Fighting!

[AlbionWood]

We have one Narragansett hen, one BR hen, and two Rio Grande Wild hens; all hatched mid-May, though I think the Narragansett may be about a week older than the others. They've been fine all along, but today all of a sudden the Narragansett started fighting with the BRs. At first I think she was fighting with the BR hen, but by the time we got in there to break it up, it was her and the BR tom, grabbing each other by the throat-wattles, really going at it. My wife broke them up and got severley pecked for it. Then all three birds started doing the tom display - wings down, tail out, feathers fluffed, the whole deal, even though two of them are hens!

We separated them and put the Narragansett in with the chickens, which are in the adjacent run, just a deer fence between them. They kept up the fight through the fence for a while, then finally broke it off and the Narr spent the rest of the day moping around and occasionally pecking a chicken.

I tried putting her back in late in the day but she went right after the tom again and he grabbed her by the throat... so back into the chicken yard she went.

We were gone over the weekend so they may have started this a day or so ago. Last night when we got back the Narr was roosting in a different place than before, so we wondered what was up.

So is this a hormonal change that will pass quickly, so they can be put back together, or do I need to keep these birds separated for a while? It seems like they can do real damage, so I'm reluctant to just let them work it out.

 

[arabianequine]

I have one Narragansett tom and 2 hen Narragansett they seem to do very well together....no problems that I am aware of now all are 1 1/2 years old. Sorry about the problems. I would just separate them like you did but I am sure there is a pecking order no matter what kind of bird.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

if you don't let them sort it out you will not be able to keep them in the same pen. They are setting up a pecking order and when you seperate then they will start over from square one.

Steve

 

[AlbionWood]

We kept the Narr in the adjacent chicken run for most of the next day, then put her back in at dusk when the others were getting on the roost. She jumped up next to the BR hen, who started pecking her pretty hard, but instead of fighting the Narr just stuck her head under the BR's belly! Pretty funny-looking. The BR kept moving sideways so she could peck at the Narr some more, then the Narr would cram herself up against the BR and shove her head under... eventually the Narr ended up on another part of the roost, slightly below the BR, and they all went to sleep. Next morning there was a little more abuse from the BRs, but this time the Narr just took it without fighting back. By middday all was calm and they've been fine since.

 

[doubleostud]

Sounds like normal fighting. Normally a few times a year I will have my toms start fighting to see who is top. Its not uncommon at least in my experience for these to last quite a while and also be very brutal. Normally at least one or two will have trashed feathers, bloody snoods and look like they have been ran over a few times. Like Steve said it happens, and I also made the mistake of trying to seperate when I first got into raising turkeys and it never did any good, after I got sick of always seperating I just let it play out and it all worked out just fine.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

I noticed our Beltsville hens were going at it yesterday, they are reworking out the pecking order for breeding season.

Steve

 

[thaiturkey]

Every change to our flock, including growth in size, seems to start then off. I don't like it but we are learning to let them get on with it. The stags seem to have found a compromise arrangement when it comes to getting their leg over and, for the last few days, they have tended to be voyeurs rather than push the lucky guy of his current girl.