Well behaved roos attacking hen?

[docdubz]

I separated the bad roos from the main flock. Ive had two hens get in with the bad roos and get messed up by them. The second one just happened today. And for both of these hens, because the bad roos brutalized them I can not keep them with the main flock any longer. The normalltly gentle roos seem to have identified that hens that get brutalized by the bachelor flock are to be violently mounted to death. They show this behavior with no other hens. I quarantined the first one until her wounds healed and then carefully reintroduced her and they remembered after 3 weeks of isolation.

I'm not sure what's going on here.

 

[sourland]

It sounds like you have too many roosters still in the flock.

 

[aart]

The normalltly gentle roos

Normally gentle.....until the dominant males were removed??

 

[Ebony Rose]

Sounds like your boys are on the young side with raging hormones. I think aart touched gently on the likely problem. You removed the leader, and so the next in line stepped up to the plate to rule the roost; but being as inept as his predecessor is also manhandling the girls. They tend to outgrow this 'fumbling' 'brutish' 'inept' and 'forceful' form of procreation with age and experience. For now, I'd put all your boys together in a bachelor pen, still within eye & ear shot of the hens for about a month to let the girls heal and mature a bit more sexually (and be more receptive to the advances of whichever male(s) you decide to keep with them). The cockerels (roosters) won't be happy but they'll adjust to this. While they're separate from the girls, observe which is the dominant male, and if possible determine if he has a good buddy, one that he eats with, sleeps near, buddies with. If you will be keeping more than one rooster, then you need them to be bonded buddies to avoid a blood bath due to power struggles.

 

[Vickischics]

Sounds like your boys are on the young side with raging hormones. I think aart touched gently on the likely problem. You removed the leader, and so the next in line stepped up to the plate to rule the roost; but being as inept as his predecessor is also manhandling the girls. They tend to outgrow this 'fumbling' 'brutish' 'inept' and 'forceful' form of procreation with age and experience. For now, I'd put all your boys together in a bachelor pen, still within eye & ear shot of the hens for about a month to let the girls heal and mature a bit more sexually (and be more receptive to the advances of whichever male(s) you decide to keep with them). The cockerels (roosters) won't be happy but they'll adjust to this. While they're separate from the girls, observe which is the dominant male, and if possible determine if he has a good buddy, one that he eats with, sleeps near, buddies with. If you will be keeping more than one rooster, then you need them to be bonded buddies to avoid a blood bath due to power struggles.

Add more hens. It's recommended to have 10 hens to 1 Roo.
They like to mate 10-30 times a day. So, the more girls you have the more breaks the girls get. And of course, one will be his favorite. You can purchase aprons for your girls so they don't get so beat up.
Good luck as I am Rooster free. I couldn't take it anymore.
So, I have my 4 legged Rooster dog watching over the flock instead. She's a King Shepard.
Aka: German Shepard. Lol
This is part of the flock by her watchful eyes.

 

[aart]

So, I have my 4 legged Rooster dog watching over the flock instead. She's a King Shepard.

She's gorgeous!!

Add more hens. It's recommended to have 10 hens to 1 Roo.

The 'rooster' to hen ratio of 1:10 that is often cited is primarily for fertility efficiency in commercial breeding facilities.

It doesn't mean that if a cockbird has 10 hens that he won't abuse or over mate them.

Many breeders keep pairs, trios, quads, etc ....short term and/or long term.

It all depends on the temperaments of the cock and hens and sometimes housing provided.

Backyard flocks can achieve good fertility with a larger ratio.

 

[NatJ]

I separated the bad roos from the main flock. Ive had two hens get in with the bad roos and get messed up by them. The second one just happened today. And for both of these hens, because the bad roos brutalized them I can not keep them with the main flock any longer. The normalltly gentle roos seem to have identified that hens that get brutalized by the bachelor flock are to be violently mounted to death. They show this behavior with no other hens. I quarantined the first one until her wounds healed and then carefully reintroduced her and they remembered after 3 weeks of isolation.

I'm not sure what's going on here.

Just like you, I'm not sure what's going on here. But I've got a few thoughts:

You say it's a change that applies only to specific hens--I wonder if the hens are acting differently, and the roosters are reacting to the hens' new behavior?

You could try having a hen-only flock, for the hens with problems and maybe some other hens as well (so they aren't lonely.) I don't know whether the hens might do better with roosters after several months away, or whether they would just need to live separate forever.

For your roosters that are normally gentle, have you noticed whether it is all of them or just some of them that are rough to those hens? If only some of them are a problem, you might move those ones out of the pen with the hens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not sure what's going on here.

I'm pretty confused myself. How many chickens do you have, by ages and by sex? The better you can explain the numbers, sex, and ages the more likely it is to help me understand. How are they housed, inside and outside? Where does this happen? How much room do they have, in feet or meters or are they free ranging with no fences? Have you added (integrated) new chickens recently or maybe removed some to change the pecking order? This sound like a new behavior. If so, what has changed that might have caused it.

Ive had two hens get in with the bad roos and get messed up by them.
The normalltly gentle roos seem to have identified that hens that get brutalized by the bachelor flock are to be violently mounted to death.

I think this means you have a bachelor flock (of unknown age) penned separately but on two different occasions a girl of unknown age got into their enclosure and was abused, possibly injured. When you put those girls back with the main flock the flock rooster or roosters mounted her. I don't know what you mean by "violently mounter to death", could you explain what you saw?

I quarantined the first one until her wounds healed and then carefully reintroduced her and they remembered after 3 weeks of isolation.

Could you explain what this remembering looked like? How did you reintroduce her and what happened?

 

[Yardmom]

If the hen was removed until she healed, then it is reintroducing the hen. He may not be remembering, but forgetting. When a hen reenters a flock pecking order may need to be reestablished.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If the hen was removed until she healed, then it is reintroducing the hen. He may not be remembering, but forgetting. When a hen reenters a flock pecking order may need to be reestablished.

A behavior I see is that if I remove a hen from the flock for a while, even just long enough to put leg bands on her and return her to the flock the dominant rooster will often mount her to welcome her back. Often, not always. If I remove the rooster for a short while, when I put him back he usually mates one or two hens to show them that it is still his flock.

A dominant rooster often does the same thing when a new hen is introduced. He mates with her to welcome her to his flock and to make sure she is fertile with his sperm so any chicks that hatch could be his. If the hen was isolated from the flock for three weeks I think you are probably right, he's reestablishing her as a flock member.

This is the kind of stuff I was thinking about when I asked what the the reintroduction looked like.