Moving the Roos

[DLCShark]

As the birds in my flock mature at what point should I worry about the roosters acting like real "cocks" and wanting to fight each other? There's three total and 8 ladies so it's a matter of time before they are brawling. Any suggestions?

 

[aart]

Have a segregation pen(s) ready....then observe, you'll know when they start getting randy.
It might be obvious who's the dominant roo, they might have figured it out already.
How old are they now?

 

[DLCShark]

13 weeks

 

[donrae]

What's your long term plan for the roosters? Are you keeping them for breeding stock? If you just happened to get roosters, I'd say get rid of 2 of them and just stay with one. One's all you're going to want with that many hens, anyway.

At 13 weeks, they're just hitting the younger end of chicken puberty, so anytime over the next 3 months could be your time. I wouldn't worry about them fighting so much as ganging up on your hens. That's never a pretty picture.

 

[Mrs. K]

I agree with Donrae, you don't need that many roosters, but I don't think I would get rid of them yet. They are quite young and roosters are a crap shoot. Some are nice before maturity and then become a nightmare...... would hate to have you cull the wrong one!

Watch them carefully, how they interact, which is the first to notice you when you come out, do they get out of your way, and how do they interact with the girls. Generally I like to keep the middle rooster, not the head rooster, if I have to get rid of two. The middle one is still paying attention, but is ok with someone (you) above him in rank.

Nothing is foolproof, and in the weeks to come, none of the three might be worth keeping. Time will tell a lot.

Mrs K

 

[pmcatnip]

It varies. My first bunch of young cocks had over a dozen of them (free range) and they fought constantly from four months old until we culled at about seven months. The fights were sometimes intense and two cocks died. One of sparring injuries and malnutrition--they ran him off from the crumble dispenser--and the other of unknown cause. My second bunch had only 3. I saw two of them sparring at 8 weeks old (it was the cutest little cock fight anyone ever saw ) and they sorted it out the next day and lived in peace ever since. At the moment we have 4 roos from 3 different generations living in harmony. The closest they ever get to a fight is when an older roo chases a younger one off of "his" hens.

 

[DLCShark]

I'm unsure if I will be hatching my own eggs anytime soon but I figured at bare minimum I would keep at least one. I haven't really watched them a bunch but I have noticed that they aren't all in a gang like they used to be as much during free range time. They were all half dozen of a straight run half dozen I got from my local feed store. I have a variety of hens so I guess picking the "best" male will be key.

 

[Chilali]

From my experience, sometimes roosters that are raised together from a young age never really fight more than occasional mild sparring matches as long as they're not a particularly aggressive breed. Sometimes they work out who the dominant boy is and the subordinates just stay out of his way to keep the peace. Granted, you have to have plenty of space for that to work, but I've seen it happen. The last bunch of four game fowl cockerels that a ranging hen raised on the property here were fine until almost 8 months old, even as such an aggressive breed as game fowl are known to be. One of the two middle boys went missing one day (most likely predator death... it happens), we sold the other middle boy, and we still have the dominant and lowest subordinate. They're kept separated for obvious reasons, but neither of them is aggressive toward humans at all. The only reason we kept that lowest subordinate is because I got attached to him and he's quite a character.