I've tried the pinless peepers on my roosters and they do not phase them one bit. The peepers do not obstruct their view so it's like they don't have them on at all. The peepers are put on correctly, so I'm at a loss as to what I should do next. Is there anything else that I can use to help my roosters not fight?
Fighting Roosters & Pinless Peepers
- Thread starter Lucy Luke
- Start date
Hi, welcome to the forum. Glad you joined.
How old are they, how much room do you have in the coop and the run, is there a particular place where they fight, does one try to run away, and how many other chickens do you have and their ages? Some people are able to keep more than one male with their flock but that can be harder with limited space. The more you tell us about your situation the more likely we will be able to help. We like photos of chickens and of your set-up.
What are your goals for those boys? Why do you want to keep them? The only reason you need a rooster is if you want fertile eggs. Anything else is personal preference. Nothing wrong with personal preference, that can be a strong motivator. I generally recommend you keep as few males as you can and still meet your goals. That's not because you are guaranteed more problems with more roosters but that problems are more likely. If we know why you want to keep both of them that might help us in finding a solution.
How old are they, how much room do you have in the coop and the run, is there a particular place where they fight, does one try to run away, and how many other chickens do you have and their ages? Some people are able to keep more than one male with their flock but that can be harder with limited space. The more you tell us about your situation the more likely we will be able to help. We like photos of chickens and of your set-up.
What are your goals for those boys? Why do you want to keep them? The only reason you need a rooster is if you want fertile eggs. Anything else is personal preference. Nothing wrong with personal preference, that can be a strong motivator. I generally recommend you keep as few males as you can and still meet your goals. That's not because you are guaranteed more problems with more roosters but that problems are more likely. If we know why you want to keep both of them that might help us in finding a solution.
- Thread starter
- #5
Five males, but only one is aggressive and I have plenty of hens. Our enclosure is 2,500 sq ft so they have plenty of room. My chickens are pets and I would hate to re-home some of them because I wouldn't want for them to be used for fighting. I can keep them separated but I know they're social animals and I feel bad leaving the aggressive one locked up while the others are out. Yes, I wear my heart on my sleeve and probably make for a bad chicken farmer.
5 roosters with plenty of hens now you might want to rethink wearing that heart there unless you are making sure you are removing every single egg. Just a matter of time before you end up with more boys. Even if you keep them as pets it's part of being a responsible owner to look out for the animals well being. If you have that much area you might want to look into separating it up into 5 mixed flocks or 2 same sex flocks far apart. You might look at them as pets but those guys only see each other as competition that needs to be eliminated when girls are around. As said roos only have one job. There are people that keep all rooster flocks as pets.
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- Thread starter
- #7
They have 2,500 sq ft of fenced space and four of the roosters are 5 months old, but my aggressor is almost a year old. The four 5 month old roosters get along great, hatched and grew up together. My chickens are pets and I love to watch them...I spend a lot of my time outside with them, to the point they run to me to be picked up. I want to keep them all, that is why I want to know if there is anything else I can use besides peepers. I can separate the aggressor, but then I feel bad because he desperately wants to get out and be with all of the other chickens. I know my wants and thoughts are not ideal when it comes to raising chickens, I was just hoping there may be something I can purchase or do so that I can keep them all.
- Thread starter
- #8
I'm removing every egg now, I can't add to the flock...I have 32 total right now.
You are wishing. Wishing they would all be nice and get along. The problem as I see it, is the young boys are coming into their own, and giving that old feller some competition. The old boy is not in favor of this, hence the fighting. And fighting is rather unpredictable, it can solve itself, it can be a fight, wait, fight again, or it can get real ugly and fight to the death.
With your heart on your sleeve, you are not going to like the last option, and really I don't think you like the situation that you have now, and to be honest, all this fighting adds to the stress of your flock and is probably upsetting your hens. If you leave it as is, it is probably get worse, and maybe get better the older they get, but it could get pretty violent.
I also think that if you pull the old boy, the younger boys are going to start fighting. Being raised together does not really help with roosters. I am recommending you let go of 4 of these boys, and keep the old flock master and one boy. That might give you some peace in the flock. I always solve for peace in the flock, I don't like fighting birds, and really what is the difference if you have fighting birds in a ring and people paying to watch verses fighting birds in a flock and no one watches.
Now in the years to come, you probably can let more roosters be in your set up. You do have space. And with well established multi-generational flock, they develop a true chicken society and work out multiple males. However this really develops over years, hence people with long established flocks seldom have trouble with roosters.
I know this is not what you want to hear. But really roosters are where the romance of chickens meets reality of intact males as AARt is fond of saying. Good husbandry is about taking good care of the animals you have and making decision for the flock.
Mrs K
With your heart on your sleeve, you are not going to like the last option, and really I don't think you like the situation that you have now, and to be honest, all this fighting adds to the stress of your flock and is probably upsetting your hens. If you leave it as is, it is probably get worse, and maybe get better the older they get, but it could get pretty violent.
I also think that if you pull the old boy, the younger boys are going to start fighting. Being raised together does not really help with roosters. I am recommending you let go of 4 of these boys, and keep the old flock master and one boy. That might give you some peace in the flock. I always solve for peace in the flock, I don't like fighting birds, and really what is the difference if you have fighting birds in a ring and people paying to watch verses fighting birds in a flock and no one watches.
Now in the years to come, you probably can let more roosters be in your set up. You do have space. And with well established multi-generational flock, they develop a true chicken society and work out multiple males. However this really develops over years, hence people with long established flocks seldom have trouble with roosters.
I know this is not what you want to hear. But really roosters are where the romance of chickens meets reality of intact males as AARt is fond of saying. Good husbandry is about taking good care of the animals you have and making decision for the flock.
Mrs K
If you do not allow a hen to incubate eggs they will not hatch. It's still a good idea to gather the eggs daily. Eggs left out overnight are an invitation to egg eating predators. But unless they are incubated they will not hatch.
You do not have five roosters. You have one rooster and four cockerels. I don't know what kind of aggression you are seeing. Typically my dominant roosters stop my cockerels from harassing and trying to mate the hens. They typically don't bother the cockerels when they are harassing pullets their own age but they do take care of their mature hens.
What are you seeing that you call aggression? What I typically see is that the cockerels run away when the rooster approaches. There may be some chasing but that's just to run them away. He's not likely to catch them.
At five months those boys are going through puberty. They have sorted out which of them is dominant. Sometimes that involves serious fighting, but often it's more intimidation. Sometimes you don't even notice, it's that subtle, especially when they have a lot of room. But they know which is boss. You may see some fighting between them as they continue to mature but then you may not. At least for quite a while.
Those cockerels continue to run away from the dominant rooster until one matures enough to try to take over as flock master. That could be a pretty good fight or series of fights. Either one could win. If those boys are not bothering the pullets their age yet you could see a big increase in that type of aggression pretty soon. That may stir you into action faster than the interaction between the dominant rooster and those cockerels. I'd think about isolating them, not the dominant rooster.
You want to keep them because you want to keep them. Fair enough. You have several options. My first suggestion is to prepare a pen where you can isolate those boys on a minutes notice if you decide you need to. Sometimes that need hits with little warning. Be prepared. Many people in your situation use a bachelor pad. That's a coop and run where you keep the boys together with no girls to fight over. I would build that place to isolate them with that in mind.
You can keep going as you are. Base what you do on what you see. It's unlikely but possible they will work things out. There is a lot of wishful thinking in that but at least it is possible. It may be necessary for things to go really bad for you to accept that it is a good decision to isolate them. Trust what you see instead of what some stranger over the internet like me or Mrs K tells you. I will mention Mrs K has experience to back up her suggestions.
If you deem it necessary to separate them you could move all four boys into that bachelor pad at the same time. I would, less disruption overall. Or you can try moving them in as you see them causing trouble or being in danger. That's more likely to cause them to fight each other when you add a new one but they might work it out. Give them plenty of room.
You can try all sorts of combinations, you may hit on something that works. But if you just want them because you want them, a bachelor pad is probably the simplest way to go about that.
You do not have five roosters. You have one rooster and four cockerels. I don't know what kind of aggression you are seeing. Typically my dominant roosters stop my cockerels from harassing and trying to mate the hens. They typically don't bother the cockerels when they are harassing pullets their own age but they do take care of their mature hens.
What are you seeing that you call aggression? What I typically see is that the cockerels run away when the rooster approaches. There may be some chasing but that's just to run them away. He's not likely to catch them.
At five months those boys are going through puberty. They have sorted out which of them is dominant. Sometimes that involves serious fighting, but often it's more intimidation. Sometimes you don't even notice, it's that subtle, especially when they have a lot of room. But they know which is boss. You may see some fighting between them as they continue to mature but then you may not. At least for quite a while.
Those cockerels continue to run away from the dominant rooster until one matures enough to try to take over as flock master. That could be a pretty good fight or series of fights. Either one could win. If those boys are not bothering the pullets their age yet you could see a big increase in that type of aggression pretty soon. That may stir you into action faster than the interaction between the dominant rooster and those cockerels. I'd think about isolating them, not the dominant rooster.
You want to keep them because you want to keep them. Fair enough. You have several options. My first suggestion is to prepare a pen where you can isolate those boys on a minutes notice if you decide you need to. Sometimes that need hits with little warning. Be prepared. Many people in your situation use a bachelor pad. That's a coop and run where you keep the boys together with no girls to fight over. I would build that place to isolate them with that in mind.
You can keep going as you are. Base what you do on what you see. It's unlikely but possible they will work things out. There is a lot of wishful thinking in that but at least it is possible. It may be necessary for things to go really bad for you to accept that it is a good decision to isolate them. Trust what you see instead of what some stranger over the internet like me or Mrs K tells you. I will mention Mrs K has experience to back up her suggestions.
If you deem it necessary to separate them you could move all four boys into that bachelor pad at the same time. I would, less disruption overall. Or you can try moving them in as you see them causing trouble or being in danger. That's more likely to cause them to fight each other when you add a new one but they might work it out. Give them plenty of room.
You can try all sorts of combinations, you may hit on something that works. But if you just want them because you want them, a bachelor pad is probably the simplest way to go about that.
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