Young rooster mean to one specific hen

[GraceMontague]

Hi,
I'm looking for any advice or just reassurance that I'm doing the right thing. I habevread posts on here, I just needed to share what I'm dealing with.

I have a 7 month old rooster that I integrated into my flock 3 months ago. He is smaller than my hens & always will be. They don't willingly let him mate, but he can catch them sometimes & they tolerate it. 2 weeks ago I found one of my girls shook up with feathers missing from her head. It turned out he had been attacking her, not mating, this was full on aggressive.
Anyhow, her injuries were not severe so I treated her without removing her from the flock. I isolated him in the small coop alone next to their run so they can still see eachother. I was letting him out every day supervised with the girls, but he was still going after her.
At this point I'm leaving him in his coop and run totally alone.
We decided to give it a week and then try it again. If he still attacks her I guess I need to put him down. Right now I'm just feeling extremely guilty that he is penned up alone and not able to free range.

Any advice for me that I haven't thought of? Am I doing the right thing?

 

[Mamatomany123]

I've never had this happen but I've heard it can if the hen doesnt submit to the rooster. One reason I dont own roosters now. I dont plan on breeding and they just harass the girls.

 

[GraceMontague]

Ya,
It's really unfortunate because he's a good rooster in every other way. He always alerts the girls to treats he found & let's them eat first.
It might of been that she didn't submit at first, but now he doesn't even try to mate just attacks her and she lays down and takes it. It's really upsetting to see.

 

[ChassiNoir]

In my experience, this behaviour does not go away. He will continue to be aggressive to the point of actually tearing and ripping the skin off of the back of their heads.

Don’t feel too bad for him—his separation is keeping the hens safe. He may need to be dispatched to prevent your girls from getting hurt.

 

[GraceMontague]

In my experience, this behaviour does not go away. He will continue to be aggressive to the point of actually tearing and ripping the skin off of the back of their heads.

Don’t feel too bad for him—his separation is keeping the hens safe. He may need to be dispatched to prevent your girls from getting hurt.

Thank you.
That's what I'm afraid of & I'm prepared to do.

 

[CNJ]

Actually, you should put the hen down instead. Let the rooster do his thing, he is the king.

 

[ChassiNoir]

Thank you.
That's what I'm afraid of & I'm prepared to do.

It isn’t fun and I am sorry. The sad part is that it may progress to other hens as well. Plus you don’t want that passing on to any chicks.

Actually, you should put the hen down instead. Let the rooster do his thing, he is the king.

You’re funny.

 

[Mamatomany123]

Actually, you should put the hen down instead. Let the rooster do his thing, he is the king.

The aggressor is the one who will always be the first to go, whether it's a rooster or hen.

 

[CNJ]

My 6 month old laying hens were mean to my 3 month old cockerel. They use to chase him away from the food. All of them were very mean to him, until one day I took him out of the coop and placed him in a breeding pen by himself. When he became 4 months old, I introduced two hens that were at the end of the pecking order. These two were the most viscous to this cockerel. I placed each hen in separately and watched what happened. I let the male beat them into submission without interfering. They settled in and lived together for another month. I gathered the eggs after three days and placed them in my incubator, they hatched the other day. The hens were very young, so their eggs were small and the chicks that hatch are tiny.................

When I put the rooster back into the main coop, he did the same thing to all the other hens. He had a big fight with the dominant hen, and won in the end. She ran away, and he eventually mated with her.

He is now the King of the pen........................a living legend.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Any advice for me that I haven't thought of? Am I doing the right thing?

Always solve for the peace of the flock. What does it take to make your flock peaceful?

Why do you want a male? The only reason you need a rooster is if you want fertile eggs. I always try to suggest that you keep as few males as you can and still meet your goals. That's not because you are guaranteed problems with more males, just that they are more likely. I don't know if the right answer for you is one or none. That should be based on your goals.

I had a situation very much like you describe a few years back. By the way, that is not rooster, it's a cockerel. He has not totally matured into a rooster yet. That does make a difference. I had a cockerel raised in the flock. I actually do this a lot, but I've only had this issue once. As he matured he started mating some of the hens, they'd willingly squat for him. But if the dominant hen saw him mating she'd knock him off to show she was boss. This went on for a few months until he finally matured enough to stand up to her. He decided he wanted to be the dominant flock master and she was not ready to give up the position.

They fought and he won. For two days if she approached the flock he'd run her off. At times he'd just attack, trying to peck her head since that is where they can do real damage. He was not trying to mate with her, he was trying to hurt or kill her. Since there was no blood and she had plenty of room to run away I left them alone. After two days she somehow signaled to him that she accepted his authority and all problems stopped. They became best buddies.

That was a dangerous time. He could have killed her. I was watching the best I could but I wasn't down there all the time. Some hens may never give up that authority until they are dead. It's possible a rooster would not ever accept her surrender. You just don't know with animals and their behavior. I don't know what would eventually happen with yours if you keep trying.

I personally believe the girls have a lot to do with flock dynamics. I don't always blame just the boys. I have removed girls that I considered upsetting the peace and tranquility of the flock instead of the boy. If you remove the girl instead of the boy and everything is then peaceful, was it purely the boy's fault?

If your goals don't require a boy the simple solution is to get rid of him. If you want a male and also want to keep that dominant hen my suggestion is to house one of them separately for a while. Maybe as much as a month before you try again. That gives the boy more time to mature into a rooster. Mature hens are more likely to accept a mature rooster than they are an immature cockerel. That has a reasonable chance of working. But it is also possible you'll still have to make a decision between the two or continue to house them apart.

Good luck!