bamachick86
In the Brooder
Just a few days ago my husband and I relocated two one-year-old roosters (we raised them from chicks) to our coop full of older birds which includes another rooster just a few months older than these two. We have the older, dominant rooster sequestered so the new guys can get acclimated, but one of them has starting showing some worrying symptoms. At first I thought he was just being submissive, he stayed kind of hunched as if he was protecting his neck--he got it pretty good the last time we tried to directly introduce him to our older rooster, so I assumed he was being protective based on past experience. But now he just looks plain lethargic, and he used to come after me when I came into his old coop. Now he just kind of sits there and I catch him with his eyes closed sometimes. He's a huge copper maran, and he survived coccidia and other unknown stuff that killed most of his brothers and sisters, aside from the other rooster he's grown up with. The two coops are virtually side by side so we assumed any possible cross-contamination would've occurred by now, and all my girls and rooster in this larger coop are healthy and thriving.
Everyone else looks perfectly fine, including his rooster friend that we relocated with him. Could this be something cropping up due to the stress of relocating? He's not showing any signs of respiratory or other issues. I'm wondering if I should just move him back to his old coop. We're just trying to free it up for a new batch of chicks we're raising.
Any ideas would be appreciated!
Everyone else looks perfectly fine, including his rooster friend that we relocated with him. Could this be something cropping up due to the stress of relocating? He's not showing any signs of respiratory or other issues. I'm wondering if I should just move him back to his old coop. We're just trying to free it up for a new batch of chicks we're raising.
Any ideas would be appreciated!