So we have a rooster (Titus) who’s about 2 1/2 months old that we've had in a crate in the run since we got him so he could grow a bit before letting him out. We found out he was a rooster a week ago and I’m not too sure what to expect when integrating him. I let him out 2 nights ago while everyone was sleepy and everything went well through the night up until mid the next day. I was watching the camera we have set up in there and all of a sudden he was mid air going at it with our buff lavender Orpington. They were flapping their wings and she was biting him. Mind you we got our 4 hens back in march of 2025. We have 2 Easter eggers, 1 olive egger and Margarette our Orpington. Margarette layed two eggs a few months ago that were soft shell so we decided to add oyster shells in there for them but she hasn’t layed since, understandably since it’s now winter. Anyways, I went outside to check on Titus after his concerning squabble with Margarette and his right side waddle was 3/4 torn and bloody. I put him right back into his crate, went to the store to get blucote, came home and cleaned it with saline, used cornstarch to stop the bleeding and I sprayed the blucote on there. I’ve been repeating the saline spray and blucote once or twice a day. I let Titus back out last night and once again everything went fairly smoothly besides one of our Easter eggers (frank) and Margarette kinda sorta excessively bullying him. Then earlier today I was in the coop feeding everyone lettuce and after the lettuce was gone Margarette decides to jump onto Titus’ back while he was turned away minding his business not near food or water and try to start pecking him. I immediately grabbed her and put her into the small dog crate. After that Titus was pretty freaked out and hid behind the coop for a while. Eventually he came back out but every time he did frank would scare him back away and just wouldn’t stop intentionally running at him so I put frank in a crate too. I’m looking for some and any advice. Right now Titus is doing pretty well with one of our Easter eggers and our olive egger, but they still scare him behind the coop every so often which I know is normal. I just also know frank and Margarette being excessively malicious is not normal. I was also looking into pinless blinders if the crates don’t work. I’m hoping putting the aggressors in crates will have them more worried about establishing pecking order with the other hens instead of Titus. Thanks for reading! I attached a picture of our chickens because I’ve heard chickens can be racist. The two that are in crates are the gray one and the mostly brown one. Titus is on top of the coop.
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