Question about roo fighting each other.

[southernsibe]

I'm new to this, and I'm not entirely sure what to do. I have 2 bantams that are fighting each other. I saw them going at it when I put out morning food few days ago. I also observed that my turkeys were getting involved with the frey. Especially the female turkey, she was pulling on the little guys tags. The roo's are both bantam frizzles and they are white, so any blood shows up very vividly. I separated them, and now have put one back in with the flock, but I kept the other one out because he was injured worse, and needs to heal a bit more. My question is, how far do I allow them to take it, before intervening and either separating them by giving one away or culling? Strangely enough to me, the "king rooster" a huge leghorn did not step in and split them up as I hacve seen him do in the past. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Rachel

 

[Nichole77]

Sell tickets and take bets. Oh wait thats illegal. Sorry I don't have any advice but good luck.

 

[rooster-red]

How big is your run, and how many chickens do you keep in it?

 

[FrankBlissett]

Your alpha roo didn't step in because the tussle was irrelivent to his standing - it's like a high school senior boy not getting involved in a fight between ninth graders. If he had gotten involved, there was nothing for him to gain (the other roos still consider him alpha) and everything to lose (if he was somehow beaten back).

I really can't say how far to let it go. We've only had one serious injury. To middle-pack roos got in a tussle and one got an injured eye. Was one of those "fun and games until..." things - they were buddies before the fight and roosted together that night.

We do have a few banty roos seperated from the main flock though, because they kept challenging our alpha Brahma roo. Like all Brahmas he wouldn't "fight to the death", but he weighs ten times what they do so just in case...

You should decide soon though. Everytime you remove the roo from the flock and reintroduce him they have to start over.

-Frank

 

[Newchickenmom&kids]

I think it is just what they naturally do like described in this site:

http://www.homestead.com/shilala/roosters.html

Agree that removing one just upsets the pecking order and all must begin again....I think many think the pecking order is just for hens...but it is the entire flock...that means girls and boys.

 

[southernsibe]

My run is at least 600 sq feet, I don't remember exactly off the top of my head. I've got a pretty even number of roo's to hens, since the ones I bought were straight run and then I got seven free to good home chickens, with 2 roos and 5 hens. All of my chickens are let out during the day and penned at night. They have 5 acres to free range.
Rachel

 

[rooster-red]

I'd say overcrowding is not an issue for you.

I have 3 roo's: Barred rock (Alpha) and a big RIR and a BO who are subordinates.

I've tried letting them free range together (we have 3.5 acres) but it will work even if you start them out at 3 different points of the compass.

The 2 sub get along pretty well, I keep them together in a pen with very little sparring.

If 1 of them gets free with the alpha, they run straight for him. The bad thing is I've tried to let nature take its course to see if they could work it out, and have let fights go on for several minutes and the barred rock always comes out standing on top of the others, and if I don't interviene at this point, the barred rock will kill them. You can tell he has his mind set on this by the way he will not stop fighting when he has his opponent down and is standing on top of them continuing to peck and bite.

I'll always have to keep them seperate.

As far as how far to let a fight go before decieding it will never work out I'd say you can let it go until 1 submits and plays dead. You have to watch them very closely, and there are risks of permanent injury.
If 1 plays dead and the other crows in triumph then goes on about his business then the pecking order has been worked out, and you probably won't have much more trouble between the 2.

If the fight gets to the point where 1 plays dead or submits and the other keeps on like he's trying to kill, you have to seperate them for good.

Hope this helps.

 

[FisherMOM]

I just read this.. and wanted to just ask my question here, rather than start a new thread.

My rooster and hen have been separated from our chicks from the get go. The "duet" are a year old.. the chicks are roughly 9 weeks old. DH.. hmm... my anyDH does not want to make separate coops... (But we are going to separate the coop and run now anyways.)

He insisted that I put them all together outside (free range) and see what happens. Now I HAVE done this before and the hen and rooster both chase the chicks. I gave DH what he wanted and we watched the bullies at work. They ended up cornering our RIR chick and ganged up on it.. while it was screaming for mercy. I broke up the fight.

My "grown ups" are bantams... my others, obviously, are not.
Is 9 weeks too young to try and put them together? Gee.. Mango, the Cornish X outweighs both of the adults together.. and even he is afraid of them.

 

[rooster-red]

About all you can do is try it while supervising closely and see how it goes, seperate as need be.