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

[Roo5]

I wouldn’t keep a rooster with human aggression ever.Ive been around this block and have tried 5 or so roosters to about the same exact amount of hens you have, it just wasn’t gonna work.Too many hormones for one yard and 24 hens.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

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!

I just generally pen up the troublemaker where he can still interact through the fence. I have penned up roosters that get along long term. Sometimes they just need penning through the spring and into summer. If he's being human aggressive you may not wish to keep him.

I had one d'uccle rooster try attacking me one year. I put a stop to it by tossing my plastic feed scoop at him every time I saw him for about 2 months. He's now a mostly blind old man of 8 years, and is a sweet boy. Sometimes spring hormones makes roosters make poor decisions.

 

[Chickassan]

Agree, don't judge males on their springtime behavior doing so ensures you'll be making just as bad of decisions as your fella is.

I just generally pen up the troublemaker where he can still interact through the fence. I have penned up roosters that get along long term. Sometimes they just need penning through the spring and into summer. If he's being human aggressive you may not wish to keep him.

I had one d'uccle rooster try attacking me one year. I put a stop to it by tossing my plastic feed scoop at him every time I saw him for about 2 months. He's now a mostly blind old man of 8 years, and is a sweet boy. Sometimes spring hormones makes roosters make poor decisions.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

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.

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.

Breeding him might not be the best choice, seeing as his aggressiveness towards people and other roosters would likely be passed on to his offspring.

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!

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!

A bachelor pad could definitely decrease the fighting. Here's a link to an article about bachelor flocks: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/rooster-flocks.72998/. When the roos are separate from the hens they often don't fight as much because there's no hens to fight over. However, there are some roosters that are just too assertive even without hens.

 

[Cotton Hill Chick]

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.

They are lovely representations of the breed, at least I think so, without really knowing what the breed standards are. That's why DH wants to keep them, he says they are beautiful birds, and they are. Thanks for all the ideas to look for a new home should we go that route. First, I'm going to work with some holistic methods to see what happens... thanks a bunch for your ideas!

 

[Cotton Hill Chick]

Breeding him might not be the best choice, seeing as his aggressiveness towards people and other roosters would likely be passed on to his offspring.


A bachelor pad could definitely decrease the fighting. Here's a link to an article about bachelor flocks: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/rooster-flocks.72998/. When the roos are separate from the hens they often don't fight as much because there's no hens to fight over. However, there are some roosters that are just too assertive even without hens.

Thanks a bunch MROO, will definitely read this! And by the way, Maryland is my home state!

 

[WVduckchick]

One comment I'd like to add about bachelor flocks. In my experience, they work better if the males are added before they have a chance to mate a female at all. Once they've been allowed to mate a hen, I had a group that decided one of the young cockerels was going to be their "hen".... if you get my meaning.
When I've added new ones that have never mated, they have seemed to bond with the other males more easily. Just a thought....

 

[Cotton Hill Chick]

One comment I'd like to add about bachelor flocks. In my experience, they work better if the males are added before they have a chance to mate a female at all. Once they've been allowed to mate a hen, I had a group that decided one of the young cockerels was going to be their "hen".... if you get my meaning.
When I've added new ones that have never mated, they have seemed to bond with the other males more easily. Just a thought....

Oh boy yep I get your meaning... the twists and turns never end! All the boys in my flock have probably mated at this point, or at least tried. It's a hoot to see a small cochin on the back of a standard sized hen. He's trying to make it work, if you get my meaning, and she's walking around like, "what the heck are you DOING?" Thanks for the eye crosser! LOL

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Thanks a bunch MROO, will definitely read this! And by the way, Maryland is my home state!

I'm not @MROO

One comment I'd like to add about bachelor flocks. In my experience, they work better if the males are added before they have a chance to mate a female at all. Once they've been allowed to mate a hen, I had a group that decided one of the young cockerels was going to be their "hen".... if you get my meaning.
When I've added new ones that have never mated, they have seemed to bond with the other males more easily. Just a thought....

All the roosters I've had in my bachelor flock have been added after they've mated with a hen. There was one who would very occasionally mount another rooster, but he was quickly thrown off, and it was more of a sign of dominance.