Our cockerels went from best buddies to enemies!!

[CluckinBumpkin]

So my daughter who's in 4H decided she wanted to show 3 of our 6mo old Phoenix chickens at the parish fair. We took our 2 cockerels "Poop" (BBR) & Nugget (Silver) along with a Silver pullet "Dumplin'". Part of the rules were you dropped them off on Tuesday at registration and you picked them up Sunday. Well when we got there THEY WERE CROWING(I guess they learned from the non-stop crowing from others the past 6days)....No, none of our cockerels have ever crowed yet. We were excited to see this. Well we loaded them up and took them home. We immediately noticed once we let them out they wanted to fight! They've never done this before! They've all been raised together since they were a day old and were pretty good buddies. I'm wondering if maybe its because their cages were stack on top of each other so they never saw each other the whole time they were there. Ive attached a photo of how they were arranged when we went to clean them up. The BBR one is my daughters absolute favorite and her "baby". None of the other cockerels are fighting. My daughters BBR actually started all the drama once we let them out, now the Silver from the fair and another silver we have decided to gang up on him and roughed him up a bit. So my question is, since they were best buds 6days ago....is it possible to ever get back to that? The only thing I can come up with is to put a kennel in the coop as if im introducing a new one to the flock? Anyone with recommendations?

 

[tlcarnes2176]

I would give it a few days to see if they settle down. They may just need to re-establish the pecking order.

 

[centrarchid]

If you want to keep them in good feather, then separation from this point on is something to consider. You can let them out free-range to work out pecking order but you will be putting their looks at risk for next year and if your not careful their lives.

 

[CluckinBumpkin]

Yeah we did let them all out to free range but they chased each other down. went up underneath the horse trailer...The only way I got them out was to spray the hose under there and when they came out, I saw blood. I cleaned them both up but Nugget has a small chunk taken out of his earlobe. They are separated now. I guess well be modifying the coop soon. Bummer.

 

[CluckinBumpkin]

Just an updated

-------------- After over a week of kennel inside of coop (like introducing a new chicken) AND every other day letting one take a turn in the kennel and one in the coop, the boys are back to being able to mingle.

Seems now the silver phoenix has now surrendered and the black breasted red is top man. I'm ok with one being afraid of the other, as long as there is no more fighting. Bad news is, the silver has some pretty damaged wattles (few tears) and the chunk from his earlobe... we will not be showing him again. He was our prettiest. We may just have to wait and breed him...and hope his offspring are as beautiful as him.