Hen in the house, trouble in the coop

Three roosters are too many roosters: 2 troublesome young ones in the front, Big Roo in the shadows.

One of our young hens went lame starting in early January. I left her in the coop for awhile, but then a real cold spell came through, and she was often wet from knocking over her water bowl, so I brought her inside in the basement.

5 weeks of spa treatment and not much has changed. She he is still eating and drinking, but her comb is really pale which is a sign she is not well. I am getting to the point where I have  to decide what to do with her.

I had read that one of the possible causes of lameness in chickens is Marek's disease, which is contagious to other chickens and not curable. The only way to tell if they have it is to do a necropsy after they die. I was almost to the point of taking her to the vet to end her life and have her tested, but then yesterday I found a dead hen on the floor of the coop. Whatever happened to this one was sudden, no limping or lameness, just dead. So now I am thinking that large black and white rooster in the pic above could be the killer, not a disease.

I suspected we would have problems having 3 roosters at a time. Previous experience with multiple boys in the house led to full blown cockfights. Poor Big Roo, the oldest and most well behaved rooster, was chased from the coop by one youngster the last time we had more than one. And the last black and white roo was attacking the 2 of us instead of the other roosters.

This large youngster is rough having his way with the girls, I have seen him in action. When I removed the dead girl yesterday, he went right over and jumped on top of her. As much as he is a beautiful boy, not a murderer, just a big brute, he might just have to become Joseph's next dinner.

And if the girl in the basement is suffering from broken bones, there is not much I can do for her other than end her life as well.

I am waiting to hear back from a vet tech and the Cornell Cooperative Extension to see if they can shed any light on this, but I don't think there is a happy ending to this one.