terrified hens

[kara]

I have 2 hens that are justifiably terrified of the 2 roos. They won't come off the roost to eat. If the Roos see them on the ground they attack often 2 roos on one hen. It's not like the usual mating and bossy behavior the roos show the other hens. They are 19 weeks old. What is going on? What should I do?

 

[cajunlizz]

Quote:
How many hens do you have ?

1 ROOS is all that is required .

 

[LynneP]

One roo would be too many for 2 hens. No wonder they're terrified, you've set the roos up to compete over too few hens. Segregation, for now, would be my suggestion. Your hens are probably deteriorating fast...

 

[cajunlizz]

OK . you said 2 hens were terrfied . DOES that mean thats all you have ?


IF you have ONLY 2 pullets/hens , GET rid of the roosters

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Quote:
The roosters will continue to mate the hens in order to try to assert their authority over each other. Your hens may end up -- seriously -- being "gang-raped" to death.

I would highly suggest separating the males from the females immediately.

 

[rooster-red]

Seperate at least one of the roo's away from the hens, even if you have to rehome him.

Or you could just buy about 18 more hens.

 

[kara]

Sorry, I'm new at this. I guess I should have given more detail. I bought 12 female chicks about 19 weeks ago. 2 turned out to be roos. That leaves me with 10 hens. I have several breeds all raised together but the Roos and the 2 terrified hens as well as 2 other hens are supposed to be Ameracaunas. The roos will jump/bite the others too (mating/bossy stuff), it's just these two hens that aren't allowed to get to the treats. I thought for a minute that the roos had killed one last night. They both ran her down. She dove into some logs and burried her head. When I picked her up she was limp. She seems Ok now.

 

[rooster-red]

At this point I think I'd seperate both roo's from the hens and observe their behavior to see if they calm down.

 

[scooter147]

I have a one rooster and he has decided he don't like two of my hens and flogs them any chance he gets. I have never seen this behavior in over 30 years. This rooster doesn't get the chance any more he has been banished from the hens. I had to seperate him because he was serious about inflicting serious injury or even death.

2 roosters in my opinion are too many for 10 hens. Remove one rooster and see what happens. If that don't work then I see chicken soup in your future.

 

[kara]

Thanks for the advice. We gave away one of our roos today. We'll see if getting rid of the competition help calm things down.