Acclimating Roos to each other...

[TW1Kell]

I have my old Amie/Faverolle cross roo, who is a great roo. I also have a new Domique and a new Black Austalorp who are pure bred and both are a year old, this month. All 3 are beautiful roos, and serve their purposes, well. Cog, the old roo, does the attempt to fight thru the wire, but he isn't horribly aggresive as I have seen him be. The 2 younger roos will attempt to fight about as hard as he does, but all 3 lose interest in the fight fairly quickly. I have seen Cog bloody himself until it runs from his beak, trying to fight thru the wire. These, he isn't so aggressive with...here's my point;

I really want to keep all 3. I don't have the ability to build 3 seperate pens. presently, I have the Dominiques in my breeding tractor, but I have all of the Dommies, that I can handle, right now.

Do any of you have ANY experience with acclimating roos? If so, what did you do? I am currently trying to just allow them to be near each other when I am there to snatch one of them up when the fight gets too aggressive. So far, no one has "gotten skint", but me. haha

 

[Ridgerunner]

You don’t ask easy questions. I think most of us can tell you what will happen if you put them together. There will be conflict. What none of us can tell you is what the outcome or that conflict will be.

I do think how much room you have makes a big difference. For thousands of years chickens have been able to live together in a flock. Sometimes there is conflict. A way they often handle that is the weaker runs away from the stronger. The more room to run, the better. There may be some chasing involved. This involves hens working out the pecking order as much as anything to do with roosters.

But you are dealing with roosters. Some roosters just won’t run away, even if they are losing badly. Some roosters won’t quit chasing. Sometimes one gets seriously injured in a fight. In these cases you may get death as a result.

But sometimes they decide which is the dominant one and they work out an amiable partnership in talking care of the flock. They may split the flock into two separate flocks during the day and sleep in the same coop at night quite peacefully. I’ve seen roosters that preferred to hang out with each other even more than hanging with the hens. They still knew which was boss and the hens still laid fertile eggs. With three roosters you have many different things that could happen. But I can’t tell you what will actually happen.

My suggestion is to let them roam together in as big an area as you have and monitor the situation. Give them a chance to fight it out and reach an agreement. But be ready to intervene if it goes really badly. It may be hard to just watch them but as long as you don’t see blood it’s probably not too bad.

I don’t know what shape their spurs are in. The young ones may not have all that much yet but the older one probably does. You could maybe trim the spurs a bit a few days before you try it. I use a Dremel tool and one of those cutting blades. Wrap the rooster in a towel or old sheet around the wings to control it. You are not trying to remove the spur, just dull it. It’s a lot like trimming your toe nails. If you get too deep you’ll cut into the quick and it will hurt and bleed. If you take maybe 20% to 25% of the spur you should miss the quick. This should help reduce the chances of them ripping each other open. If you see blood, it will probably come from a beak ripping the comb or wattles, nothing to do with the spurs.

To reduce your chance of being skinned, you might try a big fishing net, something like that. If you feel you have to use it, they may be so intent on each other you can get close enough to use it.

You’re dealing with living animals. Some of this can be rough. If you have room you have a decent chance of success but things can go wrong. I wish you luck.

 

[TW1Kell]

I hear ya. I have seen flocks with multiple roos, and my young roos always run from Cog, so his alpha overides their desire to stand and fight. These 2 new roos, are grown, tho. Cog is about like I am, he'd rather die than run, as he's even attacked a hawk that grabbed Gamey. She's still here, so his slowing the hawk and my pistol shooting ran it off before it could hurt her seriously. He's a fine roo, but getting on in age, as am I.

It's time to think about my next generations, plus I like to have the pure bloods around to replenish those breeds, as I need them. Also, the Dominique is VERY popular, here. I could easily sell chicks. I just wanted to check and see what experiences everybody else has had.

As for "space", my gang (I have over 100 chickens, now) has a pen about 1/3 of an acre, but, they run loose when I'm home or in the general area. When they're "rangin'", my driveway is about 1/2 mile long, and the "bottom" starts about 50 yards past my backdoor. They have plenty of runnin' room. They could run about 5 miles without ever seein' a dirt road. So far, they've been satisfied with our cleared land, and about 50 yards into the woods.

As for hard questions, I have the "little stuff" about figured out, it's the tough stuff that gets me. Tomorrow, they get another chance to see if they'll get along as I don't have to work, tomorrow. I know it may never work, but I want to try everyone's advice before I give up on the 2 young roos. They're mighty good-lookin' roos, and would give me the ability to maintain pure breeds, especially since the Dominique holds such a unique place in our agricultural history and is endangered.

 

[Melabella]

I hear ya. I have seen flocks with multiple roos, and my young roos always run from Cog, so his alpha overides their desire to stand and fight. These 2 new roos, are grown, tho. Cog is about like I am, he'd rather die than run, as he's even attacked a hawk that grabbed Gamey. She's still here, so his slowing the hawk and my pistol shooting ran it off before it could hurt her seriously. He's a fine roo, but getting on in age, as am I.

It's time to think about my next generations, plus I like to have the pure bloods around to replenish those breeds, as I need them. Also, the Dominique is VERY popular, here. I could easily sell chicks. I just wanted to check and see what experiences everybody else has had.

As for "space", my gang (I have over 100 chickens, now) has a pen about 1/3 of an acre, but, they run loose when I'm home or in the general area. When they're "rangin'", my driveway is about 1/2 mile long, and the "bottom" starts about 50 yards past my backdoor. They have plenty of runnin' room. They could run about 5 miles without ever seein' a dirt road. So far, they've been satisfied with our cleared land, and about 50 yards into the woods.

As for hard questions, I have the "little stuff" about figured out, it's the tough stuff that gets me. Tomorrow, they get another chance to see if they'll get along as I don't have to work, tomorrow. I know it may never work, but I want to try everyone's advice before I give up on the 2 young roos. They're mighty good-lookin' roos, and would give me the ability to maintain pure breeds, especially since the Dominique holds such a unique place in our agricultural history and is endangered.

I found this thread while researching how to integrate two different flocks. What was the outcome.. did your boys ever learn to co exist and get along??

MB