My cockerel killed me hen I think?

[Tokenfreak]

I think my cockerel killed my hen. My pen is heavily fortified so no way any predators could get in. Do you think this looks like the cockerel did it or possibly other hens? Never had a problem until I got him a few months back.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Is there a possibility he brought in a disease when he moved in? If he had killed her, there should be signs of blood, and she would have been showing signs of being scared of him before hand (abuse). Did she show any signs of illness before hand or is anyone else showing any signs?Are the other hens scared of him?
It might be best to do an autopsy to see what was going on. @Eggcessive is knowledgeable on that if you do one yourself.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

How old is the hen? Is she a production breed?

 

[User690263]

Not sure about what killed her, but the feather loss on her back sort of looks like a result of overmating.

 

[Eggcessive]

It is hard for me to know, but if he was aggressive to the hens before, he might have hurt her because she would not let him mate her. He or the others could have pecked her. Just hard to know what happened. If I saw aggressive behavior toward any hens, he would go. I had a hen almost killed by a cockerel, and he was shot. I like having a rooster, but no aggressive ones.

 

[Tokenfreak]

Is there a possibility he brought in a disease when he moved in? If he had killed her, there should be signs of blood, and she would have been showing signs of being scared of him before hand (abuse). Did she show any signs of illness before hand or is anyone else showing any signs?Are the other hens scared of him?
It might be best to do an autopsy to see what was going on. @Eggcessive is knowledgeable on that if you do one yourself.

It’s possible I guess but not sure. But I don’t really think so. The hen always did seem scared of him as he would always pen her down and jump on her and keep her down for a long time. I figured that was normal mating behavior but now I don’t think it was. All the hens seem to be scared of him and the hen was healthy before no issues.

How old is the hen? Is she a production breed?

The hen is probably about 3 years old and is just an egg layer.

Not sure about what killed her, but the feather loss on her back sort of looks like a result of overmating.

Yeah the cockerel would always jump on her and keep her pen down constantly.

It is hard for me to know, but if he was aggressive to the hens before, he might have hurt her because she would not let him mate her. He or the others could have pecked her. Just hard to know what happened. If I saw aggressive behavior toward any hens, he would go. I had a hen almost killed by a cockerel, and he was shot. I like having a rooster, but no aggressive ones.

Yeah he was very aggressive looking back now. I thought this might be normal mating behavior but now I think it’s not. He seems pretty aggressive towards the other hens too and I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to lash out at me either. Anyways, he’s not with the hens right now until I know for sure what happened and what to do.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would cull him, because of him being aggressive and your thinking he may attack you. I have had mostly good roosters who protected their hens. No need to keep a bad one.

 

[Tokenfreak]

I would cull him, because of him being aggressive and your thinking he may attack you. I have had mostly good roosters who protected their hens. No need to keep a bad one.

Yeah looks like that’s what I’m going to have to do. What makes certain roosters do things like this though? I had a good rooster years ago and never had a problem like this.

 

[Liberty-Chicken]

When we had Buff Orpington roosters they are a generally docile breed but we had one rooster that was really mean from the beginning and attacked everyone. Not sure why some roosters turn out that way even when they were raised the same as other roos. I would cull yours if I were you. What breed was he? He might have been from a more aggressive breed

 

[Eggcessive]

A lot depends on their genetics and how they were raised. Most of the ones I raised were docile except the one. He was not aggressive to me, but was a hormonal cockerel that zeroed in on aa particular hen.