I have 5 mature roos at the moment and 50 hens. I'm going to sell the two youngest roos next week as they are too closely related to some of my hens and I hatch their eggs. Problem is with my two main roos: Heide's been with us well over a year now. I raised him after his mom hatched and rejected him. He's practically my child and I love him very very much. We have a fantastic bond. Blackie is Heide's son and his mom is my best hen. (She's about 5 years old and still laying well). As it happens I raised Blackie in the house as well. He'll be a year old mid December. I've recently hatched the first chickc of which Blackie's the dad and I've never seen such strong chicks. Very good breeding roo, that one. He really got the best of both his parents. Problem is Heide's top roo and Blackie wants to take over. I didn't pick up any problems until about 30mins ago when I was in the coop with a broody who just went to sit, I was giving her some eggs and Heide walked in with his entire comb covered in blood! Blackie followed with a bit less blood on his comb, but quite a bit on his feet. Heide has long spurs, but no blood on them, thankfully, so I think he only used his beak to attack, whereas Blackie seemed to have used his feet. They both had quite a bit of blood on their heads, but no obvious wounds, mostly smallish ones on their their combs and rather bloody mouths. (Sorry about all this, I don't want to post photo's, they look really bad.) I honestly don't know what to do now. I don't want to get rid of either roo and I don't want them roo to get seriously injured either. I adore both of them. Should I let them sort it out? And what should I do with their combs, regarding wound care? Any advice would be welcome. I'm too upset to think straight now.
You will most likely have to keep them seperated. When my 2 started really fighting like you've decribed they wouldn't stop. Every time we walked inside they were back at it again! They both got taken care of that day and there was a sigh of relief for all of us!! Hope you figure your problem out.
If you want to keep them together, then you just have to weather the fights and nurse them until they sort it out. Otherwise, you can let them have turns being out. I have an extra large (48x30x30) wire dog kennel in my coop for the more feisty roo to live in. They take turns and don't seem to lose their pecking order since they are in full view of everyone. Sometimes the roos fight with the wire between them which is funny and little physical harm is done. Just an idea...
Let them sort it out, but keep an eye on them so that neither gets seriously injured. If they are unable to reach a 'compromise', it may eventually be necessary to separte them. The pecking order is a fluid ever changing thing with the lower ranked always wanting to improve their position. What is going on is completely normal and is an attempt on the part of the younger rooster to assure that HIS genes are carried on.
I just went through the same thing- I was checking on my chickens one day and both of my roosters were bloody. They'd never fought before that. I kept them together, though, although I did separate them when one had a more than superficial injury (once when one had a swollen eye and once when one had a bloody neck wound). It took five days, but they seem to have resumed the pecking order. Originally it was the #2 rooster challenging the #1, as #2 has recently gotten bigger. And at first I thought it looked like he was going to "win." But my original alpha seems to have resumed the command. If you want to keep them both, go with your gut and let them fight it out, and treat the wounds as needed. There is a small chance one could be seriously injured (even fatally so) but aside from the more exotic fighting breeds I don't think that happens very often, and my gut told me that, since I want to keep both of these birds, I need to let them work it out. And they did.
