7 week old fighting roosters

[texgardengal]

I recently hatched 10 chicks. I have two chicken yards and the momma hen started pecking the babies and being kinda mean so I let her go back to her main flock and the 9 chicks (1 didnt make it) I left in the "littles yard". They are feathered out and doing OK, she was still sleeping with them at night but when I let her roam between the two yards she stayed with her main flock and left the littles to themselves. The "littles yard is big... It's huge, they have plenty of room and a small coop. Today I get home and the two roosters have red bloody faces and one has two large gashes in the back of his neck. I have the one who seems to be the dominant roo in the little coop right now. I'm not sure if I should put some of the littles in the big coop to separat the roosters or what. Or maybe I should have left them all with their mom a little longer.
help!!

 

[Granny Hatchet]

if the babies dont have mom protecting them they should be in a brooder by themselves.

 

[texgardengal]

They are by themselves. They hatched together, they are brothers. These nine hatched all together.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

i misunderstood, its the babies fighting !! wow. i thought you were talking about your main flock. lol they should be kept separate. maybe find a home for one of them?

 

[Eggcessive]

It is best to raise them with the whole flock from the beginning, where the broody mother would protect them and they would be a part of the flock already. She would have shown them where to eat, sleep,and no one would have bothered them now except to run them around a bit. Are you sure that they weren't pecked through the fence by the other big chickens and hurt?

 

[texgardengal]

The Mom has only been apart from them since Saturday. So 4 days. The two yards are side by side and only separated by a 3 foot walkway and it is wire fencing so they can see each other. The two flocks can see each other but there is no way one of the big chickens can get to them. They are 7 weeks old.
By the way, I have more babies than I do big chickens. One full grown rooster, Two full grown hens and one hen 6 months old.

 

[triplepurpose]

It is best to raise them with the whole flock from the beginning, where the broody mother would protect them and they would be a part of the flock already. She would have shown them where to eat, sleep,and no one would have bothered them now except to run them around a bit. Are you sure that they weren't pecked through the fence by the other big chickens and hurt?

I agree. That's what we do. We use a barrier for maybe the first few weeks to make feeding easier, but they are right there in the coop with the rest.

7 weeks old isn't roosters. It barely qualifies as cockerels. I've never seen or heard of chicks that young fighting with each other. I would suspect something else happened to them before I guessed that--from your discription of injuries, age and circumstance it sounds wildly improbable. I would look for other causes first--cut on wire, scratched by thorns, or attacked by something else, perhaps...?

 

[Eggcessive]

From about 5-7 weeks they are establishing their pecking order, but to do that much damage seems unlikely. Here is a little contraption that folds away for storage, but it is how I feed chicks or new chickens to the flock. It can be flipped over with plastic poultry netting for babies, then the small bars when they are old, and later the wider bars so only the little ones get inside at night to sleep and it's where they eat. Of course there is netting over the top to keep out unwanted visitors.

 

[texgardengal]

But I'm watching the bigger roo chase the other roo around and peck him over and over. . He wont let him heat, totally dominating him....I had no idea something like this couldhappen at this age. The bigger roo has blood on his face and the other roo has large peck holes in his back, he does have blood on his face too; both combs are tattered.? I guess it's possible? wire got him, there is just no wire they have to get to?

 

[texgardengal]

Are you suggesting i put them in a smaller space? His only saving grace right now is the large yard he can run away, hide, hide in the coop, hide in the hay, hide under the little shade table I would be afraid to keep them in a small pen like that. When the other roo sees him he charges. lol I thought it was funny at first, the little baby roos chest bumping and such, Today was NOT funnny