The little bas***d killed one of my girls

[omilona]

So my accidental rooster (bought 9 girls and one started crowing), had been more or less agreeable until he was about a year old, which was in March. Since then he's become a nasty little bugger, both with me and with his girls. He's been chasing the girls around constantly, and when he couldnt catch them he would bite them over and over. Some had no feathers on their backs thanks to his treatment. He finally crossed the line this weekend. I came out Friday after dinner to give them them the left over spaghetti. I noticed one of the girls was not in the group. I found her lying in the mud up against the fence surrounded by an explosion of feathers. I set her on her feet and she just staggered. So I put her in one of the nest boxes for the night so that she could get away from him. Needless to say she was dead in the morning. I sent him home with my gardener the next day who was happy to eat him. Stupid bird didnt realize how great he had it. I never thought I would be happy to have an animal of mine killed, but I was happy to see him off. The girls are so much more relaxed without him. He used to constantly herd them into one spot in the big run. And I'll bet my neighbors are ready to throw a parade now that there is silence Sunday mornings!

 

[bj taylor]

that would be so upsetting to have one of your girls killed. i've been wrestling w/rooster issues lately too. i had gotten five chicks to add to my four older girls. four of those five chicks turned out to be roosters. they were making my girls' lives hell. i finally got down to one big black australorp.
he seems to be a good one so far. he's not too rough on the girls, he's very protective of them. he hasn't made any moves toward me - yet. we'll see.
my flock finally has some peace with all but one of the boys gone.

 

[luvmyEs]

I know how you feel! I was never happier than the day I got rid of my jerk of a rooster. I have found out that an offspring he left behind is male. So far he takes after his silkie mother and hasn't caused problems. But if he does, he will be gone ASAP

 

[centrarchid]

Death of that one year old hen at hands of one year old rooster very not likely reality. Such aggression as reported not consistent with healthy rooster behavior. How you are maintaining flock needs to be scrutenized bigtime otherwise losses will continue even though your "trouble maker" was identified and removed.

 

[omilona]

There is no possibility it was an outside predator. The run is constructed of 1/2" hardware cloth/fencing buried 2' down set in cement. The entire run is under a shingled roof with the fencing attached to the roofline. There is no crowding issue 25x25 run and 8x8 henhouse for now 6 hens. The girls are all very social together..no picking etc. the only aggressive one got sent home for dinner.

 

[dainerra]

you are missing a very important part of chicken flock behavior and it has nothing to do with being "MEAN". Once a hen is getting picked on, ALL the birds will join in. Especially if there is even the tiniest drop of blood. If this is the only hen that he was bothering, it's possible that there was something "different" about her. Again, that is natural chicken behavior and actually the job of the rooster. In the wild, such birds would increase the chances of attracting a predator so they would be driven out of the flock. In captivity, however, they aren't able to get away and are sometimes killed.

It's most likely that, once the fight started, the rest of the flock joined in.

 

[galanie]

Whether or not the rooster killed her, I still think you did the right thing. I've had roosters here that would be overly bossy and I swear my hens all gave a huge sigh of relief when he was gone. They also started laying more. A Lot more. I had one that was not so bad and everyone was happy.

A rooster is not needed to have happy hens. A good one will make for happy hens but none and all makes them happy too. Well, all except my Dark Cornish. She's a ho.

 

[omilona]

She was actually the least picked on one that he had the hardest time at bing her. The 2 SLW bangles had been pecked completely bare. There was not any blood on lemon when I found her. But her feathers were all around her like a pillow had exploded . I think when he finally caught her, he really savaged her .

 

[omilona]

Boy do I hate auto correct. That was he had the hardest time catching her. And it's SLW bantams not bangles .