesterday.

These two hens are the smallest of my flock. They all have been living together and the roo is only 7 months old.

Why was he starving and trying to kill these two girls?

 

[ibpboo]

That's an awful story. I have no idea why that would happen, but I'd say its time to eat the roo!

 

[heyeddah]

Rooster stew time. Get rid of him. There are so many roosters out there for free even.

 

[lobb40118]

Roo Stew

 

[the1much]

do they mate with him? are they on the "top of the pecking order"? does there look like they could be sick,, and he's culling them?
has he just started trying to mate?,, sometimes the hens wont let the roo mate if he doesnt prove he's bigger then them.
are you sure he's starving them, not the bigger hens?
was there any blood?, if not, then it is definitely him trying to become a real roo with the girls,, and it IS normal, to a certain extent.

and roo stew only fixes this 1 problem,, doesnt tell the OP why this is happening so that maybe it can be caught before hand next time.
and ity doesnt tell them that most of this is NORMAL for young roo's

 

[keeperofthehearth]

Why was he starving and trying to kill these two girls?

I don't know why he would try to do that but it's time for him to go. Who knows who he may hurt or kill next. If your roo isn't going to treat the girls well,

, time to find another roo. There are plenty of roo's out there who will be sweet and gentle to your girls.
I did have a roo once who I caught knocking the girls off their roosts wanting to mate when they refused & had roosted for the night. Thought he had killed my sweet BR, Doll, but luckily she was just stuned for a few minutes. We put him out in the inclosed run for the night and the next morning .... well. He wasn't going to knock anymore girls around.​

 

[the1much]

roo's are suppose to be bossy,, push the girls around, and mate when he wants to,, its not their choice,,,,,,,,, ALL of these are actually a sign of a good roo,,,, its hard to protect people when they wont listen to you when you tell them what to do..

 

[Mahonri]

The china game we had for a week and just gave away had a hatred for our white colored hens. I have no idea why. If he could have killed them, he would have. It was like he felt that since they were white, they didn't belong.

In a week I should have a pureblooded Blue Ameraucana roo.

 

[chicken stalker]

He's been mating for at least 2 months now, including those girls. The one is"gimpy", she's been that way ever since the falcon attack a month ago. No signs of blood on her but the one that was starved and attaked had several wounds on her comb. They are both the small hens of the flock. Thankfully he doesn't have any spurs and he isn't aggressive to the other girls or to me. Even the duck tries to mate him and doesn't respond in a aggressive way.

Could it be a reaction to the negative temperatures that we have been having? Or is he just trying to cull the weakest links?

 

[MissPrissy]

If a hen will not let a roo mate her he will beat the tar out of her to teach her he is the boss. Normal roo behavior.

Getting rid of him won't solve anything. Brining in another roo puts all the hens in the same position where he will make them submissive to him and become King of the flock.

The chicken world is a cold cruel place when we humans look in on it.

You cannot put human emotion, thought and feelings onto these animals and expect them to behave in a way you want them to. They won't and you will be disappointed and upset.

Give your coop a few days and see what's up.

If these 2 hens suffer injury and seem to be shunned from the flock that is the natural order of chickens as well. They act instinctively to protect the survival of the fittest and are programed by nature to cull the weaker members.