Update on "rooster trouble"

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KanoasDestiny

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I finally found a local woman (30 minutes away) that was selling chickens close to the same age as Joey and Pacey (mine will be four months on the 20th, her's are four and a half months). We went and chatted with her for about an hour, and I bought three beautiful young hens - two Red Stars and a golden Americauna.

I have been working with Joey a lot and he totally avoids me when I enter the pen, choosing to eat instead of follow his sister when she comes near me. I figured that a couple more hens would help with keeping his hormones in check. I asked the woman what the best way of introducing the hens to my two was, and she said to introduce the hens into the coop in the evening (a mistake I am now aware of). She warned me that there would be some pecking to establish dominance and what not. At first Joey was calm, inspecting the hens and chasing them around a bit. Then he started to try to breed them. It was terrible! He'd grab ahold of them by the neck and rip out their feathers as he tried to climb on their backs. They screamed bloody murder and finally, my husband went into the coop with the broom and threatened Joey to leave the girls alone. He settled on the roost for the night, and the three girls settled in a corner.

The golden Americauna was missing a lot of feathers (all tail feathers and along lower back) when I went to pick my girls out. I wasn't going to get her because I was scared she was sick or extremely docile to the point where she was getting picked on by everyone else. But she reminded me of a hawk, and I felt sorry for her because she kept trying to shove herself into the furthest corner under everyone else. So I ended up getting her and naming her Dawson. The other two were named Jen and Andy, after the other characters of Dawson's Creek. I figured that Andy would be the dominant hen because she kept pecking at the other two and was kind of bossy.

This morning, the two stars were eating before I went to work. The Americauna was still hiding in the corner, not eating. Joey and Pacey were beyond calm, calmer then I'd ever seen them, so i figured he already had his "hormones" taken care of. When I came home five hours later, Andy was laying dead in the grass. Her head was scalped from the very top of her head, all the way down to her lowest neck. I was beyond heartbroken. I saw Jen right away and knew that she was unhurt, but I went looking for Dawson and found her in the corner with ants crawling on her. When I looked closer, she was also scalped on the back of her neck, really bloody, and had a deep puncture wound in her neck that was oozing blood. I rushed her in the house, washed it off, put antibiotics on it, and she is now residing in my spare bedroom. I pray that she will make a full recovery. She has just started becoming more animated, walking around, eating a little and drinking, and she keeps making little cooing noises.

Joey was taken out of the coop, and is now in his own small pen by himself. Sadly, he seems to be at ease being alone. If I had known that, he would have been by himself a lot sooner then now. His sister Pacey is reacting to the seperation a lot worse then he is. We will be building him a smaller pen (8X8) connected to the hens pen (12X16), so that he will still be close to the others, but we will have two layers of wire and mesh between them, and that is the closest he will ever be to another chicken again.

I feel so very guilty over this. No animal deserves to die that way, or be tortured. I don't know if he was intending to kill them, or if he was being too aggressive while trying to breed. But regardless, it doesn't matter either way...he will never have another chance to repeat whatever went wrong. I'm just so sad that I had to lose one of my beautiful new hens (maybe two if Dawson doesn't recover), to finally remove the problem.

Has anyone ever had anything like this happen before? I thought roosters only tried to kill other roosters? What is the best way to treat Dawson's wounds? If she does recover, what will be the best way of reintroducing her back into the hen coop, so that she doesn't get picked on by the other two hens?
 
How terrible....wish I could help you out with some advice. I had only hens when I had my chickens and never had serious injuries I had to treat. I didn't get a chance to read your other thread so don't know what was said on it. The only advice I can offer is to check out a chicken forum....I believe the one I belonged to was called Backyard Chickens or something like that, I no longer have it bookmarked so I'm not positive on the name. I just know that when I had questions they were very helpfull. If I were you I'd be inclined to get 'rid' of that rooster, as aweful as that sounds, not sure I could deal with him. Chickens are very smart and a real joy to be around...I used to love to watch my girls just strutting around picking at things while they free ranged. Best of luck.
 
Wow, you have had a tough time of it. Please note that hens can be as nasty. I have a hen that killed 4 chicks! I am getting rid of her, giving her to a friend who doesn't raise chicks and only keeps hens for egg laying. She is fine with hens and can't figure out her aggressive behaviour to the little ones. I am sorry to say that if I owned your rooster he would end up in a stew pot. There are lots of wonderful and kind roosters around to put up with an aggressive one. Even though you are going to separate him he won't be a happy camper, being able to see the girls and not get to them. He may get very aggressive with you when you enter his pen to feed and clean.
 
Again, he is most likely a fighting cock...

I would start finding him a new home or eat him.

Start fresh with a gentel breed and start over.

Chickens can be put togather as long as they are not mean breeds.

I interduce new chickens of all ages in my coop all the time,

Its ok to have some pecking order as expected BUT killing means the killer

gets killed!!!

Im sorry BUT I would never own a mean/murdering chicken...

Hope this dont keep ya from loving chickens, ya somehow ended up

with Hitler the roo!

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I'm so very, very sorry. You've had your share of troubles. If you are continuing your chicken rearing, you might want to subscribe to Backyard Poultry. It's really a wonderful magazine for chicken owners. I pull out my back copies all the time. Again, I'm so sorry. I can only imagine how upset you must be.
 
I'm sorry you had to go thru this. That being said as I had posted before I would not have put young hens in with this rooster. I've had older hens in with aggressive roosters and they are old enough and wise in their ways to know how to put the roos in their place. In your case you may just have one that just won't get along with hens...it happens. My advice would be to move him on if what you are looking to have is a nice gentle flock. I don't think you'll be wanting him to breed your hens and to get offspring that carry his gene pool.

Keep your injured hen separate and clean out her wounds as you are doing Keep her in a nice, quiet, warm place away from other chickens and so that the bugs can't get to her. I've used Neosporine on my chickens before. You will have to doctor her continuously. Hope she makes it.

When I introduce new chickens to a flock if they have come from an outside source they get quarantined for a minimum of 2 weeks...sometimes longer. Then they will be put in side by side in adjoining coops for about another 2 weeks so they can get used to each other...doesn't matter if they are male or female.

JMO...but if he were my rooster he would have to be culled.
 
Again, he is most likely a fighting cock...
MindyLee, is there a certain breed that is mostly used for fighting? He and his sister are Americanas. In fact, his sister looks identical to the hen on the side of your white one in your last pic. The hen I lost looks like the hen you posted with the chicks.

I'm sorry you had to go thru this. That being said as I had posted before I would not have put young hens in with this rooster.
I tried to get adult hens. I contacted six different sellers - one lived too far away, another never responded back, two had younger hens than the two I have, another woman was selling a set of three only (2 hens/1 rooster), and the lady who I bought these ones from. I couldn't find anyone else within an hour's drive from me, and I was getting desperate that he was going to seriously injure his sister.
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Joey still doesn't seem to mind his seclusion. He is happily eating away without having to worry about sharing it with his sister. He also acts calmer when I feed/water/approach him. His sister however, is pacing the pen line constantly. I had to go in and sit with her to make sure that she was eating and drinking. Jen (the hen in with Pacey) is trying to make friends with her, but everytime she walks up cooing to Pacey, Pacey runs away. Dawson is still in my bedroom. I keep applying antibiotics to her wound and it looks a lot better today. She is also more active, eating and drinking well.

Owning chickens is nothing like what I imagined it would be. It seemed so easy. I never dreamed I'd get so attached in such a short amount of time.
 
doesn't look like my roo so removed picture.
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The little hen in my pic is an bantam game hen and she is about 6.5 inchs tall and weighs maybe a pound.

The other hen (red with chicks) is a bantam cochin and weighs about 1.5 - 2 pounds.

Your boy looks americana BUT also he could be mixed. What throws me that hes mixed is he's missing his beard. And hes soo long legged. But I could be wrong.

Without seeing in person, its hard to tell what ya have.
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Again, I would off him and start fresh. I own 3 roosters and all are super friendly. I own 2 cochin bantams and a millie fluer.

I also 2nd that ya should become a member to Back Yard Chicken and even join their fourm. They can be very helpful there for info like here.

All my chickens are bantams. I stay away from large breeds as Im a sucker for the tiny cute ones! PLUS they come in way more colors!

I own...

mini cochin bantams

millie fluers

silkies

frizzles

sizzles (silkie/frizzle mix)

cochies (cochin/silkie mix)

and

calicos (millie/cochin mixs!
 
This is Joey.....

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This is him and the girls on Sunday after I brought them home. His sister is right next to him in front. The dark red one on the right (back) is the one he killed. The light golden one on the left (back) is the one he nearly killed. The lighter red in the middle wasn't touched....

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If he was ameraucana he would have slate (sort of greenish) legs or black. You could however have what they call an Easter Egger (Ameraucana cross)
 
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Oh I'm so sorry! Gosh he's mean!!! It's nice of you to keep him and give him his own space, personally once he killed someone thats it for him. But if it's working for you thats cool too. I have introduced (like Mindylee) chickens of all ages and not had an issue.

I'm so sorry that that happened.
 
Unless you buy from a breeder of Americauna's (not hatchery) they are, or can be easter eggers, layers of tinted eggs. He looks to be at least part game, if not all (tall, light bodied, his comb). Regardless most game breed cocks are (I said most) very good with their hens. You hen I believe is wheaton (color) and this is one of the most common of all and is in many different breeds so going off of color to identify breed is not going to any good.

Regardless of what breed they are, he has some issues and they are only going to get worse (if he is like this at 4 months mulitply it by 1000 to comprehend what he will be like in a year)

Chicken keeping isn't that hard and can be a joy, you just started with the wrong birds and got attached to a bad one.

Please quarenteen all new birds for at least two weeks when you bring them home, can save you a lot of heartbreak.
 
Around here, Joey would be what is known as a "Show Chicken" AKA....fighting cock.

So sorry to hear about the loss of your hen...it is heartbreaking, because we do get so attached to them.....my hens are geriatric, 8-10 years old, but I am afraid to try and bring in "new" hens because of the scenario you experienced.

Sue
 
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He looks more like a game chicken to me too- yep I would find something young that is more docile of a breed if you want to raise chickens. I am so sorry- what a mean guy he is.
 
If he was ameraucana he would have slate (sort of greenish) legs or black. You could however have what they call an Easter Egger (Ameraucana cross)
I suppose I'll just refer to them as "mutts", like I do with most of our pets. ;) I'd say that their legs are more of a greyish? You can see it a bit better in this picture (sometimes it depends on the camera I use).

Just curious, what is a "game chicken"?

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'game cock' a term used to cover most of the 'fighting 'types of chickens, well roosters.
 

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