Temperamental Hen and Rooster

[Alakshak]

Last year my daughter's kindergarten class hatched chickens for a school project. We live in the country and offered to take the chicks. It turned out 9 of the 10 were roosters. We ended up growing them for a few months and then freezing 4 of the roosters for soup. After winter the remaining 5 roosters started fighting. I got rid of 4 roosters, leaving me with one rooster and one hen. For the first week, both chickes seemed very happy and the hen has been laying daily. The past two nights I've had to break up the rooster from jumping on the hens back. All of a sudden, when I go in the pen the rooster gets jumpy and the hen goes in the coop and gets very defensive, to the point that I can't retrieve her eggs. I have 6 ISA Brown pullets, as chicks that I want to put in the pen in a few weeks. The rooster is a RIR and the hen is an Americauna Easter Egger. I'm thinking there may be some residual tension in the pen from when I had all those roosters. Do you suggest I get rid of these 2 birds and start fresh? What should I do about my hen that won't let me get her eggs? I'm hoping my 6 pullets aren't so aggressive. Thanks in advance!

 

[donrae]

.I"m not sure what you mean my breaking up the rooster from jumping on her back? That sounds like mating to me....not sure why you'd prevent him from mating?

 

[Alakshak]

He pecks the back of the hens head aggressively. Is that normal mating?

 

[blucoondawg]

Is he pecking her head repeatedly like an attack or is he grabbing her by the feathers to stabilize himself, the latter is pretty normal to basically grab hold and hang on, if he is repeatedly pecking her head that isn't normal. If you keep knocking him off her while he is mating you will likely end up with a mean rooster, he will see you as another rooster who is testing his dominance and he will attack you sooner or later or worse attack your kids. What do you mean the hen won't let you collect the eggs? Does she actually attack you? Is she broody, a broody can get nasty. I have hens that run up to me and watch me collect eggs but they don't attack.

You need to be careful introducing your chicks I would put them in a separate cage where they can see each other for a few days but not attack, also be sure to have plenty of roosts and places the chicks can retreat to to avoid being attacked until they are large enough to take some abuse and fight back, the birds will establish a pecking order by fighting and harassing eachother

 

[Alakshak]

Thanks for the response. It's possible they're mating. This is our 1st time having chickens so there is a bit of a learning curve. The hen hasn't made contact, in her aggressiveness with people, but she always stands in the way of her brooder box and jumps around in your way. It's like she tries to be feisty and angry with me, while collecting eggs but is scared at the same time.

 

[blucoondawg]

I have an easter egger hen that acts that way but I don't consider it aggression, wait until you have a broody hen and you try to take her eggs, then you will see an aggressive hen, they will peck and bite and make all sort of noises. Your rooster is 99.9999% likely mating, that is just how birds mate, some roosters are harder on hens than others, young roosters are the worst. It is best to have a young rooster with older more dominant hens, they will whip the young rooster into shape and teach him "manners" if chickens have such things, they won't tolerate the rough behavior from a young rooster. It will also help your hen out when you add more hens, right now you only have 1 hen and 1 rooster when a normal amount is 1 rooster and 10 or 15 hens, so your hen is likely getting overbred especially if they are cooped a lot and she cannot really get away.

 

[Alakshak]

Thanks for the advice!