My rooster is spuring my chickens

[KateB39]

Hello everyone , I need some advice on my cochin rooster .

I have had my little flock for over a year now . They all seemed to live in harmony until a week ago .
I have 3 cochin roosters , one silver one red one white and grey. The red rooster suddenly started attacking the hens and the other roosters . My poor silver rooster got nailed in the neck - head area , he looked as if he was going to die , falling over and holding his foot to his head . At first I thought " chicken disease " So I put him in a isolation cage So if he was ill he wouldn't spread it to the rest of the flock . Upon inspection he had a nasty hole in the right side of his neck - head area. I knew then he had ben spured by the other rooster . Since then the red rooster has been spuring everything in the chicken yard . Now I have him in a isolation cage as well for the protection of the flock . The silver rooster is recovering from his wound , started eating and drinking on day 2 , now his is almost well and ready to go back into the chicken yard .
I really like my chickens, all of them . I do not want to get rid of the red rooster . My husband wants to despur him . I agree that despuring the roosters would be better for the flock . It won't stop them from fighting but might keep them form hurting the hens .

I don't get it , after a year and a half of being content , the roosters start fighting .Might be the cool weather . I have no idea what else to do but despur the roosters and let them fight or build another pen to house my red rooster .

 

[PunkinPeep]

It does seem strange to me that they are just now fighting at this age. It could be just someone challenging the established pecking order, but i would definitely despur them if you're going to keep them all. It sounds like your red guy is pretty serious and pretty dangerous.

 

[mypicklebird]

I am not sure why you would want to keep a rooster that is a attacking the HENS? His job is to protect then hens and show them good things to eat. If you despur him, if he is aggressive- he will surely find other ways to hurt the other birds. Roosters will spar with each other to establish who is the top rooster- but unless they are fighting type (and some roosters, even non game types can still become aggressive), they will usually co-exist fairly safely if they have enough space to get away from each other.

How much space do they have & how many hens per rooster?

You can despur them (hot potato method is my fav), but at my house- as soon as a rooster shows that he is not of benefit to my flock- OUT he goes! There are many many beautiful and nice roosters out there that would like to live with a flock- I see no point in keeping a nasty one, unless maybe he was some rare breed that was on the verge of being lost and was truly valuable due to his genes.