Help Me With My Rooster Problem :(

[chickenlover5001]

Hi.

I have 16 chickens. 3 of them are roosters. All the hens are Australorps. 2 of the roosters are bantams. (one is d'Uccle Mille Fleur, other bantam is a black Cochin) The other rooster is a Big black Cochin. All of our chickens where together since they where 3 days old. They have always gotten along until about a week ago. They started fighting right about that time. They have been fighting daily and it's never been serious up until yesterday. They where all bleeding badly, and so I washed them up and separated them. We have 2 good size runs for them. During the day, I've been putting one rooster in each pen, and the other stays in the coop. At night they don't see each other so they don't fight. But during winter, they all have to stay inside all day. That's coming up fast. Plus I've been going through many swaps during the day so the ladies can get in to lay their eggs. This won't work for much longer, but I can't bear to see any rooster go. I have so many memories with them. They are all very sweet when they are not around other hens or roosters. Please help. Is there some kinda medicine you can give them to decrease their desire to fight? Like how catnip is for cats? I probably sound ridiculous but I'm willing to try anything in order to keep my roosters. Please help me.

~Rachel

PS: please don't suggest culling if your trying to be helpful.

 

[ramirezframing]

Make a small pen for each banty roo to be by himself and leave the big roo with the ladies.

 

[cmom]

I really don't have any suggestions for you. I made 2 of my coops into duplexes and put one boy on each side with some girls.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Agreed!

 

[Kassaundra]

I don't have any experience b/c I just have one rooster, but I have read that the boys likely won't fight if there is no female to fight over, so you could probably do a "bachlor pen" for the two small roos, as long as it is away from the girls. If you leave them all together I'm afraid your big roo will kill your smaller ones. (Since you said the fighting is escalating) oh and

 

[chickenlover5001]

Hey thanks guys. I suppose it would be okay to put them in different pens since our coop is pretty big, but then we would have to take them out of their pens everyday, and put them in the run. (the 1st run is connected to the coop, the 2nd run is connected to the 1st run.)
And we have room enough for all our chicks (like 10x10 size shed we turned into a coop) but it's hardley enough room for separate pens. Plus if we had them in pens, they would have to stay in them all winter. We also go to FL for a few weeks during winter, so I don't think my parents want to make things to complicated for the sitters.

 

[Beekissed]

And a light must dawn....sometimes when raising animals of this nature, some hard choices must be faced and obstacles overcome.

 

[cmom]

I have had roos that fought and some that live together peacefully. What part of Florida do you go to? I live in Florida. Just curious.

 

[chickenlover5001]

Um we will probably be in Sarasota at a trailer park called Sun N Fun for most of time we are there.

 

[MamaMarcy]

My bantam roo, Batman, kept getting a bloody comb and the last time I brought him in for his bath in the bathroom sink I noticed his right side was GREEN (bruising) so I put him in our small coop to heal. We thought the muscovy drakes that share a coop were beating him up. Turns our our Marylou is a Merry Mr Lou and was the culprit. So, we've left Batman in the smaller coop with our teenage hatchlings and plan to just keep them in spearate coops/runs. We do tlet them free range together, and they've done fine, although they do seem to power struggle a bit when the hens are with them.