Help! Been a stressful week! Three of my keets have died this week. I'm keeping them in the garage to stay warm and dry. I have a lamp on them and have been continually feeding them and giving fresh water. I don't know why they died whether they got too cold at one point or maybe the fumes in the garage from starting the autos. The ones that died were smaller than the others. When they get a little older I'll be putting them in a coop, but they're too young right now. It makes me so sad! Also my 6 mth old Plymoth Rock rooster decided to fight my Silkie rooster for territory. He now wants to kill him so I'm having to keep them separated. It's very frustrating cause I love both of them and want to keep them both. My mean rooster is only mean to my Silkie rooster, not to me or the other hens. The only way to do keep them both right now is divide the run into two which will mean more work on us. Also then my silkies won't get to be with the other chickens we have. We are going to try the dividing the run first then if that don't work then I guess we'll have to get rid of the PR rooster. I'd rather keep my Silkie one for my Silkie hen. I love watching the PR rooster cause he's so funny. Such a dilemma we have! Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!
Ps. I have been exchanging the roosters out the a small coop that's in the pen/run so they both get time out of the small coop to be with the other chickens. The problem with that is when I put the PR rooster in there he crows and crows constantly. Not happy at all! When I trade them and put the Silkie rooster in it, the PR rooster terrorizes him to the point of him hiding inside the roost and won't come out to drink or eat. I can't keep this up for long! I feel sorry for them, especially for my Silkie rooster. When we first got them the Silkie rooster was older and crowed and the PR rooster didn't cause he was young. Then he started crowing too after a couple weeks. They've gotten along fine till two days ago when they started chasing each other and fighting. Now my Silkie rooster just runs for his life!
This is what roosters do. They fight for dominance and breeding rights. It can get ugly, especially if they don't have enough space for the subordinate rooster to get away. Even if your silkie submits, he may decide to try for dominance one day and fight the other. There are chicken-keepers that have multiple roosters without problems, but I would hazard a guess that every one of them either free ranges, keeps their roosters in separate coops, or at the very least has large enough flock and runs to keep the boys out of trouble.
I've never had good luck with standard roosters. (Except an Americauna). They always turn human aggressive. Now I only keep frizzle Cochin roosters. They are the best.
Yep! The only way to keep both roos is to provide separate sleeping quarters for them and let them out separately. In the past, when I had two roos that wanted to kill each other, I put a partition down the middle of their coop and let one out to free range while the other stayed in with the flock, and later the other might free range with the girls, swapping the routine regularly so both get equal time. I learned how serious this rivalry was when the two roosters practically tore apart the partition to get to each other. I finally had to install a sturdier partition with a drape so they couldn't see each other. One day, the outside roo was killed by visiting dogs, a risk you run by leaving one roo out.
We added a fence inside the run to divide the two coops and areas for each rooster. We put the Silkies in the smaller run. So far that is working. Thanks for the help.