Rooster Not Getting Along With Others

[Red Frog]

Let me see if I can explain this without being too long. Last year we bought and raised 8 Dominique Cross chicks (in the end, due to wild animal attack and disease, we ended up with 4-1 roo and 3 hens.) We propagated our four and had 9 hatch, 2 roos and 7 hens. I had the parents and the children separated until a week ago. With temps starting to go down, I moved everyone into one coop.

Here's the issue. I moved the children (who are now 7mos) into the coop first (they were in a chicken tractor for the summer.) These guys needed to get off the ground asap. They were in the new coop for about a week before the temps got really cold, and we decided that the parents needed to be in the big coop with them (their summer quarters weren't ready for the temps to be in the teens yet). Ever since then, the 2 children roos have beaten up their dad. They tag team him, and this is a rooster that is bigger and ornery to the point where he comes after us. Dad could take his boys out. If he tried. But he's not trying. Dad has been through a lot-survived a wild animal/dog attack and coci or an equally nasty disease. His genes are really good. We don't want to get rid of him, but we want him to be a bit more comfortable. I took the two younger roos out this morning (we do have a plan to get rid of at least 1 of them, but our plan is to breed and sell chicks on a small scale, so I wanted to have some diversity in the gene pool), but their girls all jumped out to be with them.

Any advice? The only other thing I can think of is to remove dear old dad and his girls back to their summer digs and make it more winter ready.

 

[BayBay Peepers]

10 hens is not enough for even 2 roosters. If you plan to get rid of one I would do it now before they really hurt or kill your original rooster. Two may be able to live peacefully, but you may want to consider permanent separation.

You can try to separate the young boys into a bachelor pad for a few days, but it's much more difficult to introduce roosters than it is hens. Especially if there are hens present. You definitely want to take immediate action for the sake of your original roo. They will eventually hurt him severely or worse, kill him.

 

[Den in Penn]

Planning to sell chicks on a small scale. How small scale? If its only a few dozen, then a rooster and 10 hens is all you need. Selling little more and having two separate flocks of a rooster and hens each is better. So having the second coop would be a plus. In a few years you will want to think about the gene pool. your starting out with a limited stock, the cockerels and pullets are all from your original rooster and four hens. It can be done with such a small start but you'll have to watch closely. And what were the Dominique crossed with?