My two big cockerels are bullying my little cockerel!!!

[Stormlillyevans]

Hi! I’ve got an emergency! I’ve got 3 cockerels and 3 hens all in the same coop, that have been raised together since they hatched and just recently my buff Orpington and my Brahma has been bullying my silkie cockerel. As soon as they come out of the chickens coop in the morning the two big cockerels chase the silkie around the run and fight with him. The little silkie doesn’t fight back, he just runs away. So we decided to let the silkie out side of the run just so he can be safe. But as soon as he comes back in they nail him to a corner and bully him. I honestly didn’t know what to do and I didn’t want to sell my lovely silkie. So I decided to see what would happen if I just put the silkie and the buff Orpington alone in the run without the Brahma. To see what would happen, and funny enough they didn’t fight at all, they were just acting normal. So then I switched it and I put the Brahma in with the silkie and it lasted a couple of minutes and then he attacked. So I am really confused! I’ve now put the brahama ina different place away from the rest of the flock. But I don’t want it to be like this forever. Please help!!

 

[sourland]

3 cockerels and 3 pullets is two cockerels too many - in reality it's 3 cockerels too many. It's not going to work, and there is the potential that the two larger cockerels might kill the silkie. For me the solution would be to rehome the two large roosters and keep the silkie as he would not be hard on the pullets. Good luck in coming to a resolution.

 

[Aapomp831]

You have to get rid of two roosters or get about 25 more hens - and even the latter won’t necessarily fix anything. It doesn’t matter that they’ve grown up together. They will continue to fight and it will get worse until someone is completely beat up and you have to euthanize or the big ones kill the little one. You literally only have 2 options - get rid of 2 or get a LOT more hens.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Depending on whether or not you want to keep the cockerels, you can butcher the extra ones, try to give them away, or make a rooster-only flock. It’s likely that they wouldn’t harass each other as severely if separated from the pullets. However, you may want to start with just separating the silkie and Orpington together or the Orpington and Brahma if you go that route.

 

[Stormlillyevans]

Depending on whether or not you want to keep the cockerels, you can butcher the extra ones, try to give them away, or make a rooster-only flock. It’s likely that they wouldn’t harass each other as severely if separated from the pullets. However, you may want to start with just separating the silkie and Orpington together or the Orpington and Brahma if you go that route.

Hi, thank you for your reply. I am gutted, I absolutely love all of my cockerels do you think if I just keep my Buff Orpington and brahama in a separate coop together, without hens. Will that work?

 

[Mrs. K]

This is the truly ugly part of roosters. Roosters have ruined the whole chicken experience for a lot of people. The darlings become the nightmare. This fighting is ugly to watch.

Wishing they would just be nice won't work. And really the suggestion of just keeping the two boys together, might work, but it might not. It just depends on what your set up looks like, and how much space you have.

The fact that you have 6 birds, and have just got started in birds make me wonder if you have a pre-fab coop? As they often say they can hold 6 birds when they really cannot. If this IS what your set up looks like, the ugly behaviors are going to get a lot worse quickly. If you have that type of coop, I would recommend getting rid of all the boys. The pre-fabs really hold 3 chickens best.

I know you love them, but that was when they were the darlings. When they become aggressive, it tends to get worse and worse. People don't want to believe this, and keep hoping... until it becomes way too ugly. They can make the pullets life misery, and attack people. People often underestimate the violence of a rooster attack, until they have seen it or been in it.

If you have children under the age of 6, I STRONGLY encourage you to remove the roosters, as they can take an attack in the face.

I know this is not what you want to hear, but truthfully, you are headed to a train wreck, that probably going to get much worse. As stated above, being raised together has no influence on this. Personally, I would only have 3 roosters if I had about 30 hens. AND THE SPACE for 30 hens.

MRs K

 

[ButtonHoarder]

Hi, thank you for your reply. I am gutted, I absolutely love all of my cockerels do you think if I just keep my Buff Orpington and brahama in a separate coop together, without hens. Will that work?

Some people have bachelor flocks, we kept 2 extra roosters together one time, they didn’t hurt each other and died of other causes

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Hi, thank you for your reply. I am gutted, I absolutely love all of my cockerels do you think if I just keep my Buff Orpington and brahama in a separate coop together, without hens. Will that work?

Yes, that’s what I’m saying. Be watchful that one doesn’t start to bully the other. If both roosters are dominant or one is a bully, it may not work out. I’ve had rooster flocks that worked with only two roosters, but I’ve also had ones with two roosters that didn’t work. Usually it’s the more roosters (to spread out the pecking order) the better. Though in your case I’d be afraid that they would gang up on the silkie.