Rooster attacking aggressive Hen

[lynx04]

I have a Buff Orpington who is about 5 years old. She's always been fairly aggressive and broody, but she can also be very sweet. Last April we got 4 new chicks and in May we got 4 more. One of the chicks turned out to be a rooster and we decided to keep him. The rooster (who is a New Hampshire Red and is HUGE) and the Buff have always seemed to square off. She had definitely been the Queen of the flock (but she's the only one left of my older chickens) and the rooster always backed off when she wouldn't back down. Well, I guess that's over.
Yesterday, I went out to bring them back into their run and I saw her hidden against the fence. She was bleeding and had a laceration next to her comb and scrapes around her eyes. I thought it might be the rooster, but I also thought she could have gotten stuck somewhere and possibly injured herself trying to get away. I brought her in immediately and treated her wounds. Since it had become dark and I wasn't actually sure if she had been attacked by the roo (or possibly one of the other hens) I put her back in the coop- I usually try to keep my chickens with the flock as much as possible. Her injuries didn't seem to be too bad.
I checked on her this morning before the chickens went out of the coop for the day and all seemed fine. The injuries from last night looked like they were healing well. About an hour later, I went to let the chickens out of their run to free-range and she didn't come running. I found her hiding in the corner of the run with fresh injuries. I now have her isolated in a crate down in my garage. I once again treated her wounds and while these definitely look a little worse, they still don't look too serious to me.

I'm pretty sure it's the Rooster who's doing this, but it might be one of the other hens (as I've not actually seen it happen).

So my question is, what do I do now? Will these two eventually work things out on their own or will the rooster continue until he kills her? She seems really depressed. Do you think adding a couple more Buffs to my flock would help?

I'm in Southern California, so it's wintertime here. My flock make-up is 9 hens and 1 roo- besides the Buff, we also recently added a hen that my neighbor had whose flock got decimated by coyotes (she was the only one who survived). She's just recently fully integrated into the flock with very few dust-ups (I took about two weeks before I allowed her to fully meet the other chickens- but I kept her in a part of the run I can close off from interaction, but they can see still see each other. My flock has Three Rhode Island Reds (including the roo), three Americaunas (including the one I recently integrated), and three Barnvelders. The Buff is the only one and she's the only one who the rooster doesn't seem to mate with.

 

[LaFleche]

To me, this does not look like the rooster just tried to mate her.

I would not have her go through it again. She is an old lady and could succumb to the abuse she has to endure.
Maybe you could find her another home with some elderly hens like her and without a rooster.

 

[lynx04]

To me, this does not look like the rooster just tried to mate her.

I would not have her go through it again. She is an old lady and could succumb to the abuse she has to endure.
Maybe you could find her another home with some elderly hens like her and without a rooster.

To me, this does not look like the rooster just tried to mate her.

I would not have her go through it again. She is an old lady and could succumb to the abuse she has to endure.
Maybe you could find her another home with some elderly hens like her and without a rooster.

Thank you. I would get rid of him before I would get rid of her. I have her isolated her in the garage in a crate to let her heal. She's the dominant hen and he challenges her but then he usually backs down.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I might have to get rid of him.

 

[ChicNmom]

I had a rooster that was rough with the hens like that. Always grabbing them at the base of the comb. Especially if they were not cooperative. Also some times it's not just about mating but showing the hens who's boss.

He may eventually do that to any hen that doesn't submit as he thinks they should.

 

[lynx04]

I had a rooster that was rough with the hens like that. Always grabbing them at the base of the comb. Especially if they were not cooperative. Also some times it's not just about mating but showing the hens who's boss.

He may eventually do that to any hen that doesn't submit as he thinks they should.

So what did you do with your rooster? Did you keep him?

 

[LaFleche]

Thank you. I would get rid of him before I would get rid of her. I have her isolated her in the garage in a crate to let her heal. She's the dominant hen and he challenges her but then he usually backs down.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I might have to get rid of him.

Or you could have two separate coops and runs and keep both.

 

[Mtnboomer]

We had a rooster that was a rough breeder. Hus spurs tore up the girls backs to the point he drew blood and there were no feathers left.

He was delicious and the hens recovered. He never went for the comb or head. That's usually a dominance thing or territorial issue. I think?

Best option is to make soup out of him.

 

[aart]

Would be good to know just who is beating her up.
Maybe isolate the male, put her back with the flock and spend more time observing.

 

[ChicNmom]

So what did you do with your rooster? Did you keep him?

I rehomed him with full disclosure as to why. I only had 8 hens at the time and I have never seen a rooster on hens so much. He went to a farm with 25 hens. I think that kept him busy.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've had almost exactly the same situation except my cockerel was 11 months old, yours is more like 9 months. And I had a dominant rooster with the flock that I removed when the cockerel was about 6 months old, trying to turn the flock over to him. Well, he wasn't ready. Some of the hens accepted him but not the dominant hen. If she saw him trying to mate with another hen she would knock him off to show she was the boss. She did not beat him up but would just knock him off.

At 11 months he finally matured enough to take over. Instead of running away from her he beat her up. For two days he would run her away from the rest of the flock if she got near, usually trying to peck her head where he could do the most damage. He was not trying to mate her, he was trying to show he was no longer to be messed with. It was vicious.

After two days of that she somehow signaled that she accepted his dominance. They actually became best buddies. I let them go because I did not see any blood. Your situation is different, you are seeing blood. I'd keep them separated for a while, until she heals. They may work it out or they may never. The personality of the cockerel is important but so is the personality of that hen. She may never be willing to accept his dominance so you may need to make a decision. It sounds like you know which one you'd keep so I won't go any further.

Good luck!