Ahh... navigating Chicken life with Roosters. WARNING culling alert.

[Folly's place]

Yes, there's a difference between having minor squabbles, quickly sorted out, and serious fighting. With roosters, things can escalate quickly, without much advance warning, and result in serious injuries and death. Be aware, and have your Plan B available!
Mary

 

[Cee]

I wear jeans and shoes or boots out there, always! Having horses and cattle too, flip flops just aren't in the picture for me. and poo between my toes, no way!
Motivated roosters will hurt you through jeans, and some can reach your face, even some bantam boys! It's just not worth it having one like that. been there too, and gave it up years ago.
Right now we have a rooster and six cockerels, yes, a couple too many, but all are polite and so are still here. Two or three fewer would be nice though.
Mary

Are your rooster and 6 cockerels all in the same flock?
How many hens and pullets?
Can you break down your flocks(s) and members for me?

 

[Folly's place]

All the birds live in the same flock, however their coop/ run combination has five separate areas, connected by doors that can be all opened, or all closed. So there are spaces where birds can be out of sight of each other, and five feeders, and three waterers in winter, five in warmer weather.
Belgian d'Uccle bantams, one rooster, two cockerels, and six hens. Bantam EEs, two cockerels, two hens, three pullets. Then two standard Chantecler cockerels, and the rest standard hens and pullets. Right now seven males and 33 females all together.
Everyone gets along, or adjustments are made! Three or four of the bantam cockerels need to leave, because they aren't in any breeding group. Cute, polite boys; any takers?
Mary

 

[ackie]

Thank you for sharing your journey.
Culling roos may always be hard for you, and that's not a problem, just part of life- if you get attached to your chickens killing them won't be easy.

I second this. Empathy & sympathy are not bad things. Being able to cull a roo (or honestly having someone who can do it for you) if it must be put down is all you "need" to be able to do.

With roosters, they should not be left to fight things out.

I think theres a line here. Squabbles in free range with lots of room to hide are very different than squabbles in close quarters where the weaker cant actually back off. Obviously different breeds and different roos will behave differently, but it is reasonable IMO to let them lightly work out the pecking order if you keep an eye on it.

 

[SulkyBantam]

I second this. Empathy & sympathy are not bad things. Being able to cull a roo (or honestly having someone who can do it for you) if it must be put down is all you "need" to be able to do.

I think theres a line here. Squabbles in free range with lots of room to hide are very different than squabbles in close quarters where the weaker cant actually back off. Obviously different breeds and different roos will behave differently, but it is reasonable IMO to let them lightly work out the pecking order if you keep an eye on it.

OK this is true. I personally would not let ANY of my roos fight, unless they were chicks, it could just end really badly, but a little peck does no harm.

 

[ackie]

OK this is true. I personally would not let ANY of my roos fight, unless they were chicks, it could just end really badly, but a little peck does no harm.

I also may just be lucky haha

 

[ackie]

so my current set up is
main coop - 15ish pullets and 2 cockrells - I say ish because the number seems to vary every few nights whether girls want to sleep in trees or coop
group of trees - my alpha roo (6+ years old), one cock(rell), all my hens and any pullet that decides shes not interest in the coop any more
side coop - 5 hens. they had a roo but I sold him. I'm hesitant about giving them another roo because it separates that roo from the main flock, makes him a stranger again, and lets him think hes alpha which caused a fight before.

the older roo is obviously top dog and i doubt anyone would challenge him tbh since the age difference is so significant and the cockrells grew up with him. I suspect he gets first pick of hens and that seems to be fine with everyone, so he has a group of girls he wanders around with.

the cock(rell) who sleeps in the trees (speckles) had no ladies, another cock(rell) had 1 and another had 2, but I sold those two roos and I think the single lady now follows speckles around - maybe the other two do as well, I'm not sure. they travel separately from the alphas flock.

I suspect the girls who sometimes sleep in the trees and sometimes in the coop are probably not really attached to any one roo so they just sleep where the weather suggests.

the group that sleeps in the coop wanders around during the day together, also separate from the alphas flock. I suspect one cockrell (avary) is dominant over the other (snowflake) because avary will run the snowflake off when he tries to mate one of the ladies. but otherwise they seem to get along and even sleep near each other at night - theres lots of space.

 

[Cee]

I second this. Empathy & sympathy are not bad things. Being able to cull a roo (or honestly having someone who can do it for you) if it must be put down is all you "need" to be able to do.

I think theres a line here. Squabbles in free range with lots of room to hide are very different than squabbles in close quarters where the weaker cant actually back off. Obviously different breeds and different roos will behave differently, but it is reasonable IMO to let them lightly work out the pecking order if you keep an eye on it.

I guess it depends on ones definition of a squabble. Mine were outside free ranging on a quarter acre. They would not stop, neither would give in and the blood was copious.
Never going to let both flocks free range at the same time again.
I'm new and the longer I keep chickens, the more variables I become aware of. Males raised together, not raised together, raised together then seperated, then back again. Tight quarters or lots of space, breed, ages. Jeeze. So many considerations. But I am learning so much. Thank you for contributing to this very interesting discourse and for your compassion about culling. It really sucked.

 

[ackie]

I guess it depends on ones definition of a squabble. Mine were outside free ranging on a quarter acre. They would not stop, neither would give in and the blood was copious.
Never going to let both flocks free range again.
I'm new and the longer I keep chickens, the more variables I become aware of. Males raised together, not raised together, raised together then seperated, then back again. Tight quarters or lots of space, breed, ages. Jeeze. So many considerations. But I am learning so much. Thank you for contributing to this very interesting discourse and for your compassion about culling. It really sucked.

I would draw the line at bleeding, yep