New Roos!!!

[shadowmane]

Well, I put my two new roos in the coop last night. I've had them in lock-up where they can see the hens, but not contact. Last night, I put them in with the hens, then let them out this morning. I went in the house for a while, and when I come back out, there was a battle going on. They were fine with one another when they were locked down together, but now, they seem like mortal enemies. They are both bloodied and tired. The winner I put on a roost in the coop to recover. The other one, I put back in the sun room where they have been kept till now.

They pranced around and tried to impress the hens for a while this morning before the fight. The hens seemed to not care. They've never had a rooster with them before, so I don't think they know what to expect. I'm just wondering how long it will take for the two roos to finish establishing their pecking order, and are accepted by the hens.

 

[sumi]

Hens usually accept roosters without issues, but more than one roo in a flock is a complicated situation. I knew a lady who had 7 roosters and no hens and they got along fine, but if she added a few hens to the flock the roosters would have had something to fight about and it would've been war. Now that there are females around your roosters will fight it out for top spot. Before the hens became involved it didn't matter, they were equals. Now they need to establish their place in the flock and both will want to be "top roo".

Depending on how many hens you have in your flock and how much space they have to roam they may or may not sort themselves out. But what I would suggest is, if it's practical and possible, to separate the roosters, each with it's own hens. If you really want to keep both. And if you haven't already treat their wounds with some antibiotic cream. I used to keep a tube handy for when my 2 boys started their nonsense! Sadly they never resolved their issue so I had to rehome one. Hopefully you can work something out with yours.

 

[Avianman]

Pinless Peepers!! I have a flock of 30, half of which are roosters. I used to find bloody Roos all the time and breakup tiffs every day. I considered euthanasia but could get myself to do it. Bought some of these and they are like magic. Best part, they are temporary. After about a week, I was able to remove them. It has been a month and a half and I have yet to see one fight in the dozen or so roosters!

 

[shadowmane]

An update on this. I let them out of their respective corners towards afternoon yesterday. There is a truce between the roosters. There are 20 hens to share between them, which is why we got two to begin with. We have about an acre and a half for them to roam in our back yard, so space is not a problem. They seem to be doing fine now. I think they just had to determine who among the two of them was dominant. Now that that's settled, they are back at trying to impress the girls.

I did have to show them who was boss, though. I stepped in at one point when the dominant one was pecking at the other one right in front of me. I promptly went over and pecked at the dominant one with my finger, making my point by knocking him off his roosting spot. This happened as they were beginning to bed down for the night last night. I chased him around the coop and pecked him a couple of times just to let him know that I was the boss, and not him.

At any rate, they are fine this morning. No fighting. Now if I can just convince the hens to relax. They have been used to keeping guard for themselves. Now, with two guardians, they should be able to relax a little more. If they'll just do it.

One note on the roosters. They came from a place where there were 7 rooster and 6 hens. They have went from famine to feast here. The only problem I'm seeing for them is that the ladies are just not interested at this point.

 

[centrarchid]

After pecking order was determined, I would have left roosters alone to heal but still together assuming they were not overly damaged. Separating them sets up so fighting will start anew when reintroduced. Sometimes less intervention is better but still observe.

 

[sumi]

An update on this. I let them out of their respective corners towards afternoon yesterday. There is a truce between the roosters. There are 20 hens to share between them, which is why we got two to begin with. We have about an acre and a half for them to roam in our back yard, so space is not a problem. They seem to be doing fine now. I think they just had to determine who among the two of them was dominant. Now that that's settled, they are back at trying to impress the girls.

I did have to show them who was boss, though. I stepped in at one point when the dominant one was pecking at the other one right in front of me. I promptly went over and pecked at the dominant one with my finger, making my point by knocking him off his roosting spot. This happened as they were beginning to bed down for the night last night. I chased him around the coop and pecked him a couple of times just to let him know that I was the boss, and not him.

At any rate, they are fine this morning. No fighting. Now if I can just convince the hens to relax. They have been used to keeping guard for themselves. Now, with two guardians, they should be able to relax a little more. If they'll just do it.

One note on the roosters. They came from a place where there were 7 rooster and 6 hens. They have went from famine to feast here. The only problem I'm seeing for them is that the ladies are just not interested at this point.

That sounds good

You have plenty space which is great, so they will probably divide the hens up between them and each keep to himself with his "wives". And hopefully the truce will continue. Rooster fights can get really nasty and they will fight to death sometimes. My 2 dominant roosters ended up injuring each other badly, so I rehomed the second-in-command before someone got killed. But sometimes roosters can and will live together in peace. It really depends on the individual roo's temperament. It does help that your 2 know each other from before, so hopefully it will work out well for you.

On the hens: Introducing the roosters changed the flock dynamics dramatically, so they will be a little stressed now. But give them a few days and they will settle down again and allow the roosters to take charge and do their business.