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Post by swisscharrd on Jun 20, 2009 14:07:38 GMT -5
Do hens ever kill the rooster? We had a rooster in a trailer pen who had wounds to his head and was found dead. He was the only rooster in there and just do not think any racoons can ge in that pen. It has been about 5 weeks or more and no others chickens have been harmed.
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Post by grungy on Jun 20, 2009 23:21:44 GMT -5
Was he a later added chicken. Chickens will kill other chickens if they don't "smell" right. If you are adding another chicken to your flock put him/her in a cage inside your chicken coop for a week or so and let him/her take on the odors of the pen. They will still fight to establish a pecking order but it is as violent.
With head wounds check and see if the wounds are single "pecks" or 2-4 teeth marks. I know that it is too late to do that with the present dead bird, but if it should occur again. A predator generally will kill all of the birds in a pen, or at least eat the dead bird.
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Post by macmex on Jun 21, 2009 8:12:54 GMT -5
If a chicken gets a speck of blood, even from hitting its head on something, it is not uncommon that the other birds will peck at it until it is dead. If I ever find a wounded bird, I separate it until it has healed. Possibly, this is what happened to your rooster. If so, then his head would have been a bloody mess.
George
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Post by flowerpower on Jun 22, 2009 5:51:34 GMT -5
My Wyandottes are a yr old. One of them was extremely broody in the Spring. Every time I'd toss her outside with the rest of the girls, they would pick/peck on her. Especially the 2 barred rocks which are 3 yrs old. And when the pig got a cut on his side, they pecked at it so bad. I had to cover it in petroleum jelly so it could heal. I hate using that stuff on him.
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Post by lavandulagirl on Jul 5, 2009 21:31:30 GMT -5
I have a Wyandotte that likes to pick at the other hens. I had a day this last spring when I blue koted everyone's butts just so she'd give them a rest. It's funny, because they still have some purple on their butts.
There are some birds who will just pick and pick and pick, at any small defect. Was the rooster sporting any cuts or marks before they killed him?
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Post by swisscharrd on Aug 4, 2009 17:15:16 GMT -5
I am not sure is he had any defects other than being a Polish rooster with goofy feathers!
And he was not added later, he was raised with all of them. Perhaps he did get injured somehow and they did him due to that, but was not aware of any wounds.
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Post by lavandulagirl on Aug 4, 2009 19:34:56 GMT -5
Have you got any other roosters? Maybe he sparred with one, and got a cut that started them in on him. Do you have any other Polish? I'm at chicken maximum, as I'm too lazy to sell more than I do, but if I were to get another bird or two, the kids are lobbying for Polish, because they look so cool. (For sure if I had a Polish roo, I'd name hime "Link" like the guy on Mod Squad with the most excellent afro! ;D)
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