Low ranked rooster aggressive to fellow roosters!

[ShiviBear]

Hello!

I am hoping for a bit of advice.

The rooster in question, a 4 year old Brahma rooster named Dennis, became aggressive towards his fellow roosters about a month ago. He is one of two brothers (his brother's name is Terence) that came together as cockerels and all 4 roosters have always gotten along up to this point. Dennis was the bigger of the two and had a slight foot up on Terence. He has never been aggressive towards humans.

The other two roosters, Roostie and Fearso who I believe are either Rhode Island Reds or New Hampshire Reds, are above the brothers in hierarchy. Roostie, the top guy, is HUGE and very solid but all roosters are very tame and nice to us humans. They can sometimes be a little over zealous with the ladies, but nothing extreme. All 4 roosters had their pack of ladies, all 4 took excellent care of their ladies and Terence and Dennis were particularly great at sounding alarm.

I adopted this flock of birds, currently at 48 hens, and have been very lucky to have general peace among all. They have a huge main run with a big communal coop and a smaller sick/injured bird run with 2 smaller coops within the bigger one. They also get to free range close to their territory several times a day. They are mostly never bored which I'm sure helps with the harmony within the flock.

So around middle of April I noticed the brothers squabbling more then usual, with blood being drawn more often then not. Still, nothing crazy, just more frequent.
One day when I went to water the birds, I saw Terence and Dennis in the corner of the run, away from the other chickens, fighting like I've never seen roosters fight before. Blood and feathers were flying, they were throwing each other down on the ground and seemingly going for each other's throats. At first I thought to just let them fight it out, but it soon become obvious that Dennis was in serious trouble. I think he got his foot stuck under him while being thrown down by Terence and was badly limping so I had to step in. I do believe, although am no expert only having kept chickens for a year, that they meant to fight to the death. Something felt different about this fight.

After assessing injuries, treating, and washing the brothers(their white plumage was red from blood) it became apparent that Dennis had a badly sprained foot and had to be separated. I put him in the smaller run with 2 of his hens.

Since then, his food has healed 90%, but his behavior hasn't. The brothers fight through the fence constantly. One time when I though that the fighting settled down I left the run door open to see what would happen and Dennis ran out and started a fight with Roostie right away....and Roostie wasn't even looking in his direction! Dennis surely would have lost that fight quickly, but he didn't care.

One time I didn't close the door behind me and the wind blew it open letting Dennis out. I found him away from the flock, a little bloody but limping much worse again.
Terence was also bloody but was hanging out with flock.

The problem is is that I like Dennis. I like all the roosters.
But he is REALLY throwing the balance off, stressing everyone out, making the flock susceptible to disease. I've lost 4 hens in the past month, which is more then I've lost in a year and I recently realized their deaths are indirectly tied to the rooster causing stress. I've had more sour crops and vent gleet issues then I should have.

This is a closed flock due to my belief that my chickens have Marek's and mycoplasma so cannot give him away, besides I am not sure I could if that wasn't the case.

I'd there any way I can fix the harmony? I have no issue culling birds that are sick but culling him would be hard.

I was thinking of twisting every roosters spurs off and letting them fight it out with less damage.
From what I understand it is possible to humanely remove spurs. Can they kill each other without spurs?

If I'm going to cull him anyway, wouldn't letting them fighting it out to a possible truce make sense?
At this point, everyone is suffering...Dennis closed off in a small area away from the flock, the flock being constantly stressed our and me always worrying about it.

Please, any advice or insight would be greatly greatly appreciated!

 

[Smileybans]

I’m going through the same thing you are. My bantam decided to beat the crap out of my EE, who is top cockbird, and left him bloody. Now this bantam is a good guy to his ladies. Calls them for food and is a good look out. But he all of a sudden doesn’t want to get along with other roosters. My choice? Try and rehome him to someone without a rooster. He needs his own flock. It’s tough to let him go but best for the harmony of my flock.

Now, roosters will not stop fighting once they have started. They go till one is dead. They can still kill, and will, without spurs. It would be more humane to just cull the aggressor than to let them fight it out. Keep in mind culling, or rehoming even, upsets the rooster pecking order. So a rooster that was once docile may become aggressive once the aggressor is gone.

 

[LaFleche]

I'd there any way I can fix the harmony? I have no issue culling birds that are sick but culling him would be hard.

In my experience there is no way to get back to peace and harmony after things have escalated the way you describe.

I was thinking of twisting every roosters spurs off and letting them fight it out with less damage.
From what I understand it is possible to humanely remove spurs. Can they kill each other without spurs?

Twisting off would hurt and leave the spikes. It would be better to Dremel the spurs off, there are videos on YouT*tube how to go about it.

If I'm going to cull him anyway, wouldn't letting them fighting it out to a possible truce make sense?
At this point, everyone is suffering...Dennis closed off in a small area away from the flock, the flock being constantly stressed our and me always worrying about it.

I would cull Dennis, as he is not willing to accept his new position in the pecking order and constantly starts fights. As you have already noticed, the other members of the flock suffer tremendously when there are fights at all times and roosters try to kick each other off the hens.

There is no sense in letting him fight even more, as this would cause even more damage to the other birds.

So no more fighting, but culling him the sooner the better for the peace and health of your flock.

 

[LaFleche]

This is a closed flock due to my belief that my chickens have Marek's and mycoplasma so cannot give him away, besides I am not sure I could if that wasn't the case.

In your case it is even more important to have peace in the flock, as any stress can trigger.

 

[ShiviBear]

I do know this is really the only option at this point, I just didn't want to admit it to myself.
Thank you kindly for responding and confirming my intuition.

The truth is, I've already lost 3 hens because of the stress he has placed upon the flock. I know this for a fact....I spend ALOT of time with these birds and have become extremely sensitive to their, umm...flock mechanics.

Now, that being said, I admit I am having trouble wrapping my head around culling this nice (to me), beautiful, productive, HEALTHY bird!! And big, I forgot to mention big.

I culled my first sick hen a little over a year ago, I was directed to keep her on my lap, flip her over and slit her throat while talking calmly to her. This turned out to be horrible advice and I have been learning how to do this sad but necessary deed in the most humane way.
I have become pretty adept at the broomstick method and do belive its the quickest and most humane way to dispatch a chicken.
But all the hens I've ever culled were sick, smaller, skinny...
How do I humanely cull a large healthy rooster that I LIKE?
☹

 

[LaFleche]

I do know this is really the only option at this point, I just didn't want to admit it to myself.
Thank you kindly for responding and confirming my intuition.

The truth is, I've already lost 3 hens because of the stress he has placed upon the flock. I know this for a fact....I spend ALOT of time with these birds and have become extremely sensitive to their, umm...flock mechanics.

Now, that being said, I admit I am having trouble wrapping my head around culling this nice (to me), beautiful, productive, HEALTHY bird!! And big, I forgot to mention big.

I culled my first sick hen a little over a year ago, I was directed to keep her on my lap, flip her over and slit her throat while talking calmly to her. This turned out to be horrible advice and I have been learning how to do this sad but necessary deed in the most humane way.
I have become pretty adept at the broomstick method and do belive its the quickest and most humane way to dispatch a chicken.
But all the hens I've ever culled were sick, smaller, skinny...
How do I humanely cull a large healthy rooster that I LIKE?
☹

In your case it might be best to ask an experienced friend or neighbour to do it for you.
The blow has to be performed with determination to be successful and painless for the bird. And if you are hesitant because of your attachment, it might go wrong.