We have 2 roosters (and hens...more hens to come this spring). Our roos have been raised together since they were a few days old and never had any major issues with one another; sure, they'll get into little squabbles, but nothing ever went past staring at each other and the occasional "pounce/lunge" at the other.
We have a good size coop that has a good size run attached to it and open the coop door every morning to let them out and shut it once they go back at night; however, it's been so bitterly cold lately (we're taking about wind chill advisories reaching -19), that we starting monitoring and limiting their time outside and to the run...we only let them out to eat and drink and close them up again... to to be cruel, just for health and safety reasons. The problem occurred a few days ago... I went out to check on them and feed them and as I opened the coop door, there was blood splattered EVERYWHERE! It looked like an image from some murder/war movie. I grabbed all the chickens out to check on them...the one that was hurt was our red roo - Gin, and I only assume that our other roo did this since our hens are very mellow and docile. Anyways, Gin had been badly pecked right at the base of his comb... I heard that the comb has a huge blood supply so that is the reason why he was bleeding so much...he also had some feathers ripped out of him; nothing really bad or life threating, but it made me think.
I heard that if roos are raised together, they should be fine overall, but is this wrong? Gin has always been the more dominate rooster and the other has always been more "shy" and laid back..could this have possibly been a dominance squabble that just went too far? Do I have to get rid of a roo, or did this happen only because of the limited space and time outside? When the weather was more decent and they were out more...nothing like this happened before... so I assume it's because of us keeping them in.
[I brought Gin inside our mud room and cleaned him up; took a paper towel and wiped off his comb and face. I put some neosporin on his wounds and later a little "Wonder Dust" (normally used on horses to help dry and clot wounds). We kept him in our garage just to let him heal for the night and he's doing well.] - When should we bring him back to the coop, or should we even at all?
Also, slightly off this topic... but I noticed that at the top of Gin's comb, it turns black...the the tips look like they were air brushed and he has a few black speckles at the base or the comb and a few on his waddle... our other roo doesn't have any black... is the black just coloration or is it like a disease/sickness? I never say black on any other comb/waddle before so I'm a bit confused. (I'm sorry, I don't have good pictures of this).
We have a good size coop that has a good size run attached to it and open the coop door every morning to let them out and shut it once they go back at night; however, it's been so bitterly cold lately (we're taking about wind chill advisories reaching -19), that we starting monitoring and limiting their time outside and to the run...we only let them out to eat and drink and close them up again... to to be cruel, just for health and safety reasons. The problem occurred a few days ago... I went out to check on them and feed them and as I opened the coop door, there was blood splattered EVERYWHERE! It looked like an image from some murder/war movie. I grabbed all the chickens out to check on them...the one that was hurt was our red roo - Gin, and I only assume that our other roo did this since our hens are very mellow and docile. Anyways, Gin had been badly pecked right at the base of his comb... I heard that the comb has a huge blood supply so that is the reason why he was bleeding so much...he also had some feathers ripped out of him; nothing really bad or life threating, but it made me think.
I heard that if roos are raised together, they should be fine overall, but is this wrong? Gin has always been the more dominate rooster and the other has always been more "shy" and laid back..could this have possibly been a dominance squabble that just went too far? Do I have to get rid of a roo, or did this happen only because of the limited space and time outside? When the weather was more decent and they were out more...nothing like this happened before... so I assume it's because of us keeping them in.
[I brought Gin inside our mud room and cleaned him up; took a paper towel and wiped off his comb and face. I put some neosporin on his wounds and later a little "Wonder Dust" (normally used on horses to help dry and clot wounds). We kept him in our garage just to let him heal for the night and he's doing well.] - When should we bring him back to the coop, or should we even at all?
Also, slightly off this topic... but I noticed that at the top of Gin's comb, it turns black...the the tips look like they were air brushed and he has a few black speckles at the base or the comb and a few on his waddle... our other roo doesn't have any black... is the black just coloration or is it like a disease/sickness? I never say black on any other comb/waddle before so I'm a bit confused. (I'm sorry, I don't have good pictures of this).
