Rooster issue/ethical question

[HummerHaven]

Sorry long story, tldr at bottom

Our beautiful rooster Roo Too has always been a bit stand-offish and sometimes mean spirited but I always attributed that to his natural protective nature...until recently. I had a somewhat good relationship with him when he was a chick (although I favored his brother who was a big puppy) but as he matured he became more "rooster" I guess and when we added 5 more pullets to our little flock last year (who it turns out were mostly feral) he became much more skittish. When his brother showed signs of being sick last year he killed him.
I tried not to blame him and to see it as a protect the flock act but now I'm not sure. We had 3 chicks originally, 2 roosters 1 hen. Roo Too and Hen Solo were day old chicks together, both Olive Eggers. They were very close, even after the free range farm pullets came. But gradually this winter I noticed he wasn't very nice to her. Once I saw wounds on her I pulled her immediately and placed her in the hospital tent/ their old brooder in our basement. It was a couple of months ago now and she healed up nicely. At no time did she look/behave sick.
About a month ago I felt it was warm enough to start to reintegrate her into the flock. We had the run bisected and when I put her in she went up to the mesh and he tried to peck her through it. Ok, fair enough maybe the flock forgot her. So for the next few weeks I woke up early to escort her from the back side of the coop (our coop is a big shed that we split with a half wall of wood/chicken wire for the top half a little over 2/3 for chickens) to her half of the run and back in the evening. They all saw each other at day and heard each other at night. He never stopped trying to get her through the mesh.
My bright idea to finally reintroduce her was to clean the coop/dip the birds for mites and have them all go in together that night. I figured the shared trauma would help them bond. I thought it worked. But yesterday I caught him raking her back with his spurs! It looked like he was trying to kill her. So this time we removed him.
He is now sleeping in the back while all the hens are happily sharing the main coop and full run. During the day he is free range (I don't worry about a hawk getting him!) My husband wants to get rid of him as he's aggressive but I don't want to shove our problem onto someone else, plus I feel like we need a rooster for protection for the hens especially when/if we ever free range.
So is there anything else I can do? Why is he only going after his Egg Mate and not the other hens? Any advice would be appreciated!

TLDR: My rooster is targeting one hen in particular for annihilation, should I get rid of him or what? Would giving him away knowing he's aggressive be wrong?

 

[MysteryChicken]

Not quite sure what you mean by raking her back with his spurs.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Life is too short to live with nasty roosters. It would no be unethical to rehome him with full disclosure of his behavior.

 

[Yard Farmer]

I would eat him.
You can almost always find a rooster in your area
I don't give aggressive roosters the time of day, you can find a free rooster that's better towards you, and the hens fairly easily.

 

[HummerHaven]

Not quite sure what you mean by raking her back with his spurs.

He's an aggressive mater to be sure (once saw him grab a hen by her neck and flip her over his own head to try to pin her) but this is something else. He flys up behind her, while she's running, and tries to rake her back with his spurs. Like he uses the motion of raking leaves into a pile with a rake but the rake is his spurs and the leaves are her back feathers. His spurs are particularly long and hard (from what I understand it's a bony projection) and I'm always careful when I catch him to get his feet right quick!

 

[HummerHaven]

I would eat him.
You can almost always find a rooster in your area
I don't give aggressive roosters the time of day, you can find a free rooster that's better towards you, and the hens fairly easily.

I'm not quite ready to kill chickens yet. I know it's a reality I'll have to face one day but they are mostly pets right now. You're right about finding another rooster, there's always free ones on Craigslist. I guess it just never occurred to me to get another one.

 

[FrostRanger]

I'd cull him. A rooster that's bad to his hens is a horrible rooster. Your flock will be better off without him

 

[HummerHaven]

I'd cull him. A rooster that's bad to his hens is a horrible rooster. Your flock will be better off without him

Thanks, this seems to be the unanimous vote. Just to be clear, he is only this way with one particular hen. I didn't realize this was such a common problem until I read so many posts just like mine.

 

[MysteryChicken]

He's an aggressive mater to be sure (once saw him grab a hen by her neck and flip her over his own head to try to pin her) but this is something else. He flys up behind her, while she's running, and tries to rake her back with his spurs. Like he uses the motion of raking leaves into a pile with a rake but the rake is his spurs and the leaves are her back feathers. His spurs are particularly long and hard (from what I understand it's a bony projection) and I'm always careful when I catch him to get his feet right quick!

He's using his feet, not his spurs. I've had roosters scratch at hens they bred to tell them to get up.

 

[HummerHaven]

He's using his feet, not his spurs. I've had roosters scratch at hens they bred to tell them to get up.

Well the bloody gashes on her back from when I didn't get there in time made me think spurs were involved. I did see the entire exchange and there was no mating behavior at all just him chasing her while she ran panicked. I mean maybe he wanted to mate but she refused so he went after her? But I've seen hens refuse him and he lets them go. I'm completely unsure why it's happening but I do know she's running scared, afterwards she wouldn't come out of the coop until he was put away. If he comes toward one side of the run she'll quick run to the opposite corner, if he gets near the mesh she'll run in the coop until he is out of sight. It's sad because they used to be thick as thieves!