Roosters

AlpineTX

Hatching
Jan 24, 2017
1
0
7
Have a pretty large fenced in area for my chickens: 40' X 80'. Used to let them free range but the bobcats and coyotes were thinning them out pretty fast. Anyways, we have 13 new hens, thought it was 14 until one turned out to be a rooster. Already had a rooster from the previous batch who is older. Question is the older rooster is very dominant even though the younger one is the larger of the two, I had kept them separate, but now need the other pen for something else. So let the older roo into the closure where he promptly kicked the younger ones butt. They're separated again, but I need the room, if I put the younger one back in will he learn to just give the the dominate one room or do I have worry the dominate roo will eventually kill him? Thanks
 
welcome-byc.gif


It's a big enough space they should be able to co-exist. The younger bird's life may not be the greatest, but he should be okay.

When you put them together, the older one kicked the younger one----what happened? Should be, the older one challenges, they may spar a bit, the younger (or whoever is going to be the loser, not always the younger) starts backing down. The winner may chase the loser around a bit, but if the loser has ample room to run away, showing he's not a threat, the winner usually doesn't give chase for long.

If the winner persistently chases the loser, cornering him and relentlessly pecking, you'd need to intervene. But if it's just running away, that's about as good as you're going to get. The older bird is not going to be Mufasa to a young Simba, he's going to see his job as keeping the upstart away from the hens and not letting him breed. He may chase him off from food also, so more than one feeder might be a good idea, at least for a while.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom