Lonely and bored banty roo

[chicknmania]

We have a Banty roo (I don't know what kind he is) a neighbor forced on us. He is in a pen by himself. He had two hens we provided him, but both of them escaped. Most of our chickens are free range, except we have another Banty (a Speckled Sussex) roo, with one hen, in another pen. We periodically put the Bantys out in tractors, but have not let them free range because we figure they'll get killed by the bigger roosters, or something else. This lonely roo (Fuego) is very quiet and tame. He will ride on your shoulder and isn't too difficult to catch. When we first got him, he got loose briefly and fought with all the other roos. Since then, when he's in the tractor, the other roos will come up to him, but basically it's no big thing, they pretty much ignore him. We would like to let him free range but have been told by someone else that he will "fight to the death", and will never quit fighting. He has awesome spurs, and is really beautiful. The others have all arranged their pecking order and are peaceable with each other. None of our other roosters have ever drawn blood on each other, and we'd like to keep it that way. Shoud we try letting him out, or not? If we did of course we would watch himfor a while, but who knows what would happen when we're not watching, and he's not THAT easy to catch; I mean he doesn't come when called, or anything. We intend to eventually get him some more little hens, if we don't let him out.

 

[Blondie]

I say let him out of jail. They are chickens and will do what chickens do. When you say fight to the death - does that mean he was a fighting chicken before you got him?

Your title says it all - he's bored and lonely, so let him out!!

 

[silkiechicken]

They will fight some but it won't take long for them to get used to each other. Just keep an eye out for them and they probably wont fight to death. I doubt he was trained for that sort of thing.

 

[Frozen Feathers]

I've never had a pair of roosters fight to death. I've seen some feathers fly now and again, but for the most part everyone gets along. I've had my Japanese Roo in with some very intimidating bigger roosters and so far no one's ever been hurt in their little squabbles, the bantam is smart, he knows he's little and doesn't try to start anything. If he does get cheeky with one of the bigger roos girls, the bigger ones chase him off and that's that. Generally a rooster (or at least mine) don't seem to waste time fighting, and I think they really don't want to fight with eachother, especially older roosters.

 

[chicknmania]

That's what we thought, too. Our little Speckled Sussex and his hen are our other concern; they fight anything and everything; actually the hen is worse than the rooster; she will fight other hens no matter what size they are, and other roosters too. Maybe we'll let Fuego out and see what happens, and then let the other two lbantys out later in the year, or something. As far as I know, Fuego was never a fighting rooster; I don't know his whole history, though. .