Otherwise great rooster singling out 1 hen to abuse. What to do?

[plumpybum]

I've got 2 roosters and 8 hens currently, mixed breeds. Both roosters are great and get along fine, however one of them started singling out one of my 2 lavender amerecaunas over the winter and constantly chased her off and swatted at her. I found her dead with no sign of illness or physical injury one morning. Started wondering if the rooster did this...now a month or so later he is bullying the other lavender, which he treated just fine up until the first one died (got killed?). She has a ton of broken feathers and is not allowed near him. Last evening as they were all heading to the coop he was really abusing her and trying to pin her down. The worst I've seen. So I'm going to isolate him today in a smaller coop, but it's not out of sight from the chickens, it's just a small tractor coop/run inside of the main run.

Is this common behavior? Do I have too few hens for 2 roosters?

Will keeping him penned up in timeout around all of the other birds help reset his behavior or should I just start looking for a new home for him now?

 

[sourland]

The number of hens per rooster is low, but that is not the problem. The problem is the one rooster. Sometimes one will start this practice of isolating/abusing/eventually killing hens. I would suggest removing him from the flock permanently. In my experience it is unlikely that his behavior will improve.

 

[FrostRanger]

A rooster that abuses his hens needs a nice vacation to freezer camp immediately

 

[Mrs. K]

In my opinion, you do have too many roosters for your set up, and the problem rooster is the one to cull.

Often times the tension of having two roosters is not real apparent to people, until you remove one of them. I have a great deal of experience, and a large set up. I had 2 cockerels, that seemed to get along, the flock seemed fine until I re-homed one to the neighbors.

The difference in the flock, was really rather astounding. They all relaxed, and the girls really seemed to like having only one rooster to dote on.

Mrs K

 

[LaFleche]

Will keeping him penned up in timeout around all of the other birds help reset his behavior or should I just start looking for a new home for him now?

No, it will not help to improve his behaviour.

And no, don't ever rehome a rooster that bullies and even worse, kills hens! Other peoples' hens should not get killed either.

Remove him immediately from the flock and relocate him to your freezer.
In case you feel unable to butcher him yourself, separate him immediately from the flock and find someone willing to butcher him for you.

 

[plumpybum]

No, it will not help to improve his behaviour.

And no, don't ever rehome a rooster that bullies and even worse, kills hens! Other peoples' hens should not get killed either.

Remove him immediately from the flock and relocate him to your freezer.
In case you feel unable to butcher him yourself, separate him immediately from the flock and find someone willing to butcher him for you.

I agree I would not want to rehome him if this is a habit he is always going to have, but the thing I am trying to figure out at this point is whether he is doing this because there are 2 roosters here. He is the dominant rooster that mates with most of the hens. The other rooster has just a couple of hens by his side and it seems like the dominant is only singling out hens that are with the other rooster. Like others have pointed out, maybe it's just an issue with having 2 roosters with too few hens and he'd be fine if all the hens were his?

 

[LaFleche]

maybe it's just an issue with having 2 roosters with too few hens and he'd be fine if all the hens were his?

I would not allow a hen-killing rooster near any of my hens, no matter the so-called reasons.

A rooster that does not like a specific hen for whatever reason can just not mate with her or ignore her.

Hunting down and killing hens is extreme antisocial behaviour and a rooster that does it not worth keeping a day longer.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Is this common behavior?

I would not consider that "common" behavior, but it is not unheard of. Sometimes for whatever reason one chicken starts attacking another. I mostly see that with cockerels with another cockerel going through adolescence but it can be a hen on a hen, a chick on a chick, or any other combination. It can result in dead chickens.

Do I have too few hens for 2 roosters?

That ratio bugaboo. I don't believe in it. I've seen a rooster with very few hens do great, I've seen a rooster with a lot of hens do horrible. Adding girls usually does not help, it just means you to have to go through an integration on top of everything else. The way I look at it is that you should keep as few boys as you can and meet your goals. That's not because you are guaranteed more problems with more boys but that you have more chances of problems the more boys you have.

Will keeping him penned up in timeout around all of the other birds help reset his behavior or should I just start looking for a new home for him now?

With living animals you never know. It may adjust his attitude, it may not. Removing the competition of the other boy could change things. Removing him may cause the other to start being a big problem.

If you are willing to get rid of him I'd strongly suggest that. Solve for the peace of your flock. Whether that means eating him yourself, killing him and disposing of the body, or selling or giving him away I'd do that. I would consider it ethical to disclose to anybody buying or taking him what is going on. Once you let him go you lose control over what happens to him. Many people will only take or buy him to eat him.

 

[FrostRanger]

I agree I would not want to rehome him if this is a habit he is always going to have, but the thing I am trying to figure out at this point is whether he is doing this because there are 2 roosters here. He is the dominant rooster that mates with most of the hens. The other rooster has just a couple of hens by his side and it seems like the dominant is only singling out hens that are with the other rooster. Like others have pointed out, maybe it's just an issue with having 2 roosters with too few hens and he'd be fine if all the hens were his?

A rooster shouldn't be attacking hens whether they're his or not. I wouldn't keep nor rehome this rooster, it's his job to look out for the hens, not be a danger to them himself, if he's being actively aggressive to hens he needs to be turned into soup, especially since you have a perfectly nice rooster already in the flock. I would not want to risk him passing this on to his sons

 

[Mygooseandrooster]

Normally it’sa good idea to have about

I've got 2 roosters and 8 hens currently, mixed breeds. Both roosters are great and get along fine, however one of them started singling out one of my 2 lavender amerecaunas over the winter and constantly chased her off and swatted at her. I found her dead with no sign of illness or physical injury one morning. Started wondering if the rooster did this...now a month or so later he is bullying the other lavender, which he treated just fine up until the first one died (got killed?). She has a ton of broken feathers and is not allowed near him. Last evening as they were all heading to the coop he was really abusing her and trying to pin her down. The worst I've seen. So I'm going to isolate him today in a smaller coop, but it's not out of sight from the chickens, it's just a small tractor coop/run inside of the main run.

Is this common behavior? Do I have too few hens for 2 roosters?

Will keeping him penned up in timeout around all of the other birds help reset his behavior or should I just start looking for a new home for him now?

Normally it’s a good idea to have 11-12 hens per one rooster, but @sourland is right, and you need to cull him, probably.