Roosters injuring the flock - Graphic pics!!

[Barrdwing]

I have problems sometimes with the roosters arguing over who gets to breed the hen, start stamping around on her back, and one of the big dummies slips and rakes her side with his spur in exactly that location. Sometimes the wound goes clean through the skin and exposes the muscle. It's an accident, but it can be a real mess. And of course, if the other birds spy it, they'll want to pick at it. Check the roos--does someone have serious points on his spurs? You can file them down a bit, but be VERY cautious about any trimming, because there's a really long quick in that spur. (Having accidentally quicked my sweet old Elwood just last month, and it took ages to get the bleeding to stop.)

For something like that, hydrogen peroxide is a good cleaner, and Neosporin a decent salve. I'd recommend keeping her in for a few days until it scabs, and then a saddle is a good idea. Poor kid!

 

[AlabamaChickenLady]

Quote:
Thank you John!! I was hoping for a post like this. We've been watching the roo's for about a month now and they are forceful with the girls. They just take what they think is theirs.... and then the other one will come rushing over and jump on next, being just as nasty. The girls do resist some times, but given what they have to deal with all day, I don't blame them. The roo's will even chase the girls all over the run to get them. They just bite them really hard on the back of the head and start shaking the girls until they can either do the deed or the girl breaks loose. Sometimes the other pullets will come to the rescue of another one. It just don't seem right to me. I was raised on a dairy farm and I'm used to seeing the animals mate... but this is really harsh. So the roo's will get re-homed or head to freezer camp. I do hate it because they really are beautiful roo's. I was really proud of them until they turned mean.

Now, with all that said and now that I am much calmer.... I think that the older pullets had a hand in on this pecking her clean of feathers on that side. I really do think that the older girls seen blood and went for her pretty bad. I will have to keep an eye on them also. The brooder was inside of my coop, so they seen the JG all day everyday.

My coop is 6 foot by 12 foot and it is raised off the ground by 3 foot to allow for shading/shelter for them. My run is 12 foot by 18 foot including the underside of the coop. We are planing to increase the size of our coop and run in the near future. But with the recent tornadoes, we have family and friends that need our help, so money has been tight for now. I have 3 JG pullets and 3 BR pullets that I was trying to intergrate. I also have 7 Americauna's that are only 9 weeks old. I have not intergrated them yet. I will definately hold off on that now to be sure they will be safe.

 

[Jferlisi]

Quote:
Thank you John!! I was hoping for a post like this. We've been watching the roo's for about a month now and they are forceful with the girls. They just take what they think is theirs.... and then the other one will come rushing over and jump on next, being just as nasty. The girls do resist some times, but given what they have to deal with all day, I don't blame them. The roo's will even chase the girls all over the run to get them. They just bite them really hard on the back of the head and start shaking the girls until they can either do the deed or the girl breaks loose. Sometimes the other pullets will come to the rescue of another one. It just don't seem right to me. I was raised on a dairy farm and I'm used to seeing the animals mate... but this is really harsh. So the roo's will get re-homed or head to freezer camp. I do hate it because they really are beautiful roo's. I was really proud of them until they turned mean.

Now, with all that said and now that I am much calmer.... I think that the older pullets had a hand in on this pecking her clean of feathers on that side. I really do think that the older girls seen blood and went for her pretty bad. I will have to keep an eye on them also. The brooder was inside of my coop, so they seen the JG all day everyday.

My coop is 6 foot by 12 foot and it is raised off the ground by 3 foot to allow for shading/shelter for them. My run is 12 foot by 18 foot including the underside of the coop. We are planing to increase the size of our coop and run in the near future. But with the recent tornadoes, we have family and friends that need our help, so money has been tight for now. I have 3 JG pullets and 3 BR pullets that I was trying to intergrate. I also have 7 Americauna's that are only 9 weeks old. I have not intergrated them yet. I will definately hold off on that now to be sure they will be safe.

Oh its np, Ya i would get rid of the roos asap. Those are just nasty roos and they wont stop doing that. If they see the others 24/7 i believe they will be fine letting them in with the others seeing you have a huge coop and run, and since your roos are out of there it should be more peacefull. If you want a rooster im sure you can find one here on BYC. There are really sweet roosters out there, took me 3 to finally get a good one, but i did and hes amazing. Sometime roosters will look like they are being rough but they are not, but yes what your are doing is just rude and they will end up killing your girls. I know its tough to have to let them go but seeing them do this just makes it easier.

 

[WhetzelMomma]

Can I make another suggestion? I'd think about keeping ONE rooster. One of the ones that ISN'T the top dog. It sounds like your hen to rooster ratio is off... having less might be the solution to keeping one (if that's what you want) and letting your hens have some peace. Over mating can kill hens... just from stress alone I hear.

 

[AlabamaChickenLady]

Quote:
Well that is a thought. But I have 16 pullets to 2 roo's, and I was trying to intergrate more pullets. How many pullets does one roo need? My DH said that the less dominant roo learns from the top dog, and that if I get rid of the top dog.... the other will step up and continue on with the bad behavior that he has learned. Don't know how true that is, but it makes sense to me. Hatching eggs or having fertile eggs is not really a big concern of mine, so not having a roo for a while to settle my flock into normal life would be fine with me. Eventually, I think I will get another roo.

 

[Miss Lydia]

the ratio should be 1 roo for every 10 hens. but the more hens the better.

 

[Barrdwing]

I've had to do some culling on our own roos, and the first ones to go are the overly dominant ones. Some roos are greedy things and won't share any hens at all; I'm keeping an eye on my current boss roo Baron because he has some of that tendency. But so far he's being considerate with the hens and he hasn't injured the other roo, so he can stay. (For now.) If he comes after me, or if I catch him bullying a hen, he's in gigantic trouble. The subordinate roo also with that flock is a perfectly charming bird, and he can step up to the plate any time as far as I'm concerned. I've only kept Baron around because he can contribute his size to the bloodline.

Roos that breed by overpowering the hen are not playing the game fair, at least as far as I can tell from chicken behavior. The roo is supposed to do a fair amount of work to impress the hen--finding her things to eat, dancing, and not crowding her. Right now I have a roo with a single hen living in a breeding pen, and he's a real education. He courts that hen with tact and delicacy, two words I never thought I'd apply to a rooster. She's crazy about him, too. So I look at that relationship, and then I go out to the laying flock and watch Baron in action, and he definitely does not have the same moves.

The thing is, a roo that breeds by brute force, and a roo that breeds politely, both still get the job done. And in a competitive situation, the nasty roo may have an edge and breed a few more hens, so his genes get passed along more. Sadly, there is a genetic component to behavior like this, and if the roo doesn't mend his ways when his competitor is removed, then it may be no good. In your situation, I'd eliminate the dominant roo and see how things go with the subordinate. You can try housing that roo in a "rooster jail" where he can see the hens and they can see him. He'll be frustrated, but the hens need a break anyway and it might do him a little good to have to resort to dancing and clucking to get their attention.

 

[Barrdwing]

Whoops! Double post, sorry about that.

 

[lovin my birds]

I had this problem when I had 20 girls and 2 boys. I thought it would be fine with so many hens. Not the case, they did the same as your roos one would catch a hen and they would both come running and jump her.

My poor girls. I sold my head roo and kept my other and he is the perfect gentleman. All my hens love him. After I got rid of the other roo he stopped being a bully and is great. He courts them all, never running after them never grabbing them, never jumping them. He is so funny! He works hard for his ladys. LOL! So hopefully if you get rid of your more dominate roo then your other one will do the same as mine and become a perfect gentleman. Today my roo has 32 girls to look after and they keep him plenty busy, but he is happy to court them. Its LOVE!!!!!

Haha! Hope you get this all worked out. After I got rid of my other roo every once in a while my roo would have an "episode" where he would become a little to aggresive. But he was still young. So I would seperate him for about 10-20 minutes. When I let him back in he would run over and appologize by finding all the hens some yummy treats.

 

[hillbillycitygirl]

poor sweet girl, we just had a similar episode here, I know one of my wyandottes did it because she had blood on her beak, but the cuts on my pullets looked much different, they were obviously pecked...I agree, yours looks like a scrape or maybe an animal got her? I hope shes not too stressed!