Bachelor Flock Problems

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I have 3 separate flocks that are close to each other but kept separated at all times. My bachelor Flock that consists of our 3 very first chickens (all cockerels) have always been together since hatch. They free range during the day and are locked up at dark. They were hatched mid May 2019. There are 2 Cream Legbar-Black Copper Maran crosses (one is the leader of the flock and the other is at the bottom of the flock order) and 1 Barred Plymouth Rock (obviously he is the middle guy). At some point today while they were free ranging unattended (like usual) the Barred Rock took a beating. I've looked him over the best I could and he has a very bloody comb and wattles and lost a patch of feathers behind his comb. They're just starting to get spurs and the 2 Marans crosses both had blood around their spurs. The low guy on the totem pole seems to be fed up with Le'Shawn (BR) and they've had a few fights since the major one that I missed. The head guy always jumps on Petey (Low Guy) even when Le'Shawn starts it, from what I witnessed tonight. It's obvious that Le'Shawn isn't 100% and I know he is MAD but he is still going at Petey if he just breathes wrong. The head guy is having to jump in to stop the fight because Le'Shawn can't finish what he starts this evening. They've never fought like this. Of course the lower two have had tiny spats and showed their hackles to each other but it's never resulted in any injury. In your experience, have you found that my guys will be able to get past this or is this the end of my peaceful Bachelor Flock? View attachment 1982237
This pictureddoes not show the extent of his wounds. Do the wounds I described sound like a cockerel fight? At first I thought it was another animal but the more I watched the 3 of them together and then getting to check him over up close made me think this was a fight between the boys. The head guy was trying to clean Le'Shawn up too, so I don't know that he was involved but he did have dried blood on his spurs. He's been a great (not perfect of course as he is still young and learning) guy leading the others and worries about the other flocks anytime he senses distress, even though he can't get to them but they're only separated by fencing. Any advice or suggestions? I guess I'm hoping that they will get past this with no human intervention, but I can't let this continue if they are going to be a threat to each other. Thank you for your time

We also have BCM x CCL and our cockerel, Gucci, looks just like yours! We got into chickens 1.5 yr ago as a fun mother daughter project. It’s also been a tremendous learning experience for both of us, especially as my DD wants to breed our own birds. We have Marek’s, so rehoming and sales of extra cockerels isn’t an option. I made DD a bachelor coop and pen for Christmas last year, giving her a place for her breeders/rooster pets. Even so, picking out which to keep and which to butcher has been very hard. We had two that hated each other but we managed to integrate them with a lot of time and “look don’t touch”. We then had six roos together. As soon as the head roo started to come down with Marek’s, his main rival promptly deposed him. We removed the sick roo and a whole chain of roo fights started from there, even though they had been together for months. The combs of the combatants looked like your pic. What we look for as a sign that we need to separate is that the winner won’t let the loser alone. No free ranging, so if the winner insists on continuing to chase the beaten roo then we have to remove either the winner or loser. It sounds to me like your roos are trying to work things out, but aren’t necessarily at the point where they must be separated. Within our limited experience, bachelor flocks are not very peaceful... Things may be more peaceful though if you can figure out which pair will really be calm together. Best of luck with your flock!

 

[NatJ]

This definitely shows me that it would be cruel and inhumane to attempt to add 3 more cockerels (2 silkies and 1 bantam cochin) to this unstable bachelor Flock. For now while I am still working out my options for all 6 boys, I will continue to keep a very close eye on them. Hopefully they'll work out their pecking order soon so they aren't all so miserable.

Adding the other roosters to this group: there's a chance it might help the situation rather than hurt it. It will certainly make them re-think the current pecking order, rather than just re-hashing it over and over.

(It might not work: you are certainly right to think hard before doing it. But it might be worth trying, under supervision, with the option to put them back in their old coop if it does not work.)

 

[cmom]

Whenever you add or subtract birds from a flock, it is always going to affect the pecking order.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Adding the other roosters to this group: there's a chance it might help the situation rather than hurt it. It will certainly make them re-think the current pecking order, rather than just re-hashing it over and over.

(It might not work: you are certainly right to think hard before doing it. But it might be worth trying, under supervision, with the option to put them back in their old coop if it does not work.)

Whenever you add or subtract birds from a flock, it is always going to affect the pecking order.

My concern about integrating the new boys is their small size. Two of them are Silkies and the other one is a Barred Cochin Bantam. The three boys in my existing bachelor flock are two Cream Legbar/Black Copper Marans crosses and the other is a Barred Rock. The bachelor flock guys could easily injure or I don't really know but I would guess the little guys could be killed. That's the only reason I am not acting on it already. Thoughts? I'd love to be wrong about this.

 

[NatJ]

My concern about integrating the new boys is their small size. Two of them are Silkies and the other one is a Barred Cochin Bantam. The three boys in my existing bachelor flock are two Cream Legbar/Black Copper Marans crosses and the other is a Barred Rock. The bachelor flock guys could easily injure or I don't really know but I would guess the little guys could be killed. That's the only reason I am not acting on it already. Thoughts? I'd love to be wrong about this.

I'd be inclined to pick a time when there's a person available to watch and intervene, then put them together and see what happens. But that's just me, having not actually seen any of them.

Are they in places where they can see each other? If not, maybe try putting them in adjacent spaces. They could start getting to know each other, and it might also distract the current trouble-maker, without endangering the little ones.

(I've seen stories of bantam roosters that bossed everyone else around, but it looks like yours are pretty docile breeds, so not too likely to try for the top role themselves.)

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

My concern about integrating the new boys is their small size. Two of them are Silkies and the other one is a Barred Cochin Bantam. The three boys in my existing bachelor flock are two Cream Legbar/Black Copper Marans crosses and the other is a Barred Rock. The bachelor flock guys could easily injure or I don't really know but I would guess the little guys could be killed. That's the only reason I am not acting on it already. Thoughts? I'd love to be wrong about this.

Can you do “Look but don’t touch” for 1-2 weeks, then intro while you are watching? I did integrate a 6 mo silkie cockerel with our big boys. We first integrated the silkie with a singleton BCM, then put several other roos with them in a new coop, so they were all in new territory. They fought but worked it out. Our next intro were Three 3 mo old cockerels. We built a “Rooster jail” (integration pen) into our run. New cockerels were placed in the integration run for a week, then released midday while we watched, fish net in hand. Our older roos were actually quite excited about the new cockerels and pretty nice to them, with lots of tidbitting. There have been some mounting attempts but not too bad. The silkie roo was one who got tidbitted and mounted by the BCM that he started out with, but they were mostly friends and the BCM looked out for the silkie also. Up to you of course how you want to work things out - you could also make a separate bantam bachelor pad.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I'd be inclined to pick a time when there's a person available to watch and intervene, then put them together and see what happens. But that's just me, having not actually seen any of them.

Are they in places where they can see each other? If not, maybe try putting them in adjacent spaces. They could start getting to know each other, and it might also distract the current trouble-maker, without endangering the little ones.

(I've seen stories of bantam roosters that bossed everyone else around, but it looks like yours are pretty docile breeds, so not too likely to try for the top role themselves.)

All of the chickens are visible to each other. The coops & runs are about 5ft apart from each other but side by side with nothing blocking any views. The Bachelor Flock free ranges everyday. As soon as they're let out, they'll spend maybe a minute dancing for the laying pullets that use their run but are always separated by fencing. Once they finish this, they're all at the baby flock coop and run. They spend A LOT of their day interacting with the baby boys. All 6 take each others warning calls seriously and they all crow back and forth when the big boys wander off, especially when they're out of sight. The smallest silkie cockerel is very dominating and tends to be the most difficult one for the baby pullets. I've noticed many times that the baby pullets will hang out in the henhouse or on the roosting bars, so that really screams to me that I've got to separate the boys, somehow someway, very soon.

Forgive me for going on and on. To answer your question, yes, they all know each other and interact daily.

I wonder how it would work if I brought the 3 little guys and the head guy from the bachelor flock inside my shop, so they were on neutral ground? If that went well, then introduce the next big guy and then the next, but keep it one at a time. If it went well, then introduce all 6 outside together? The 3 baby cockerels haven't free ranged yet, so hopefully that goes well. All 3 of the littles seem to get more nervous than the bigs. They have started biting my daughter and they're generally gentle with us. I could be wrong but I feel like they've got so much going on with their hormones that any little thing just pushes them over the edge to react poorly. Blue has put his beak on my shirt and lightly bit, but it was so light that I honestly think he had 2nd thoughts as soon as he did it. Of course this is all new to me, but I am working hard to nip bad behaviors from the beginning, even though I know this doesn't always work. I feel badly that the bigger boys have this aggression because I didn't handle the situation and raise them correctly. I know their hormones are crazy right now, so hopefully this introduction will be good for all 6 boys.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Can you do “Look but don’t touch” for 1-2 weeks, then intro while you are watching? I did integrate a 6 mo silkie cockerel with our big boys. We first integrated the silkie with a singleton BCM, then put several other roos with them in a new coop, so they were all in new territory. They fought but worked it out. Our next intro were Three 3 mo old cockerels. We built a “Rooster jail” (integration pen) into our run. New cockerels were placed in the integration run for a week, then released midday while we watched, fish net in hand. Our older roos were actually quite excited about the new cockerels and pretty nice to them, with lots of tidbitting. There have been some mounting attempts but not too bad. The silkie roo was one who got tidbitted and mounted by the BCM that he started out with, but they were mostly friends and the BCM looked out for the silkie also. Up to you of course how you want to work things out - you could also make a separate bantam bachelor pad.

I really like this! If I can figure out a way to separate the Little cockerels from the baby pullets right away, I'd love to do this. I am actually working on a new coop, but if I could rethink the new coop and run, I could possibly integrate the 5 laying pullets with the six- 17 & 18 week old pullets and move the 6 cockerels to a coop together. If that worked out, I'd have 2 flocks (and the ducks, but they're on the pond during day and have a duck house on the pond dam, so they're totally separate) & that'd be wonderful!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I really like this! If I can figure out a way to separate the Little cockerels from the baby pullets right away, I'd love to do this. I am actually working on a new coop, but if I could rethink the new coop and run, I could possibly integrate the 5 laying pullets with the six- 17 & 18 week old pullets and move the 6 cockerels to a coop together. If that worked out, I'd have 2 flocks (and the ducks, but they're on the pond during day and have a duck house on the pond dam, so they're totally separate) & that'd be wonderful!

Sounds like a plan! Best of luck convincing your guys to be besties!

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Sounds like a plan! Best of luck convincing your guys to be besties!

Thank you! I'm going to need all the luck I can get However it goes, I guess I can just make this my goal, or better yet a new year's resolution