help- roosters fighting

[kelzey]

i knew this day would come, but now that it’s here i have no idea what to do. my boys (robbie and ronnie) grew up together. i got them in september when they were day old chicks and i, not surprisingly, got two roosters out of the two chicks i bought.

they were fine yesterday- some fighting as usual but not very much and it wasn’t very intense. but this morning i went outside in their coop (separate from my three girls) and found bloody combs, which is a first. and all morning they have been fighting! so i separated them and they sound so stressed. they can’t see eachother anymore so i thought it would be a bit better, but they are being more vocal than usual.

ever since they were young they were so bonded and hated being apart. my whole plan was to get robbie used to my girls (and vice versa) so that he could move in with them soon, and ronnie would be given to my uncle. but now that this happened, i’m not sure what to do- i can’t keep them together because i don’t want them to fight.

does anyone have any advice for my situation?

 

[kelzey]

need help as soon as possible

 

[JustAChickenLoverOverHere]

I don't think there is much you could do. Is the coop where you kept both of them in sight of the hens?

 

[kelzey]

I don't think there is much you could do. Is the coop where you kept both of them in sight of the hens?

no, they are completely separate. there’s absolutely nothing i can do?

 

[Mrs. K]

How old are they, and why are you waiting to put one in with the pullets. Are they not laying yet?

There really is no way to keep them from fighting unless they are just not together. Some will even fight through a fence.

Being raised together has no influence on how roosters get along. Once they start fighting, they often won't quit. So no, there really is nothing you can do to keep things as they were yesterday.

 

[50-45-1]

Fact of raising chickens.
They do not think or feel like us.
They have dinosaur brains. They dont recognize there brother or mother like we do. Roosters compete over hens. You may be better off rehoming both of them. If you keep one and put him with your pullets there can be problems with so few. They may get over breed and loose feathers. It just depends on the rooster, his technique and if he is a gentlemen. Most young cockrels are jerks in my experience.
In a hen free environment your young roosters might get along, but not when hens are present and they can see them.
Do you really want or need a rooster?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Six months old, that's actually a bit late in my opinion, but maybe your length of days up that far north helps explain it. As the days get longer the hormones heat up. Sometimes keeping two boys can work out, especially with lots of room, but sometimes it just doesn't.

So what are your options? You can keep them physically apart, now and forever, or at least until you give one to your uncle. You can try putting one in with your girls and isolate the other. It sounds like you don't have the boys with the girls yet. That might work out or he may become too rough with the girls. You never know until you try.

You can keep the boy isolated until they and the girls are a bunch older, assuming the girls are the same age, then try putting one with the girls. Once they hit a certain level of maturity a boy and girls usually calm down a lot, but while they are an immature cockerel and immature pullets they often don't behave like adults.

If you really wat a boy with your girls concentrate on that and keep the other boy isolated form them all until you can give him to your uncle. You may worry that he will be so sad by himself. Is that worse than being dead?

 

[kelzey]

Six months old, that's actually a bit late in my opinion, but maybe your length of days up that far north helps explain it. As the days get longer the hormones heat up. Sometimes keeping two boys can work out, especially with lots of room, but sometimes it just doesn't.

So what are your options? You can keep them physically apart, now and forever, or at least until you give one to your uncle. You can try putting one in with your girls and isolate the other. It sounds like you don't have the boys with the girls yet. That might work out or he may become too rough with the girls. You never know until you try.

You can keep the boy isolated until they and the girls are a bunch older, assuming the girls are the same age, then try putting one with the girls. Once they hit a certain level of maturity a boy and girls usually calm down a lot, but while they are an immature cockerel and immature pullets they often don't behave like adults.

If you really wat a boy with your girls concentrate on that and keep the other boy isolated form them all until you can give him to your uncle. You may worry that he will be so sad by himself. Is that worse than being dead?

i completely understand what you mean, and the absolute main reason that i want to keep at least one of them is because i’ve grown very attached to them. my girls are older- they will be a year old somewhere in the beginning of may, i’m pretty sure.

it’s probably my own fault that they fight, because they have been around the girls ever since they’ve been like 6/7 weeks old. when i’m outside i let my girls free roam and i keep the boys in a large dog exercise pen, but lately i’ve been just letting them out with the girls while i supervise because i figured that would help them get used to eachother. i knew all along that i would eventually have to rehome one (if not both) of them.

im still pretty new to chicken keeping, so i’m sure i’ve made some mistakes with this. but i’m willing to learn from them.

i’m going to take your advice and keep them separated until my uncle can take one of them, and focus on getting robbie used to my girls. he already gets along with them pretty good- and someone said above about my girls maybe getting over bred, but i’m not too worried about that because i also plan on adding some more pullets to my flock eventually to balance everything out a bit better, maybe 5-6 more because i have the space for that plus more in my coop.

thank you for the help! i have lots of things to think about. here’s a picture of robbie wearing a tie