My first cock fight...Grr...

[CamsCluckinChicks]

As some of you know, I raised two cockerel's together - Marley, who is an almost 1-year old Polish cock and Ikey, a Bantam Cochin who turned 6 months old today. I've never had any problems...until today.

My husband looked out our dining room window and announced Marley looked like he had blood all down the front of him (he's a Blue Splash...the red blood was VERY noticable). I literally ran outside and opened the crib (the name we use for our smaller exotics coop). There was Ikey, looking like he definitely got the bad end of raunchy old bar fight!!! My daughter grabbed Marley, I grabbed Ikey and into the house we came. I washed Ikey up in our sink...my daughter washed Marley up in the tub.

This is Ikey, still in the sink.

Marley...I blow dried him and put him back out with the girls. His wattles have a few tears, but I think he'll be fine.

Ikey, however, is not nearly as well off. He's been sleeping for the past couple of hours wrapped in a towel.

I know the pictures are pretty graphic and I apologize. Unfortunately, it is what it is...and I will never keep a Bantam roo with a Standard roo again!!

Now for the questions...

1). Will Ikey be OK if I put him in the garage in one of our 'quarantine' cribs with a heat lamp..or I should I set up a dog kennel in the basement for him?
2). Should I treat him with some kind of broadband antibiotics while he's healing?
3). How about Bacitracin or something like that to put on his comb & wattles while healing?
4). He won't die of heartache being separated from the other chickens until we get the big coop built this spring...will he? Because I feel he needs to remain separated from Marley and I'm absolutely not throwing him in the layer's coop!! I mean, I have 16 hens in there and only 1 roo, but Ikey's aggressive...Jake will kill him!! The Cochin's are getting their very own place in the BIG coop we're building, along with their very own yard so Ikey will have his very own hens and no competition from other roo's. But in the meantime...

Knowing that they have been getting along quite well - even roosting next to each other frequently at night - was there anything I should have been watching for that would have indicated this was coming?

Also...by all means...if you have any tried & trued things you know...please, please, please feel free to hollar out loud!! I am once again learning the hard way.

 

[8wishbonechicks]

I'm sorry to hear about your roosters. I have the same problem. My barred rock roo Blackjack and my white mix roo, Rocky was raised together. They now started fighting at 6 months old. We had to separate them. Rocky is the dominant roo so every time they see each other they attack even if the fencing is between them. When they free range, Blackjack always chase the eldest hen, pulls/grabs out her back feathers so he can mate. We separated him b/c he stresses the hens out.

They have no time to free range when Blackjack is there with them. The hens are not stressed with Rocky. We used antibiotic ointment, Neosporin, on their wounds on the comb and wattles. The other chickens might start pecking their wounds, so separation until they heal is wise. I wouldn't introduce the roosters again, you'll have the same problem with the roos raging hormones. Sorry if I couldn't help you more but
I'm sure one of the experience BYC experts will help you soon.

 

[PandoraTaylor]

ACV in water and neosporine (without painkiller) for wound care.
Keep seperated from other Roos until healed.

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

Seems to me that the testosterone kicked in on the younger one and he challenged the older one. If you have had them both in with the girls now that they've started fighting,,(1)they will continue to fight till one submits to the other or (2) they will fight till one of them is dead. If they were mine I wouldn't put them back in the same pen together, not within sight of the girls anyway and with supervision. Unfortunately this is the way roo's are programmed and there is nothing that you, me, or anyone else can do to change this. I've kept roo's together in bachelor pads before, however it was out of sight of the girls. Maybe you could make temporary arrangements for the one in the garage to stay there until you get the new coop built.

 

[CamsCluckinChicks]

Neither cockerel will be with another again. I already have that one taken care of. Ikey won't be returned to the crib with Marley...he'll remain in the garage coop until our large coop is completed and he can have his very own 'area' with the Cochin pullets (which I don't have yet - lol). Marley is head cockerel (and now the only one) in his crib and he currently has his one Polish pullet (more to come), 4 Silkie pullets (which will also have their own 'area' and be with a Silkie cockerel - also don't have yet - lol), 1 Black Sumatra pullet (she'll stay with Marley) and 1 TINY Bantam Partidge Cochin pullet. The Cochin pullet is staying with the Silkies...she's just too tiny and Ikey is too rough with her. I'm getting him 4 Giant Cochin girls and 1 Standard Cochin. They should

be able to keep him in line.

I'm putting Bacitracin (no pain medication) on their combs and wattles and watching the girls with Marley closely to be sure they aren't pecking at him. His wounds were much more superficial than Ikey's and the girls have always seemed to see him as their 'man', whereas only the couple of girls Ikey could bully were 'his' girls.

Ikey slept about 2 hours wrapped in a towel in 1st my daughter's arms, then mine. He seemed to really need the sleep...I'm assuming the stress from the fight and also he was probably hurting pretty good - you could see the bruising and damage more & more as time went on. As of a few minutes ago, he was up & strutting around in his quarantine crib, eating and drinking. Haven't heard him crow yet and he's usually very vocal... Should I be concerned about this?

What is ACV? I'll run out & get some (or order it online as our local farm supply stores do not seem to cater much to chicken farmers at all!!).

Thanks!!

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

ACV= Apple Cider Vinegar such as Braggs with mother from the health food store. Not the grocery store variety.

 

[CamsCluckinChicks]

Chook - I think you are exactly right about the hormones!! And to make matters worse, Ikey has always been a more aggressive bird than literally any of my other chickens. That's how I figured out (or thought I had) he was a male, almost right from the start. He just always was the 1st one to adventure away from the others and the 1st one to try out new things - food, roosts, etc.

There were 7 females and then the 2 males who just fought today in that coop. My White Silkie, who is the same age as Ikey, has just recently started hanging out in the nesting boxes some which leads me to believe she's planning some egg laying. Ikey had also started really trying to mate with the girls and he crowed quite a lot!! I noticed Marley was upset whenever Ikey mated one of the girls...he stomped around and squawked loudly and Ikey would run away. Add to that the forementioned built-in aggressiveness, I guess it was just wishful thinking on my part the 2 cocks would get along until I could get their separate pens built.

My chick order for this Spring includes 3 Polish pullets for Marley (giving him a total of 5 females) and 4 Giant Cochin pullets, 1 Black Frizzle Cochin and 1 White Cochin for Ikey (making his total females 6). They will be in separate coops (within one large building). They will share the same air, but will not see each other. We are going to do solid half walls with poultry wire at the tops, but with solid walls separating roosts. We are building a 200 pound 'hog style' feeder that they will technically share...but again, there will be separation so that they can't actually see each other. I've learned SO MUCH from this group...I think the coop we're building will be more thought out than anything we've ever done!!

This has definitely solidified my original belief that if I want roosters, they need to be the only male in their coop and yard. Glad I was already planning on having 4 coops within a coop! LOL! I have seen where, and I've only seen this with Silkies & Polish so far, cockerels who are the 'sons' of the rooster, be accepted as part of the flock...if they were born within the flock. Anyone else have experience with this? I was really hoping to keep at least one of Marley's boys in the future...you know...the one that hatches and you can already tell he's going to be a special boy? LOL!

Is it true that the Bantam roo's are more aggressive? So far in my very short experience, it does seem to be a fact. Ikey is also the only male we've had that has been aggressive towards us...and we raised him from a day old chick and he got a LOT of handling. He has gotten much better with me because I don't let him bully me. I just scoop him up and talk baby talk to him and pet him and carry him around for a while each day. He chilled right out, but he still seems to hate everyone else.

Oh! And one other thing about Ikey. He wouldn't allow the girls he claimed as his to leave the coop. Ever. He would run outside and chase them back in. He was allowed out in the yard, but they weren't. If they didn't run back in the crib, he would mate them and then they would run back in and stay in. I'm hoping that was because he was keeping HIS ladies away from Marley. Marley and the Silkies are almost always out scratching at the cracked corn, veggies and fruits I toss to them each morning. Do you guys think he's going to be OK with larger ladies to see after? I just can't imagine having to cull him since he's obviously healthy (after he heals from his fight). I'm such an animal lover...unless they're suffering or they have a highly contagious (as in, they're a danger to the rest of the flock through illness) disease, I can't stand the idea. Although I know it wouldn't be right passing on the problem...so he would probably end up in his very own coop...my husband is such an amazing man. I'm sure he'll see that as a 'challenge' and rise to it. But I'll be upset because then I'll still have to get my Cochin's a Cochin roo!! Which is silly because I'll have a perfectly beautiful and healthy Cochin roo, but because he's a doo doo head, he can't be with any other chickens! Grr. LOL! I'm planning to donate chicks to some of the local 4H kids. Our area has been hit hard with unemployment and I figure the chickens are doing their thing - I didn't really have much to do with it - why not give away the purebred's to some 4H kids? LOL!

Thanks again!!
Cami

 

[Bullwinkle]

Hi CamsCluckinChicks:

I currently have 6 (almost 1 year old) Roosters with my hens (+ 2 young Roosters about 5 months old now). The Roosters are normally pretty calm together (they are let out to free range every day, though this winter they haven't gone out as much). I know its hard to see your Roo's with blood on them, but I have found that the bleeding is often worse than the damage (i.e. their combs bleed really easily). I have read here at BYC that having two roo's often results in more problems than having several or more.

 

[chickenjones]

BullWinkle,
can you elaborate on that? I mean about two roos versus several? Currently we have Henry- our oldest and first roo, but he's still not quite a year old. Then we have two hens that our his only. We have 4 hens that are about 21 weeks and three roos that are the same age. One of them sleeps next to Henry and they hang out. Only today did Henry tell "big boy" (as my daughter has named him) to back off because he approached one of his hens. But he wasn't violent. Big Boy backed off immediately. I do worry that this is only the beginning. The other two roos carry a low profile, at least right now. We were going to keep the two roos and find homes for the other two low men on the totem pole. Now I am starting to wonder? Any advice, or experiences anyone can share? We have three acres and Henry and his ladies seem to stay on one side and Big Boy and everyone else stay to the other. The mingle but don't stay mixed for long. Towards the end of the day they all seem to hang out together until its time to roost. This post has really got me wondering though!

ChickenJones

 

[Miss Sebright]

This happened to me on Christmas eve with my two roos. I washed them both up and put the one that wasn't to bad back outside. My other one, Pipin, was lookin more like Ikey. I cleaned him up, wrapped him in a towel, and put flour on his wounds. He healed up quite nicely with little intervention, other than living in the house while we renovated the coop. Good Luck!