Ruby Rogue
Free Ranging
Apologies for the long post.
Rocky is my dominant cockerel. Georgi is bigger, stronger, mates the girls, most of the time without their consent. George has never been aggressive towards me, he's a big scared boy, but he's sweet and my favorite. He takes care of the girls but he's a bit aggressive with his mating. Rocky keeps everyone in line, looses his s* when I collect eggs, takes very good care of his flock, I've never seen him mate but he lets Georgi do his thing, and keeps him in line. George was always submissive to Rocky and did what he was told. And George has been wearing a crow collar for a couple of months with no issue. Rocky takes his off within minutes of me getting it on.
The night before last, I put the birds in, put Rocky's collar back on, but forgot to turn the light off. I left the house at 5AM yesterday morning, the birds were let out of the coop at 9:30 am...2 hours later than I usually put them out, and came home at 5PM to 2 bloody roosters. I looked at my game camera from outside through the day, and watched their behavior, every time Rocky came near the coop or the flock, Georgi chased him off. He spent most of the day in the woods.
I assessed the damage and though there was a lot of blood in one corner of the coop, I can see no wounds on either of the boys, just dried bloody combs and some bloody neck feathers. I removed their collars for the time being and put George in a crate with food and water inside the coop. Everyone slept peacefully in the coop together last night.
I'm sad that this happened. I have a total of 20 chickens, all have been integrated for a couple of months, including 4 mature pullets who were hatched with the 2 older boys, 7 immature pullets, 7 immature cockerels, which I was planning to get rid of (eventually). I wanted to keep both Rocky and George. They were best friends before this and I loved how they both worked with each other, Georgi bred and told the girls where the treats were, Rocky protected and alerted, and also told the girls where the treats were.
I can't see what happened the other night, but everything was so peaceful before and everyone had their place and got along fine. I'm going to keep George crated in the coop for today and try to let him out tomorrow and see how he does. Everyone else is doing fine, they free range, Rocky's with them crowing his head off as usual. I have a neighbor who doesn't appreciate the sound of a rooster as much as I do so the collars are a (somewhat necessary) courtesy which I still plan to use after they settle down. (In case you're wondering)
Can this work itself out?
Rocky is my dominant cockerel. Georgi is bigger, stronger, mates the girls, most of the time without their consent. George has never been aggressive towards me, he's a big scared boy, but he's sweet and my favorite. He takes care of the girls but he's a bit aggressive with his mating. Rocky keeps everyone in line, looses his s* when I collect eggs, takes very good care of his flock, I've never seen him mate but he lets Georgi do his thing, and keeps him in line. George was always submissive to Rocky and did what he was told. And George has been wearing a crow collar for a couple of months with no issue. Rocky takes his off within minutes of me getting it on.
The night before last, I put the birds in, put Rocky's collar back on, but forgot to turn the light off. I left the house at 5AM yesterday morning, the birds were let out of the coop at 9:30 am...2 hours later than I usually put them out, and came home at 5PM to 2 bloody roosters. I looked at my game camera from outside through the day, and watched their behavior, every time Rocky came near the coop or the flock, Georgi chased him off. He spent most of the day in the woods.
I assessed the damage and though there was a lot of blood in one corner of the coop, I can see no wounds on either of the boys, just dried bloody combs and some bloody neck feathers. I removed their collars for the time being and put George in a crate with food and water inside the coop. Everyone slept peacefully in the coop together last night.
I'm sad that this happened. I have a total of 20 chickens, all have been integrated for a couple of months, including 4 mature pullets who were hatched with the 2 older boys, 7 immature pullets, 7 immature cockerels, which I was planning to get rid of (eventually). I wanted to keep both Rocky and George. They were best friends before this and I loved how they both worked with each other, Georgi bred and told the girls where the treats were, Rocky protected and alerted, and also told the girls where the treats were.
I can't see what happened the other night, but everything was so peaceful before and everyone had their place and got along fine. I'm going to keep George crated in the coop for today and try to let him out tomorrow and see how he does. Everyone else is doing fine, they free range, Rocky's with them crowing his head off as usual. I have a neighbor who doesn't appreciate the sound of a rooster as much as I do so the collars are a (somewhat necessary) courtesy which I still plan to use after they settle down. (In case you're wondering)
Can this work itself out?
