How do I divide them up? Rooster & Rooster or Boy & Girl Cochins

[Rainbow Advaya]

I have two roosters who just started fighting. They are only 6 weeks old and are both bantams. I believe one is an OEGB and the other is a white Cochin bantam. The Cochin (though slightly bigger) is definitely losing and he has blood around his bottom eyelid

All together I have 13 chickens, and so far only two are roosters. Of my flock, ten were purchased as pullets and three were straight run bantams. So only the third bantam Cochin is unknown, but I'm almost positive she's a pullet. I have a large coop that the majority of the chickens will go into. I have a large doghouse I was going to use to house ducks as an overnight shelter, and was told it'd fit three ducks comfortably. I don't know the square footage but it'd hold at least two chickens no problem.

My question:

Do I divide the flock up by throwing the two roosters together and taking them away from the ladies? I've heard that stops fighting. I'm surprised this is going on this early though, either way.

Do I take out the Cochin rooster and put it in the doghouse with the Cochin hen? Would one rooster and one hen get along okay, or do I need more hens? If I need more than one hen I can easily add more from the big coop into the smaller one, but I still only have one bantam hen.

(I'm sorry if this double posts, I'm in a thunderstorm and our internet is going out)

 

[Rainbow Advaya]

No one? I had the offending roo-baby in a cat carrier serving some time out. I've since put him back with the others and almost immediately some fighting started, but it seems to be peaceful at the moment. I'm combining both my flocks tomorrow if I'm able, so I need to know what the best course of action concerning dividing up th roosters would be. Put them together, away from the ladies or put the roo and hen cochin together and let the other rooster live with the other ten ladies in the main coop.

 

[cicene mete]

I'll take a stab at this. The answer, in part, depends on the personalities of the roosters. A lot of times, keeping all the roosters together stops the fighting. I was at a farm just the other day that has only roosters, and they seem to get along just fine. However, with your roosters fighting at such a young age, it's hard to know if removing the girls would solve the problem. My guess is that it would not, and that sure OEGB is not going to tolerate other roosters. If it were me, I would separate out the Cochins. You might think of adding another couple of hens at some point, but it should be okay for right now.

 

[Rainbow Advaya]

I tried separating just the roosters and putting them in a cat carrier on the other side of the room. They were in the middle of fighting when I moved them, so I probably should have waited a bit to see if they stopped but they were really going at each other so I took out the Cochin and put him back with the pullets and all was well. The Cochin rooster gets along with everyone and doesn't seem to be the instigator in these fights, and I have seen the OEGB fighting even with what I can only assume is a pullet (she was in the assorted pullet bin), so I worry he is just unfriendly towards the other chickens either way. I might just have to take him out, although I liked the idea of the Cochin pair separate since no one would be alone. The OEGB looks so lonely in the cat carrier by himself

, he just sits there in his food bowl and peeps. It's unfortunate, because when he's not fighting (which is not that often to be honest), he's cuddling up with everyone and sleeping with his head on someone. It's one extreme or the other.

If he becomes aggressive towards us then it's a different situation, but at this point he's a complete sweetheart to us. I have a feeling he's going to be a gorgeous rooster, and he's so tiny that I can't justify killing him for meat. I am sure he'll grow up quite a bit, but from the looks of him at this point, I have a feeling he'll always be a rather tiny chicken. Maybe he has little man complex

 

[laughaha]

Is this just dominance fighting or to the death fighting? They will establish dominance at a young age. Are you breaking up every fight so dominance is never established? Is there enough room for the loser to run away from the winner? My suggestion would be to either permanently separate them or allow the oegb to establish dominance. I would suggest putting lots of hiding places in the pen for the loser (my girls love to take a break from the roos in them too). I broke down 2 large plastic doghouses and have 4 "hidey holes" in my pen in addition to the coop. This seems to work well for us. We have 4 roos in the same pen at the moment- Red Bantam Cochin, Black Bantam Cochin, Cuckoo Marans, RSL roo who is faster than streaked lightening. The red Cochin is by far the dominant one. We have minor spats but never any real fighting once dominance was established.