Help! Rooster fight! Re-home one? What to do?

[Cotton Hill Chick]

So you bought bossy boots and a hen as a pair.
1. You can sell them or rehome them as a pair
2. Make them their own coop and run and raise little MF chicks.
3. Freezer camp the roo and keep the female
Thing is Roo's will challenge for top spot, so it's going to happen, with 5 roo's I'm surprised you haven't had more incidents. Then again maybe you have and just didn't see it.

Good morning! Thanks for your reply. I'm considering #'s 1 and 2 you mentioned... more likely to be able to find a good situation for bossy roo if he goes with his hen. When I started with chickens last year, I just wanted 3 hens for eggs! LOL! Chicken math I guess, and a couple roo's we thought were hens crowed a few weeks after purchase. Unfortunately I'm too much of a moosh to send anybody to freezer camp myself, but understand that option as a solution for others who can do it. It's VERY possible I haven't seen previous incidents until this bloody one: I have seen plenty of chasing around, a bit of fluffing and jumping up and down at each other. This I can tolerate! So likely headed for option #1... DH would prefer option #2... sigh.

 

[Cotton Hill Chick]

If they were mine, I would either separate them from the main flock or find them a new home - letting the new owners know that he is human aggressive.

Hi thanks for you reply. On the day of the attack, DH and I caught bossy roo and he spent the night in a cat carrier inside a new used coop. Boy was he pissed about that. The next day I let him out into the coop interior, after the hens that roost there went outside, so he spent yesterday in solitary confinement (with plenty of food and water of course). Last night, back into the cat carrier while the hens roosted. He's out with the flock today, I"m cautiously watching. Interestingly, things are pretty calm. And, the main coop was MUCH more calm this morning without him in it! So we'll tiptoe through the tulips here while we sort out his fate... if he's re-homed, he will go with full disclosure. Fingers crossed for a happy ending.

 

[Ebony Rose]

Definitely thinking of re-homing the bossy one... DH however would prefer to keep.

Well, how about a compromise in the meantime, while you make your final decision and try a few adjustments first... How about you home your bossy dude and his wife separately, out of sight of the others in the flock, seriously, out of sight... leave them that way for a 10 days to 2 weeks... Afterwards, move them back into sight of the flock to reintegrate them "look, don't touch" method for a week, then reintegrate into the flock and see if that doesn't better adjust the pecking order of your flock.

 

[Cotton Hill Chick]

X2!
If you have a pecking order with your five roosters (and it sounds like you do,) then you've had fights. This was just a particularly volatile one. It is, unfortunately, what roosters do. Your best bet is to separate your flock into three smaller ones. Two roosters per 11-12 hens (still a bit high, bit do-able if the boys get along) and a separate coop for the Mille Fleur pair, out of sight of the others. There's no guarantee that this would stop the jockeying for position, but it would minimize the damage they could do to each other.
Good Luck!

Good morning! Thanks for your reply. You are right, there's a rooster pecking order (of course) and I've seen plenty of rooster chases, jumping up and down and fluffing at each other. THAT I can tolerate... it's the bloody attacks I have to draw the line. I like your idea of separating the flocks, yet can't quite wrap my brain around how to do that, but will reflect on it. Makes sense! The reason I have so many chickens is because I added hens to try to make up for the two "surprise" roosters that we thought were hens! The remaining roosters (2 cochins, 2 silkies) are not aggressive towards me, can be picked up and held to varying degrees, and their hierarchy activities amount to chasing and jumping... tolerable! So, fingers crossed to sort this out for the best.

 

[Cotton Hill Chick]

Well, how about a compromise in the meantime, while you make your final decision and try a few adjustments first... How about you home your bossy dude and his wife separately, out of sight of the others in the flock, seriously, out of sight... leave them that way for a 10 days to 2 weeks... Afterwards, move them back into sight of the flock to reintegrate them "look, don't touch" method for a week, then reintegrate into the flock and see if that doesn't better adjust the pecking order of your flock.

I like the idea, but have environmental considerations... we don't have much flat land to work with, and what's flat gets squishy after rain due to clay soils... we did purchase two of those Omelet type things that could house bossy roo and his hen... it's just sorting out where to put them. We keep the two current coops in electric fencing for the night (electric off during the day, but the chickens stay inside the fencing due to many predators here in our rural location). SO... all that said, I like your suggestion, just have to wrangle through the details here!

 

[MROO]

Good morning! Thanks for your reply. You are right, there's a rooster pecking order (of course) and I've seen plenty of rooster chases, jumping up and down and fluffing at each other. THAT I can tolerate... it's the bloody attacks I have to draw the line. I like your idea of separating the flocks, yet can't quite wrap my brain around how to do that, but will reflect on it. Makes sense! The reason I have so many chickens is because I added hens to try to make up for the two "surprise" roosters that we thought were hens! The remaining roosters (2 cochins, 2 silkies) are not aggressive towards me, can be picked up and held to varying degrees, and their hierarchy activities amount to chasing and jumping... tolerable! So, fingers crossed to sort this out for the best.

If the other roos get along, have you considered a "Bachelor Flock?" I have six together in their own coop & run - a large Silkie. a small OEGB and four Nankin roosters. They are the prettiest, most entertaining birds in my flock!

 

[Cotton Hill Chick]

My bantam roosters fight every spring. They are more scrappy than my standard roosters. I generally let mine fight it out. Can yours get away? Are they confined to a run?

Sometimes a rooster does need to be removed. I sometimes will pen up young roosters their first spring. They are always so hormonal. Usually after June or July I can release them again, but my flock isn't confined.

Hi thanks for your reply! My flock is kept inside a fair-sized run (sorry I don't have dimensions). What I witnessed was bossy roo chasing a Silkie roo and a Cochin roo around behind our new large used coop. I went round the other way to see only bossy roo; the other two were hiding under the large coop! So yes, they can run and get away. We need to confine them to the run, as we've lost chickens to predators here in our rural location. We're planning to expand the electric fencing to give them more room soon.

You mention penning up your roosters... Does that eliminate the fighting because they are away from the hens? Do they just hang out together? I'm curious about that... I'd think to put all the boys together might increase the fighting!

 

[Cotton Hill Chick]

If the other roos get along, have you considered a "Bachelor Flock?" I have six together in their own coop & run - a large Silkie. a small OEGB and four Nankin roosters. They are the prettiest, most entertaining birds in my flock!

Hi MROO, another Backyard Chickens friend suggested separating the boys too. Can you tell me more about how you created your bachelor flock? When the boys are all together, does the hierarchical fighting stop? How big is your coop, and big is their run? This might be a better option for me than separating bossy roo and his hen right now; I have a smaller coop most of the birds LOVE, and a new used large coop that none of them like (I'll post about THAT separately! LOL). Perhaps the small coop could transition to boys and the large one to the girls...

So if you would, please let me know about your "Bachelor Pad" arrangements!

 

[Acre4Me]

Thanks for your reply. I'd likely try to re-home him with someone who could keep him and his hen separate for breeding... that's not what I want to do, but if I'm lucky I may find that situation for him.

You might be able to do that, particularly if they are nice representations of their breed. Some kids in 4-H need some fancy chickens to show at fair, and for many states this is a good time to get rid of them. Be honest about the males tendencies, of course. There should be a county 4-H office you could call to see if they may know of anyone interested in showing chickens.

We had some unwanted males and some pullets that we ended up selling at a livestock auction. We just googled "livestock auction near me" and came up with some choices. We took the males we didn't want and put them each in individual cages that were to be sold with them, and then put 6 pullets between two other cages. We made cages out of cardboard boxes that were cut down for viewing+chicken wire+zip ties.

Our next choice was going to be to post on the community board at feed store. Alternatives to this are fb or CL.

Good luck.

 

[MROO]

Hi MROO, another Backyard Chickens friend suggested separating the boys too. Can you tell me more about how you created your bachelor flock? When the boys are all together, does the hierarchical fighting stop? How big is your coop, and big is their run? This might be a better option for me than separating bossy roo and his hen right now; I have a smaller coop most of the birds LOVE, and a new used large coop that none of them like (I'll post about THAT separately! LOL). Perhaps the small coop could transition to boys and the large one to the girls...

So if you would, please let me know about your "Bachelor Pad" arrangements!

I have two wooden playhouse set-ups in my back yard. They are set up about two feet from each other. One is a full playhouse, with a house, windows and a roof. The other is an open platform. They are connected with a two-foot "porch" that makes it a single playground. My kids LOVED it, growing up, but now that they're (far!) beyond that stage, it was gathering dust and junk. Enter the chickens! The playhouse is my main coop. There are currently two Nankin roosters and five hens in residence. It also gets my rabbit-hutch broody cage when we need it.

The lower parts of both playhouses are covered with hardware cloth. There is a removable HWC panel in between them, so I can separate the runs, when needed. There is a separate coop box attached to the one under the main playhouse. There's a large, open dog box in the other. "The Boys" share the lower run and coop boxes, usually very nicely, although with the advent of Spring hormones, I've had to separate the Nankins from the other two - they're the low-men-on-the-totem-pole and were getting pushed around a bit too much for my liking. They can all see each other and share a feeder, but the skirmishes are over ... for now! They'll go back together in a few weeks, once the hormones and the weather settle down again.

I really need to make a coop page - but I absolutely refuse to post pictures until DD finishes cleaning up the yard!

Can you figure out what your chickens don't like about the used coop? Is it too dark? Difficult to access? Something is spooking them out of it. If you can figure out the cause, you'll have another set-up to play with!