chicken standoff?

[chickies49]

I have got 5 11 week old chicks. I have started to see 2 chicks staring at each other there neck feathers all puffed and they seem to be fighting. can anyone tell me what there doing?

thanks.

 

[EggPlanter]

Are they both roosters? My guess is they are establishing the pecking order which is normal in the chicken world. If they are two roosters they may be fighting to be the dominant one of the flock and could possibly fight to the death, but that is very rare especially for young chicks. I would watch them and make sure the aren't hurting each other seriously (drawing blood), but otherwise it sounds like they are just establishing the pecking order which is very normal.

 

[Peeps61]

I've had several flocks of all pullets that I raised from chicks. Without exception, there was always some posturing and play fighting with the little ones as they began to grow. It's a simple establishing of the pecking order. As long as they aren't hurting each other, let them work it out.

If they should happen to be roosters, you will need to add more hens or get rid of one of them as 9 hens would not be enough for two roosters.

I have two roosters with 32 hens. They don't fight each other at all and run around together, in fact, since they were raised together. They both mate the hens and manage the flock - the one with the cushion comb is the dominant one, and the one with the straight comb is the junior rooster. He follows the senior guy around and when he mates a hen, the junior guy tries to jump on too! It's funny to watch because the hen usually runs away from both of them. I'm waiting for the senior guy to whip up on the junior guy for doing that, but it hasn't happened yet. They're still young - they were hatched in July of this year. They are white leghorn/buff laced polish crosses.