Hi all, I`ve had my chickens about 6 months, I`m in Monroe, NY. 12 roosters about 13 hens, they are free ranging. I saw 1 or 2 skirmishes over this time but today there was all out murder!! They`re all fighting! By dusk, I had to carry about 4 of them into the coop, nearly dead, and there were a few more that were in pretty rough condition. I expect a few dead ones in the AM. I live in a rural area, the birds are relatively young, and there are about 8-9000 acres of state land alongside me so I was getting comfortable with their allowing space for each other, but today, BAM ! I hear from friends they will likely all kill each other because it is nearing mating season. 1 of the roosters beat up a hawk about 10 days ago, that seemed unusual but it made me happy. I lost a few birds also in this time, I suspect hawks among the predators. Please comment if you have experience with this in-fighting? thanks, J J
I avoided the worst of this type of behavior by letting the chickens establish tribes and for each tribe, providing their own coop. I was lucky having had some experience of tribal style groups from looking after chickens many years ago. I was also lucky in that the two breeds here, given the opportunity, chose to live with their own breed.
I've had a maximum of five tribes here, all with one or two roosters at some point.
I've had two fights to the death over the last decade. The roosters fight every day here. Mostly the fights are over quickly and are about territory.
If you are prepared to live with (note I don't use the word keep) a feral population who occupy your land then here it takes an acre of tribe territory per tribe roughly. Jungle fowl can lay claim to up to 4 acres per tribe.
So, that's the first thing, chickens are tribal not flock creatures. You can make them live in flocks but most feral populations have tribes within the flock.
If you have a mixture of breeds the problem is compounded.
A single breed flock may well produce a senior rooster or two with the juniors becoming satellite roosters who hang around the outskirts of the flock taking mating opportunities with those hens the senior rooster is unable of unwilling to protect.
At your current point I would suggest you read what you can find on jungle fowl behaviour.
For most people providing multiple coops isn't an option and the fighting unacceptable.
At that point you have to decide which roosters to keep. The chances of re-homing roosters is slim and what I and others do is kill and eat those we are unable to keep.
This brings up an interesting point. If you let the roosters decide who survives some will die in the fighting, if you decide, then you'll be killing them instead. Either way you end up with dead roosters.
If you are comfortable with a semi feral population then letting the roosters fight for senior position is likely to produce the best roosters for survival. It may not produce the best roosters for human interactions.
In my keeping circumstances I decide reluctantly, who lives. I can cope with the fighting and patch up the injuries when required. If I get to the positon of having to confine a rooster or cockerel then he gets eaten. I don't confine and reintegrate.
Some people keep rooster flocks and have a rooster or two with their hens. It's not something I would even consider but it is an option. You're then left with the same housing and ranging problem you have with any other group and that's adequate space for humane keeping. If you took say 9 of your roosters to keep contained that's a pretty large run at the minimum square footage currently recommended for chickens.
I would be very interested in how you go about dealing with this. I hope you'll keep this thread updated and provide some pictures and write down your observations.
If I can provide further useful information please feel free to tag me or send a Private Message.
I've provided a couple of links to articles I've written that may prove helpful.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/understanding-your-rooster.75056/https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/shadrach’s-multi-coops.74344/
I'm so sorry, that awful to experience.
