INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[ChickCrazed]

Thank you all for the well wishes on poor Harris. What a terrible way to go! Someone has very kindly offered to "take care" of the mean rooster. It will be a huge relief to see him go. The whole thing has made me worry for Heiser since I have a young dark cornish/CCL rooster that has grown up in the mixed flock under Heiser (I combined the two flocks for winter when the young boy was super young). I worry he might decide to challenge Heiser and I can't stand the thought of something like this happening to my gorgeous sweet Bielie boy! Should I be concerned or was this a fluke? Has anyone had anything like this happen before between roosters? Is this sort of extreme violence normal?

 

[chickiebaby1]

Thank you all for the well wishes on poor Harris. What a terrible way to go! Someone has very kindly offered to "take care" of the mean rooster. It will be a huge relief to see him go. The whole thing has made me worry for Heiser since I have a young dark cornish/CCL rooster that has grown up in the mixed flock under Heiser (I combined the two flocks for winter when the young boy was super young). I worry he might decide to challenge Heiser and I can't stand the thought of something like this happening to my gorgeous sweet Bielie boy! Should I be concerned or was this a fluke? Has anyone had anything like this happen before between roosters? Is this sort of extreme violence normal?

I can't say whether it was a fluke or not, but I do know that I have 4 roosters together right now in my "winter" coop/flock and things are very strained I guess you could say. 2 of the roosters have been together pretty much since they hatched and they get along to a certain point. One is definitely top roo while the other seems to know his place, but he does try to get in the mix of things on occasion. The other 2 were very young when I put them with the rest of the group ( actually I thought they were pullets, that's how young they were) but now that one of them has started to mature more there are a lot of fights. Or at least I've seen a little blood every once in a while, nothing horrible like what you experienced, but enough that I have been contemplating moving the 2 younger roos to their own area, now hearing your story I will definitely be separating them. The two that are fighting are father and son so they both have a lot of determination in them. Like father like son I've always heard. I am very sorry for your loss. Your boy was just beautiful.

 

[chickiebaby1]

Just a quick question for those of you that process. When is a good time to process a rooster? What age?

 

[chickiebaby1]

Definitely looks like a cockerel to me. Looks like some shiny saddle feathers are coming in. Also looks more like a buff/red with a columbian type pattern.

OOO that sounds even better. I'm new to all the different colors and patterns, so it's kind of exciting to see what they will feather out to look like. Thanks

 

[kabhyper1]

I have 4 boys together in our barn right now. I think breed has a lot to do with it. My two Lf cochins, a bantam cochin and a bantam polish. Of the 4 the polish would typically be the most aggressive, but he is bottom guy. My two big guys have always been sweet. The older lf roo is a year and 8 months old, the younger lf roo is 8 months. The bantam cochin is a year and 8 months, and the polish is 9 months old. I introduced the two bantams to the lf flock this summer. Other than a bit of pecking order squabbling there haven't been any other issues. I also have 36 hens in with them, so they may be satisfied with their positions in the flock. I also have 4 adult roos together in my silkie flock, with juvies and hens and pullets. No issues there but a noggin peck to get to the food bowl faster. I have never had a bachelor coop but want to do so this summer for my silkie boys. I am a little worried about how that will go. I'm sorry for your loss of your boy. I think being together since birth and being the only two in there makes that particular situation unusual. Unless they could see the hens but couldn't touch them, they may have been getting upset. In case I missed it, what breeds were they?

 

[ChickCrazed]

I have 4 boys together in our barn right now. I think breed has a lot to do with it. My two Lf cochins, a bantam cochin and a bantam polish. Of the 4 the polish would typically be the most aggressive, but he is bottom guy. My two big guys have always been sweet. The older lf roo is a year and 8 months old, the younger lf roo is 8 months. The bantam cochin is a year and 8 months, and the polish is 9 months old. I introduced the two bantams to the lf flock this summer. Other than a bit of pecking order squabbling there haven't been any other issues. I also have 36 hens in with them, so they may be satisfied with their positions in the flock. I also have 4 adult roos together in my silkie flock, with juvies and hens and pullets. No issues there but a noggin peck to get to the food bowl faster. I have never had a bachelor coop but want to do so this summer for my silkie boys. I am a little worried about how that will go. I'm sorry for your loss of your boy. I think being together since birth and being the only two in there makes that particular situation unusual. Unless they could see the hens but couldn't touch them, they may have been getting upset. In case I missed it, what breeds were they?

Thank you The boy that took the beating was an Isbar, the nasty roo is a Hedemora. They could see the hens but not touch, so you are right that it could have been part of the problem. Both seemed like very laid back boys and there hadn't been any real fireworks prior to the beatdown. The violence of it all was just sickening and has me worrying, but I can't imagine it is common. Both boys were "spare" roosters and I should have gone with my gut and gotten rid of them months ago. I am regretting putting it off.

 

[Leahs Mom]

The violence of it all was just sickening and has me worrying, but I can't imagine it is common. Both boys were "spare" roosters and I should have gone with my gut and gotten rid of them months ago. I am regretting putting it off.

That sounds like me. Whenever I need to be rid of a bird I always put it off longer than I should have. Then when I do it, I feel bad for a day. Then I think, "Why didn't I do that sooner?"

I think it's part of my effort to change from a "pet mentality" to a "food animal mentality" as the only animals we had when I grew up were friends not food. I'm still working on that.

I'm processing 4 next week and I decided to let the local lady that processes to do it to make my life easy. (She charges $1.95/meat bird; $2.25 stewing hen.) Even so, I keep feeling like I'm betraying a friend since I take my responsibility to care for my animals quite seriously. Since my flock is very small, I know all their personalities, quirks, etc. which makes it even stranger to know that I'm going to kill them.

But I'm making the effort.

 

[kabhyper1]

I think when something bad happens we get traumatized a bit by it and then expect the worst. I really think that situation with those boys is unusual. Lets just put it this way, I know of more fellow chicken owners that have several roos together peacefully, than not. Yours is the first instance I have ever heard of with 'brothers' killing each other that way unprovoked. Meaning no obvious trigger for the animosity. I.E hens, being unfamiliar with one another, etc.. Don't give up on having boys together. I would just make sure if you plan to do it again, research breeds that are calm and docile by nature. There is no way I could have the boys I have together now if I still had some of the roos I had in the past. I really think a lot of it is breed, and breeding. Any breed can be aggressive if it is bred into them. That boy could have had something going on you dont know about causing him to become violent. Brain swelling maybe? Just throwing that out there.

 

[chickiebaby1]

I have 4 boys together in our barn right now. I think breed has a lot to do with it. My two Lf cochins, a bantam cochin and a bantam polish. Of the 4 the polish would typically be the most aggressive, but he is bottom guy. My two big guys have always been sweet. The older lf roo is a year and 8 months old, the younger lf roo is 8 months. The bantam cochin is a year and 8 months, and the polish is 9 months old. I introduced the two bantams to the lf flock this summer. Other than a bit of pecking order squabbling there haven't been any other issues. I also have 36 hens in with them, so they may be satisfied with their positions in the flock. I also have 4 adult roos together in my silkie flock, with juvies and hens and pullets. No issues there but a noggin peck to get to the food bowl faster. I have never had a bachelor coop but want to do so this summer for my silkie boys. I am a little worried about how that will go. I'm sorry for your loss of your boy. I think being together since birth and being the only two in there makes that particular situation unusual. Unless they could see the hens but couldn't touch them, they may have been getting upset. In case I missed it, what breeds were they?

So if you but boys somewhere, where they can't see the hens they shouldn't fight, right. I have an extra coop I am not using on the far end of my property right now ( wanted things to be closer for winter) but I could put all of them in there for now with a tarp on something blocking their view of the girls. Would that make it safer you think?

Also I have two silkie roosters that I have had since they were about 2 months old ( now close to 6 or 7 months old) and they can NOT be anywhere near each other . One can't even be near any other roosters at all, and he crows day and night almost non stop. I have really been wondering what to do with him because he is driving me crazy, but I didn't know about processing a silkie rooster, he is actually quite large for a silkie ( i think he is actually mixed with something else because he has a straight comb.) I just don't know what to do with him.

Right now he has his own pen. But the crowing is the worst of any of my other roosters, he crows at midnight, 2:00am and all day long. Luckily I don't have any close neighbors.

 

[chickiebaby1]

So I think I answered my own question about my cochin. Here is a picture of another one (sure it's a pullet) that is the same age.


Here's some better ones......

Girl= Destiny Boy= Sonny