What to Do When Your Roosters are Fighting and How to Care for Them Afterwards




Cock fighting can be a difficult chicken behavior to deal with, especially when it involves beloved pets. Roosters don’t like to leave a good fight unresolved and will keep coming back to it every chance they get. Here are some tips for dealing with fighting roosters and some suggestions on how to restore the peace.

First Round
Cock fights can be pretty sudden. Sometimes I can’t even tell what set the combatants off; it’s like a switch was just flipped on. When a rooster is trying to be obvious and start a cock fight, he may start flapping his wings and crowing to the other rooster or trying to mate the hens. Generally, the challenged rooster will make a beeline for the challenger and the fight begins. Immediately, both birds become a mass of feathers, claws, and beaks.
The first reaction to this is to try to separate them, but this isn’t always a good idea. It is very unlikely that they will stop fighting for good. As soon as you leave, they will be back at it. It is best in these situations to let them try to decide pecking order while you are present. If the fight is over quickly and there is an obvious surrender from one of the roosters, then good. You should keep an eye on them, but they are probably ok now. The trick is: knowing when to let the fight continue and when to stop it.


Second Round
The biggest difference between an ok cock fight to establish pecking order and a fight to the death is in how the roosters are fighting. This is not easy to determine early in the fight (in the first five-ten minutes), but after about fifteen to twenty minutes the purpose of the fight should emerge. If one rooster looks like he’s losing, then the behavior of the stronger rooster should tell you whether or not these boys will be able to live together long term. If it is a fight to the death, the stronger rooster will be trying to seriously hurt the other rooster, not just make him surrender. If a surrendering rooster (a rooster who is making scared noises and running away) is being doggedly pursued by the victor as if the victor wants to continue the fight, this is also a sign that the coop isn’t big enough for the two of them. If both roosters keep going equally, their behavior toward each other as they get tired will tell you the same thing. If they look like they are going to keep going for a while and won’t give in until one of them is removed, then just separate them. It’s not worth it to see if the fight will end well at this point.
On the other hand, if a fight is just to establish pecking order, the roosters will fight viciously for a while, then one will surrender and run away. The victorious rooster may chase the loser for a little bit to establish his dominance, but he should content himself with scaring the loser and will not try to continue the fight.


Final Bell
To separate two fighting roosters, water is perfect. Reaching your hands in can result in bites and scratches intended for the opponent. Water from a hose or bucket often shocks them into separating far enough so that you can reach in and grab them. They may try to bite you when you are holding them. Don’t worry; they should stop. If they don’t, you still have to patch them up, so get someone else to hold them.
Blood. There will be a lot of it. Don’t panic. There is a lot of blood in head wounds, which will be the majority of what you have to deal with. This is regardless of the violence level of the fight. There may also be missing spurs, the stumps of which will also bleed profusely. Missing feathers and miscellaneous wing, leg, tail, or neck wounds may also be present. The first thing to do is to get a wet paper towel (warm water is best – have a clean bucket of warm water handy and a lot of paper towels) and wipe off the blood. This will help you determine what is serious and what isn’t. Work on the most serious wounds first. Styptic powder will stop bleeding from spurs (be generous). When used on the face, just be careful of the eyes and mouth. If you don’t have styptic power, normal kitchen flour can also work (again, be generous). Your roosters will be exhausted. Just put them somewhere apart from each other where they can rest. I have found that a warm, dry towel in a kennel will keep other curious chickens away from a tired rooster and will let him rest safely. Make sure they have water and food, but especially water. It is important that they are able to eat and drink when they feel up to it. That little body just spent an awful lot of energy. Check on them periodically to make sure that they are recovering. Be careful of eye wounds. If there are any wounds that look like more than just surface wounds, take the rooster to a vet. Even if a vet doesn’t have chicken experience, they know how to deal with wounds of a more serious nature and they have the right equipment in a sterile environment.


Why Let Roosters Fight?
Although no two cock fights are alike, these are some basic guidelines for determining whether or not to let a fight continue. You have to use your own judgment, though, as to when a fight is going too far.
Hen fights are quick and decisive. Hens will content themselves with a short pecking session before a pecking order is decided (bullying is another matter – often bestowed on the lowest in the pecking order). Roosters take a lot more convincing. We have three roosters living together in a small flock of hens. The head rooster is a big, burly Easter Egger, and the other two are smaller Buff Orpington/Silkie crosses. The head rooster established his dominance first, then the other two sorted things out between themselves. Cock fighting, while a frightening thing to watch, is a necessary part of the rooster pecking order. The fight only becomes serious when one rooster decides that he won’t put up with a beta rooster in the coop. Some roosters are like this. It’s not always possible to have roosters living in harmony. Usually, the rule is to have ten hens per rooster if you are going to have more than one. We have been very blessed in that our boys get along with fewer hens (without being hard on the hens). Although it is easy to react quickly when a cock fight breaks out, judging the seriousness and purpose of the fight can lead to a happy pecking order in a multi-rooster coop.
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The Chickens' Maid
Thanks for reading through my article! Please PM me if you see any info that should be corrected or if you have any editing suggestions! I'm always trying to improve my writing, so any help is appreciated!

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I found this very helpful since I'm currently trying to integrate a couple of rescue roosters at the moment that I soft heartedly took on to add to my flock of 17 (with 4 cockerels) where everyone was getting on pretty well - just a young one causing trouble. Some initial fights have been bloody but cleaned up and ultimately no real injuries, but nobody seemed to be backing down quickly, so I broke it up with a soft broom. After this advice I may try and leave them to decide who's boss and be ready with the styptic powder. Otherwise, I'll have to decide who's going myself, and not looking forward to it but some things must be done to preserve my happy hens.
I currently have 2 toos that started to fight out of no where....they grew up together 🙃
so this article is perfect!
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Great article. Let's see how this goes ...
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Comments

hmmmm. This may be impolitic on a site dedicated to pet chickens, rather than meat birds, but im planning on raising both, and my first thought when i saw the suggestion of using flour to staunch wounds was "if i have to bread him, i may as well fry him!" Please take this in the way its meant, in humor heh. If chicken eaters arent allowed on this board, its best i know now hehe.
 
I didn't think of that, but that's funny! A lot of people do send their extra roos to freezer camp; not unusual at all!
 
haha, thanks, glad to see im not headed for the chopping block myself ;) lol. Well we spit and shook on the deal on that little hobby farm... now we just gotta take care of the paperwork and wait for them to get OUT! :) i figure it may still be a good 6 months or so before we get settled in and are able to get some chickens, which would be horrible timing, so likely 9 ;;sigh:: ah well. :) patience is a virtue they say ;)
 
As for roos and freezer camp, i personally think its much better to let them grow up a bit, live a happy chicken life, then become dinner, than to be put in a plastic bag and smothered at hatching ;:shudder:: but again, thats my personal bias and detest of waste heh. Thank you for being so welcoming ;)
 
Thanks for the affirmation, I had felt that letting them sort it out is best. I had two roos that tormented the other birds. Notice I said 'had', I put them to a place they could better serve... on the table. I now have the two bantam roos that continually duke it out for last and next to last place. about a week ago I noticed blood in the coop, as no one was obviously hurt I noted it and now about 4 days later find more of it and see that it is from their head wounds, they keep fighting but not a to the death thing. If this keeps up I'll choose one of them to become a 'single serving' and go from there. Until then I'll practice patching the warriors up and let them have at it. They will have till spring to sort it out as when the temperatures rise so does the chance of infection.

I can't help but comment on the suffocating baby chicks, first I apologize if that is not what were talking about but if it is, yes I have a real problem with that... let them grow up and eat them, I better not say more.
 
Thank you for this article. I have two roosters and probably not enough hens, but I want to buy few more. But maybe I react too soon when my roosters are fighting, although I am not sure. I let them fight yeasterday (no major wounds since I put blinders on younger rooster) but older rooster is surrender after 10 minutes of fight or less and run away, but younger one chase him soo...I don;t know if they will get along. I am going to fix my separate coop (Opal - younger rooster broke fence) and keep Opal there.
 
can you please share the pics of your buff orpington silkie cross offsprings, i would love to see the result of such a combination
 
Bless you for this informative, practical article! I just had a pretty bad fight two days ago. One of my free range roosters (I am not one who can kill them so we have a 3000+ ft enclosure for my hens and two roos and five roos that live outside this enclosure) flew into hen town. My oldest rooster and the interloper had quite a fight, unfortunately I wasn’t here. I found the older rooster in the corner of one of the houses a bloody mess. I immediately took him in washed him off and found no wounds other than his head. Thankfully, he still has both eyes! He’s been in the garage in a private enclosure, rooster hospital, for two nights. He is still very lethargic, hanging his head, seems very depressed. I’ve given him fresh water twice a day and the best treats and chick starter with his regular food. He’s eaten little and not drank much either. Any suggestions?
 
wondering how your 2 roosters are doing. Just had a similar problem yesterday. Alpha rooster in my flock has always been picking on the Easter Rooster, until yesterday. Found the alpha laying on his belly trying to find a way out of the pen, bloodied. I was able to get him in a small kennel to get rest and heal. Wounds not too bad, but definitely traumatized. Thought we could just put them back together when they roosted last night, but found the poor alpha playing dead in a corner in the morning. So, we need to find a way to keep them separated...:( Will we ever be able to leave them together again or will they always need to be separated?
 
I have experienced the same challenge. Two roosters (yet brothers because they hatched on the same day but you could tell who is bigger) had a very vicious fight! The younger bloodied the older brother bruised his soft mouth parts and the comb!

The young lad was not letting go neither did the bloodied brother! Apart from these two roosters, I keep a total of four roosters and the older one we call him the TRIBAL CHIEF. We saw him picking interest in the fight while supporting the young rooster🤨.

By the time I came to rescue the bloodied lass it was all blood and you could see that the lad was struggling to stand and one of the eye could not see properly😪

I followed the right procedure of administering the First Aid and separating them, it's now about four days since the incident but the lad can't eat. Its like one side of the face is paralysed.
 
Thank you for this informative article. I now have 4 roosters after raising a clutch of silkie chicks. I separated the 3 young roosters from the flock because it was too much for the young ladies, who already have the (father) rooster.
The 3 boys were in their own batchelor pad with plenty of free range space where they could see but not mate with the girls.

The younger roosters were all getting on fine then one day hell broke out and one roo was nearly killed. I now have the 3 with their own runs and temporary sleeping boxes. I'm trying to find homes for them but its not easy.

I wonder if I could let them sleep together again, and separate them in the mornings. It's getting very cold here in Italy and I think they'd be better off together at night during winter. Do you know if cock fights or bullying will happen if their house (where they go to sleep) is kept dark? I could then separate them when I let them out. Thanks for any advice. 🤞
 

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