Hello fellow chicken owners! This is my first post, so I hope I am putting it in the right place.
We have a flock of eight month old Buff Orpingtons, 12 hens and 2 roosters. They got along just fine all summer, when they had lots of space to range. We built them a new coop for the cold weather, and now with the snow they don't have as much space to move around. It was after this change that they started fighting. We used have a third rooster, but he was being picked on so much that we sold him. But now the two we have left are fighting. One rooster is really big, and he is keeping the other rooster away from the food. We have several times found the smaller rooster covered in blood. He is rapidly deteriorating, and we don't know what to do. We are loath to get rid of the healthier one in case the smaller one doesn't make it, but we also don't want to keep the mean rooster who will pass his mean traits on (we are planning on expanding the flock). We are also not sure if one rooster can take care, (in multiple senses,) of that many hens. They are both very friendly to people, they just can't deal with each other.
One option we have thought of is to separate the smaller one for a while, let him recover, and then build a separate coop for him and some of the hens. However, if there is a way to make them cohabit peacefully that would be ideal, as we are not keen to build another coop. And even if we did separate them, once they are free ranging in the summer, we don't know if they will start fighting again.
Has anyone been in a situation like this before?
Thanks for any help you can give!
The Brookins Family of Mulberry Hill
We have a flock of eight month old Buff Orpingtons, 12 hens and 2 roosters. They got along just fine all summer, when they had lots of space to range. We built them a new coop for the cold weather, and now with the snow they don't have as much space to move around. It was after this change that they started fighting. We used have a third rooster, but he was being picked on so much that we sold him. But now the two we have left are fighting. One rooster is really big, and he is keeping the other rooster away from the food. We have several times found the smaller rooster covered in blood. He is rapidly deteriorating, and we don't know what to do. We are loath to get rid of the healthier one in case the smaller one doesn't make it, but we also don't want to keep the mean rooster who will pass his mean traits on (we are planning on expanding the flock). We are also not sure if one rooster can take care, (in multiple senses,) of that many hens. They are both very friendly to people, they just can't deal with each other.
One option we have thought of is to separate the smaller one for a while, let him recover, and then build a separate coop for him and some of the hens. However, if there is a way to make them cohabit peacefully that would be ideal, as we are not keen to build another coop. And even if we did separate them, once they are free ranging in the summer, we don't know if they will start fighting again.
Has anyone been in a situation like this before?
Thanks for any help you can give!
The Brookins Family of Mulberry Hill
