9 Week Old Rooster(s) dying

[Kgriffith0712]

First of all, thank you to all who reply.
I am fairly new at raising chickens from birth (I purchased my "older" chickens at 6 months old). Anyhow, at the end of January I received a shipment of chicks, which included 7 pullets (various breeds, one Jersey Giant Rooster as well as other white roosters which were used for warmth in the shipment. Since receiving the shipment, we have naturally had a couple of the white roosters pass away when they were still young peeps. However, I have noticed that as the roosters are getting older, the Jersey Giant will flare his neck feathers out and he and one of the other roosters will stand off and sometimes lunge at each other. This only lasts for a very short time as one of them will back down. I was reading some literature that this can be for the pecking order and not necessarily to try and kill each other. However, this morning, one of the white roosters was dead. There was no blood on the rooster nor anywhere else in the pen, but he did have a spot of missing feathers on his head and there was some black feathers as well as white feathers laying around. - A couple weeks ago, I found another white rooster dead... no blood on him or in the area around him. So my question is: Can these roosters be fighting to the death at this young of an age? If so, should there be blood or are these roosters dying of other causes? Thanks in advance!

 

[bobbi-j]

If they were fighting to the death into would be a bloody mess. Do you have pictures of your other white roosters? I am wondering if they sent you some Cornish x meat birds - they tend to die easily. Weasel crossed my mind as they can kill without much mess, but they tend to kill several at a time. Check for lice and mites. I can’t think of anything else, so hopefully someone else will chime in. If you lose another one, you might want to consider sending it in for a necropsy.