Roos needed to be rehomed.

[RedHeadFarmGirl]

My sweet baby giant got attacked yesterday. I have about 30 chickens and 3 roosters. One of the roosters is a couple years old, And I hatched 2 last spring. They were all getting along, the 2 younger ones usually stayed to themselves, but when I went out to close up the barn for the night, he came up to me and was bloody. I don't keep them all in a coop, they just stay in the barn. I can separate and keep one in a cage, but I don't think it's fair for the long run. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[McChooky]

My sweet baby giant got attacked yesterday. I have about 30 chickens and 3 roosters. One of the roosters is a couple years old, And I hatched 2 last spring. They were all getting along, the 2 younger ones usually stayed to themselves, but when I went out to close up the barn for the night, he came up to me and was bloody. I don't keep them all in a coop, they just stay in the barn. I can separate and keep one in a cage, but I don't think it's fair for the long run. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

You need a plan for extra roosters (30 chickens is a lot of chickens )
I had 3 cockerels hatch in late August .I've already given one away and I'm keeping one to replace my 3 yr old rooster (I'm culling him and one of the cockerels) Just waiting on warmer weather..

 

[DrVeghead]

Where are you located, at least roughly?

 

[Perris]

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Did the 'baby giant' that hatched last spring and appeared to you bloodied challenge the old dominant roo? Is the old roo OK? Or was it a fight between the two cockerels?

In any case, as they appear to have plenty of space, if not actually be free to come and go, it is imo highly unlikely that serious injury will be caused to either, because most of it will be posturing and if they do fight, sooner or later one will sense it is losing and run away, and thereafter be submissive to the winner. (At least for a while, if not forever.) I speak as someone with, currently, 11 roos in a flock of 27. When they are raised within the flock by a broody, the older males assume they are family, and evolution has selected against those who would kill their own offspring. It is natural for them to fall out sometimes, as people do, without killing each other. So you could just sit on your hands and watch for a while to see which way it develops.

 

[RedHeadFarmGirl]

Where are you located, at least roughly?

Monroe Michigan

 

[RedHeadFarmGirl]

Did the 'baby giant' that hatched last spring and appeared to you bloodied challenge the old dominant roo? Is the old roo OK? Or was it a fight between the two cockerels?

In any case, as they appear to have plenty of space, if not actually be free to come and go, it is imo highly unlikely that serious injury will be caused to either, because most of it will be posturing and if they do fight, sooner or later one will sense it is losing and run away, and thereafter be submissive to the winner. (At least for a while, if not forever.) I speak as someone with, currently, 11 roos in a flock of 27. When they are raised within the flock by a broody, the older males assume they are family, and evolution has selected against those who would kill their own offspring. It is natural for them to fall out sometimes, as people do, without killing each other. So you could just sit on your hands and watch for a while to see which way it develops.

I don't know if my older one kicked his ass, or if he fought with his sibling because neither of them had any wounds. But I went out before they all got down, and as soon as the hurt one saw his sibling, he went right after him over and over again. So I spent the morning fixing and enclosing an empty stall and put the aggressor in there and I put 2 hens with him so he wouldn't be lonely. The girls were not happy about being confined to just a stall,, but the roo is safe. I was worried because he was the hurt one yesterday, and today he's the aggressor. I still would like to find him and maybe the other one a new home.