•3 min read•from Raising Chickens or Other Poultry for Eggs, Meat, or as Pets
Rooster Jail Sentence? Life?
Our take
Are you ready to dive into the chaotic world of chicken dynamics? Meet our not-so-friendly rooster, whose recent aggressive antics have landed him in a self-imposed Rooster Jail. After a heartbreaking battle with illness in the flock, tensions have risen, and our feathered friends are feeling the strain. With one of our beloved hens, John Cena, enduring a close call, it’s time to intervene! As we ponder how long to keep this feisty fowl separated and how to reintroduce him without chaos, we invite the community to share their wisdom. Is there hope for our once-decent dude, or is it time to consider more drastic measures? Join the conversation and let’s navigate this cluck-tastic dilemma together! 🐓❤️🐓
 | WARNING! RAMBLING AND DIRTY WORDS AHEAD: This gorgeous little fucker has started being way too aggressive with my hens. Before I chop his big stupid head off (which I almost did the other day)- I'm giving him one last try to help him get his shit together, because despite how tough I try to be, I absolutely adore him. He's really young, and has been a decent dude so far. (Side Note: Thankfully I am off this week, so I am able to work with him pretty intentionally.) Some background from the past month. My older hen got sick early March and I isolated her for days. I thought she was well enough to have a few hours in the sun, but I was wrong. My new hens attacked her, and I had to keep her indoors for days before her inevitable demise (she held on strong for 19 days 😔🥹😢). It was heartbreaking. Rest in peace, Noodle. Lesson learned. N-E-Wayz: I thought that was a one off situation, because she was ill, and pecking order etc- but since then the new flock and new rooster- have been more aggressive with my last two older hens (we call them the OCs "original chickens"). My older hens are not that old, a little over 2, and in great health. My husband and I have been keeping an extra eye on them, and separating them a bit, etc. We've let the OCs get special treatment, longer free range hours and treats etc. They have been able to co- exist with supervision. Well, Monday I looked out the window and my rooster (9ish months old) was sparring one of the OCs and I ran to intervene. I caught him (I have no idea how, he is sooo fast) and threw him in a pen. He has been isolated from all hens since Monday. My sweet girl, John Cena (the irony), had feathers ripped out, thankfully no blood. Overall, I caught it early enough that her injuries were minimal. Alas, since his incarceration for being a turd burglar: all hens new and old seem to be getting along completely fine now without him- and I'm realizing maybe he is potentially the full aggressor/instigator. After all of that rambling - - How long should I keep him separated? - How do I reintroduce him? (supervised obviously) - Is there anything else I could do as a last ditch effort? - Am I wasting my time? - Do you want the rooster meat, I'm vegetarian 😔? (more info:) - 6 hens/ 1 rooster (was 7 hens) - mixed breed larger hens, all young & egg laying - huge free-range space and woods - huge enclosed run - enclosed coop Thank you all! This community rips!!! 🐓❤️🐓 [link] [comments] |
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/4sj9lt1cr0ug1.jpeg){kind=link}
Read on the original site
Open the publisher's page for the full experience
Related Articles
- Neighbours rooster is very aggressive & attacks me.My neighbours got a rooster recently, he has been coming over to my hens ever since, he basically lives here now and despite many efforts he will not move back to their land. Multiple of their birds have ended up moving into our paddock so this isn’t unusual for us but their rooster is very aggressive, he will stalk me, charge at me from behind, jump at me, aggressively peck me and has made me bleed several times. He mated with our hens and we have fertilised eggs. He also attacks our hens occasionally. My mother is now afraid to go out to our paddock and he is causing a lot of trouble for us since I can barely walk without having him lunge & attack me. I’ve been keeping hens for 13 years but have only had 1 rooster prior, he was perfectly relaxed around humans contrary to this one. I’m not afraid around him but this isn’t okay and I don’t want it to continue. I can’t safely pick him up without gloves because he will go for my hands + he is a large bird. I use sticks to create a barrier between me and him and if he attacks me I walk in towards him to try and assert dominance. It has not been successful. My neighbours do not seem to care much about their chickens, they have an automatic closing system on their coops that often closes far too early. They are frequently killed by foxes and their kids behave abusively towards the birds (stamping, kicking, spraying them with hose pipes on jet-mode). Somebody else in my household has reported the rooster’s behaviour to them and they were dismissive. Any help is appreciated. Edit: my paddock has a public footpath connected to it so he is a risk to the public as well as my family & my hens. submitted by /u/StribrneNebe [link] [comments]
- Abandoned Chickens and my worst nightmare for themI placed this as NSFW bc it involves the death of a chicken. I just need to vent... I'm so sad. History Around October, some asshole abandoned an entire flock of chickens near our house. The chickens took up residence around the neighborhood, spending nights in trees and days in our yards. Initially, I did not clock that they were abandoned.... I thought they were just adventurous with a poor excuse of an owner not keeping them properly. I did not understand they were alone until I saw them retreat into my own trees. That's when I contacted animal services... At the time, there were around 9 chickens, 2 of them roosters. I put out feed for them in one location to try to help keep them in a predictable area. The city managed to catch 4 before they gave up the case. And I don't blame the city for giving up; these chickens are fast and agile. But how dare someone just leave them like this???? Anyway. Since it became accepted here that they would just be the neighborhood chickens, similar to the insane amount of stray cats in our area, I accepted one day, I would likely be the one to find them dead when they die of natural or otherwise causes. (They really like our evergreen trees.) I do not have the resources to care for these guys, but I do watch over them. I count myself as a "chicken lady" vs all the other "cat ladies" on our street. I have even spoken with my dog's vet about these little ones. She is equally as upset at their abandonment. They are a resilient, dedicated, and loyal bunch. There is 1 rooster and 4 chickens now. 2 of the chickens are black, 2 are tan. The tan ones would come up to me when I used to feed them... it was so sweet. I never pet them, and I stopped feeding them when the city gave up. They graze and are healthy on their own. Today: Anyway... Today, a chicken found her way into my yard severely injured. She was the smallest and sweetest. I saw her from my window in my backyard for the first time in a month. She couldn't walk straight. Couldn't fly. She couldn't lift her head. It was obvious she'd been attacked by something around the neck. I could see it clearly from inside before I rushed to her. Once I was with her, it was evident she also had a serious head injury; it was not scabbed or bleeding, but it was a goopy black. For every step she tried to take forward, she would take several backwards. She was also swarmed with flies, which she would peck at periodically to no avail. Her state was grim. I tried to give her water, and she was so thirsty... she tried to drink, but couldn't reach the water no matter how she tried and how i tried to help her. So I found an exotic er vet to take her to, and they were wonderful given the situation. I spent about an hour in the yard with her before I collected her into a carrier. During that time, she would come to me every so often, eventually sitting beneath me in my chair. She had the most curious brown eyes. She let me place her in the carrier without any hesitation, and i was devastated to see how she relaxed immediately upon being inside... She'd been alone for so long. She hadn't felt safe enough to rest in idk how long. This little girl trusted me enough to know she would be safe at my house and with me to pass. I'm honored to be a safe space, but I'm also incredibly angry. I just cannot fathom doing this to any animal, much less so many. I know I did the right thing for her, keeping her company and giving her a peaceful death.. I stayed with her till they put her to sleep. She seemed to take comfort in my presence, and I didn't want her to be alone.. and she's not my chicken, never was. But goddammit. Watching this happen and knowing it's only a matter of time for the others... idk what to do. I feel powerless. Thanks for letting me vent. I am open to suggestions on how I could capture the remaining flock, but I have tried many strategies over the months. None have been successful. submitted by /u/xprincessmuffin [link] [comments]
- Small flock of chickens hate ONE new chickenHi there, I had a neighbor ask me to adopt their solo chicken after it's partner died, which I was happy to do, but it's been extremely rough trying to integrate her with my current small flock because they hate her. Every time they are together in the yard they pin her down and peck at the back of her neck. Here is the timeline of everything I tried: One month garage quarantine Two months of "through the fence" visual introduction with no physical encounters. During this time she frequently puffed up at one of my other chickens. Six Months living in a separate enclosure that is visible from the other (her own food, water, roost, next etc). Free range in the yard every weekend, where the flock beats on her relentlessly if they see her and she has to constantly run away. I'm hoping that these contact days would improve but they are not (maybe very slightly) I'm not sure what else to try. I'd like everyone in the same run and coop during the day and to stop fighting. I have about 100 sqft per chicken in my run and a coop large enough for everyone. submitted by /u/Brad-Moon-Rising [link] [comments]
- New chicken owner seeking advise 😅Hello! Looking for some extra feedback and advice. I’m sorry this is a long one. We recently rescued two “stray” chickens. They were in a bleak situation at our rental property. We did our due diligence and asked all the neighbors and nobody claimed them or came for them the whole month. They roosted on a tiny branch every night in our front yard and never left. After about a month caring for and keeping an eye on them there, we made the decision to bring them to our home with huge fenced in back yard, ordered a nice coop, proper food and all the things they would need. They’re definitely young, and had never been in a coop or eaten normal food, we know that now. Took about 6 nights of me manually putting them into the coop (they tried roosting on the bottom slat of our sons playground) for them to go in it on their own which they are now doing every evening 🥹🙌🏼 We live in an area where a lot of people have chickens so I did have a few resources to ask most of my first time chicken owner questions. But a few remain as we are all still adjusting to each other lol The first morning after we brought them home, one of the chickens laid behind our koi pond (despite having nesting material and nest boxes inside their new coop) This was fine as I’m sure she felt safe and secure back behind that covered area. I added nest material back there, but had a friend tell me to continue to put eggs in the nest boxes every night so they would hopefully switch over to that. She never did… Every morning she lays behind the koi pond. The first FIVE days she laid two eggs every morning. I was concerned about this at first, but chalked it up to accelerated ovulation in a new layer after doing some research. She did a few days only laying one, and now occasionally still lays two a day. I know they are not nest sharing as the second chicken never goes behind the koi pond. The second chicken has yet to lay, aside from one soft shell white egg inside the roosting area… I assume it was hers. Since I don’t KNOW their exact age, I don’t know what to expect with “first time layers”. Any feedback here is helpful. They are also not super interested in their food??? I leave the feeder stocked in the coop, but they run to me every time I come out so I just throw their mealworm/sunflower treat out but honestly they don’t seem interested in that either even though they used to love it. They pick a few things out then leave majority of it now. Been giving random fruit and appropriate left overs but they pick at it and then look at me like I’m crazy. Am I doing something wrong?? 🫠🤣 Thank you for reading this novel and for any helpful feedback you can offer this first time chicken owner!! Picture of our girlies for tax. AND the one weird egg in last photo. Their names are Spicy (I’ll leave it to the imagination as to why😂), and Henrietta. Spicy is the layer, Henrietta laid the weird egg that one time. submitted by /u/Suspicious-Corgi5949 [link] [comments]
Tagged with
#chickens#fear of chickens#rooster#hens#aggressive#isolated#pecking order#flock#injuries#free range#coop#mixed breed#young#special treatment#supervised#rehabilitation#incarceration#domestic birds#bonding#sick hen