Bachelor Flock: Worked So Far... What am I doing Wrong?

[cmom]

I usually show my birds but not since covid. I learned years ago that once a take a male out to take to a show, it usually didn't go well putting him back in with the other males. I'm lucky that I have several coops and pens so I was able to put him into another coop and pen. I just sold the last of my excess males yesterday. After the first of the year I will be setting up my breeding coops and pens which means moving birds around. Good luck...

 

[halefamily_flock]

Thanks for the reply!!

I'll look through that thread. I thought about separating, but I'm not sure who I would separate. I've put chickens in crates before, and it hasn't done much for the chicken. Their condition always seems to worsen.

I didn’t know how it was going to turn out and thought I would have to remove at least one of the fighters, so I picked one to isolate who seemed to be doing the most provoking (e.g. chasing after the other rooster who had walked away in defeat). In both cases, it was the one defending his rank vs the challenger. I used this logic with 2 different pairs of fighters and the one who had been isolated came back into the flock accepting the lower ranking.

 

[aart]

My bachelor flock resides in the freezer....no problems there.

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

In my experience it will continue until they work it out. But my boys who fight still go to bed together and do other things as buddies. and continue to test and set boundaries with each other but not to brutally anymore. The subordinate knows his place and runs off early (morning is high hormone time) and comes back around when the coast is clear to eat.. well, I used multiple feeding stations because they can't very well dominate two at the same time!

As one poster stated.. enough cannot be said about two things specifically.. 1) a good mature head cock and 2) selection for fitting in with no bully or victim demeanor birds being kept in the stock.

When I kept a bachelor pen.. I would remove the stag over night and place with the ladies where he would spend the day. I return said stag back to the dark roost before the following (2nd) day so he wakes up again with his comrades. There isn't enough time for the bachelor pad to have starting going through any changes yet and order is maintained, drama is minimal. Since fertility is viable often for 14+ days and I have no need for long term conjugal visits. Arranging a day or two weekly during breeding season like this has been sufficient for both fertility and manageability of flock antics..

I even kept different egg color breeds.. so I could swap in the correct rooster and collect all but set from only the hens I wish to hatch.. keep 4 or 5 breeds in only 2 pastures/coops and this way. Several hens of each breed, plenty of hens to go around when needed. When space and resources are limited but goals and expectations are high.. gotta get creative.


So uhm.. compost them.

Sorry, I know that every life is valuable. But so is my sanity and the peace of my flock! It took a long time to accept that sometimes the humane thing to do for everyone involved might be euthanasia/culling for the trouble maker.. noting with COCKERELS you might just be opening the door for the next trouble maker. I liked the Biels at first.. every single one of them eventually tested me. They were tasty.

I agree separation is pretty much the end here and does not improve things IF created by ME. But if the fleeing bird can get away and stay out of sight well enough to show his defeat and submission without being cornered.. they usually slowly work their way back in and get tolerated at a distance. Stag pens.. more bachelors means smoother running as antics bounce around more like billiards table reaction and less focused on fewer individuals..

My chickens don't respond much to mirrors.. but enrichment definitely helps.. hanging corn on the cobs, visual barriers that block direct line of sight, extra roost.. anything new or even the same things moved to a different location so they have to explore to see what just happened type stuff.

Many fights look pretty bloody but are often superficial as you saw. Some are missing comb and wattle chunks here. EE aren't my favorite roosters though I love the hens. They bring no breeding value to my stock, though many are beautiful.

Hope you get some useful tips and things settle down quickly for your fella's!

I'll have to try the switching during the night thing.... that was definitely helpful.

About the composting.... it might come to that. More likely they'll become dog food. But I want to try selling them again before I dispatch them.

I'll be sticking buckets and boards in there for obstacles. Maybe another feeder. We have plenty, so why not use them?


Thanks everyone for the tips!

 

[ackie]

Maybe youd have better luck if you slowly reintroduced the new boys, where they can see each other but not touch until they warm up to each other.

 

[Mrs. K]

The long term advice is that some roosters will not work. Let them go, keeping what does. The best roosters come with people with sharp knives, the bad ones go.

There really is no "if you do this, then you will get perfect roosters." But if you can dispatch the rotten ones, eventually you actually get what you want.

Mrs K

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Maybe youd have better luck if you slowly reintroduced the new boys, where they can see each other but not touch until they warm up to each other.

Look but don't touch has not worked for adding roosters here. They fight between the divider. no one wins, and both are frustrated. I even had a rooster hang himself in one of those dog kennels we all use for broody breaking.. he jumped to hard and his head went through the roof bars and he was stuck in that position dead when I found him.. not from raccoon or anything else. It was a rude awakening for me. Come to think of it.. that's the second roo that hung himself.. the other one was from the side bars in the middle divider (hence also not raccoon or other) when two boys were in the larger kennel.

I'll have to try the switching during the night thing.... that was definitely helpful.

Part of the key with how that was successful for me was by not leaving too much time between removing and returning them.

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

I have generally found (with my chickens at least) that bachelor groups do best when they have been raised together and stay together. They tend to sort out their order of superiority young, before any real physical damage can occur.

Generally speaking (and this applies to both roosters and hens), the minute you remove and/or add a bird from an established flock (even if temporarily) this often kicks off a resorting of the pecking order. How long that lasts depends on "which" chicken is being (re)introduced and the particular mixture of attitudes you have in that group.

My bachelors are not penned - they are released to free range on the farm so they can choose who to hang with and can avoid each other if they wish. There is plenty of room for them to get out of each others way.

Roosters I intend to keep for future breeding use or sale are always kept in the pens with the larger flock and they either behave or my matron hen Cotton Top beats them up. The alpha rooster doesn't lift a feather - his mafia ladies do that for him LOL.

 

[cmom]

Usually when I have went to the shows I would take the birds the evening prior to the show and coop-in. So the birds were gone Friday and Saturday. Just those two days being away was enough. Females I have had no problems with putting them back into the same coops, but the males have been another story. Most of the year I don't have bachelor coops and pens but for awhile I do until I sell the ones I don't want to keep for breeding. Once they are gone the coops get converted back for breeding.

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

Okay, thought I should update.
Thanks everyone for all the helpful comments!

I added more feeders, and an extra obstacle. The d'Uccle who got beat up went in the crate so he could heal. Then he got let out of the crate. Bantam Cochin went in the crate for 2 days, and then he got let out.

No problems since then. Guess the mixing up of the pecking order worked.
The d'Uccle is still on the bottom of the pecking order, but the Bantam Cochin has given it a rest.