Rooster fight

[Michelle. LeVrier]

Our black australorp rooster and our rhode island red rooster used to get along great, but now they are fighting. I guess the australorp wants to be at the top of the pecking order now, after being second in command after the rhode island red for a year. So they were fighting, the rhode island red was getting the worst of it, but he won't quit. I guess the australorp won, and now he wanted to fight the leghorn rooster even though he doesn't want to fight. Now we have the injured chicken in the house beaten up, and the australorp locked up in a cage by himself. Is that a bad combo, and what should we do?

 

[Arya28]

How many hens/roosters are in the pen together?

 

[Arya28]

Oh, and how old are they?

We have totally been there, with fighting roosters. It's not just you. Age and amount in a pen can make a big difference. As for the one in the cage, it if's really beat up, with bloody spots, I would recommend Blue Kote. It you have too many roosters with not enough hens, you may need to do some rearranging..

 

[Arya28]

Here is a YouTube Channel called The Swedish Homestead that you might find helpful... I know we did!! This guy keeps his roosters and his hens separate. He might have one head rooster in with the hens, but he stresses the importance of rooster pens. When roosters are separate from hens, they don't have a reason to fight (unless one of the roosters is having a problem health-wise, but that's another topic).

We have 63 chickens, about 30 of them are roosters. We have two different pens with hens, each which have a head rooster. And then, we have a rooster pen. They don't have girls to fight over, so they mostly get along. They scrap now and again, but nothing serious.

We do have one pen with 14 hens and 6 roosters-- which is generally NOT the recommended ratio. However, 4 of these 6 roosters are bantams, and the big ones don't even bother fighting with them so they get along just fine. So there are two big roosters in there (a Cream Legbar and a Svart Hona). They are calmer breeds, and thankfully, seem to get along.

The recommended ratio is approx. 1 rooster per 6 hens.

 

[Farm life101]

Australorp could have just gotten in a mood or had hormones racing I would keep him by himself for a week or so and then put him back and see how he does. You will be able to see if he was the problem or not and if he is and when you put him back if he is still aggressive I would either get more hens or find a good home for him.
Good luck

 

[canalcolt]

i have 3 Roos. A Rhode Island Red and a Rhode Island white. i remember looking out the window and seeing 2 of the roosters fighting..our white rooster looked like Carrie from the movie with blood all over his face and neck. We separated them and then let them have turns out in the yard. We eventually would let them out together and keep an eye on them. If they fought we would separate them and put one of the roosters up. This lasted for months. At one point The red rooster was top rooster and later the white rooster got back to being the top rooster and it's been a little over a year that the pecking order had been sorted out. But now the red rooster had gotten injured by a fox and his brother (our 3rd rooster) attacked him. We just put the red rooster in our basement at night until we can figure out what to do since the red rooster can no longer be in the coop with his brother .

 

[bobbi-j]

As long as you have multiple roosters in with hens, you are very likely to have fights happening. How old are these birds? How many hens do you have? How much space do they have?

For now, I'd separate all the roosters. From each other and the hens. If you feel you want to keep all your roosters, I'd strongly suggest a bachelor pen for them, putting one in with the hens if you want to breed and hatch. (Which will, of course, result in more roosters. If you plan on hatching, please have an exit plan for any and all extra males BEFORE you even start setting eggs.)

 

[Michelle. LeVrier]

Ok, we have 11 hens for 3 roosters which isn't enough hens. The other rooster we have is a lavender orpington and he is really sweet and even our leghorn rooster used to sometimes boss him around when all the chickens were let outside to graze. Our other pen has one buff rooster, a leghorn rooster that just loves to be in there and a buff cockerel and 12 hens. Thing is our buff rooster has gotten to where he only cares about 3 of the original 6 buff girls we have. But even then our cockerel will eventually need hens and we were thinking of moving the two barred rock roosters out of the silkie pen with 3 hens, 2 of which is the offspring of the australorp. I guess what I'm saying is that we need to get more hens, and that will be months from now in the spring.

 

[bobbi-j]

Ok, we have 11 hens for 3 roosters which isn't enough hens. The other rooster we have is a lavender orpington and he is really sweet and even our leghorn rooster used to sometimes boss him around when all the chickens were let outside to graze. Our other pen has one buff rooster, a leghorn rooster that just loves to be in there and a buff cockerel and 12 hens. Thing is our buff rooster has gotten to where he only cares about 3 of the original 6 buff girls we have. But even then our cockerel will eventually need hens and we were thinking of moving the two barred rock roosters out of the silkie pen with 3 hens, 2 of which is the offspring of the australorp. I guess what I'm saying is that we need to get more hens, and that will be months from now in the spring.

Or keep fewer roosters. (How old are they?) What are your flock goals? Do you plan on breeding all these hens? If so, what do you plan on doing with all the chicks? Especially the cockerels? Do you have enough space for all those different flocks? How many coops do you have, and how many more do you plan to build? Just having "enough hens" will not keep the roosters from fighting if they're all housed together. As long as there are females with them, they are likely to fight. Not always. Each bird and flock are different, but they are more likely to fight than not.

 

[Michelle. LeVrier]

I forgot to mention that we have another buff cockerel going through the pecking phase and 3 braggs mountain buffs that I wanted to move over there, but my dad was hesitant. We have 4 different coops, one for the silkies, one for the smaller bantams, one for buff orpingtons, and one for misc. Big chickens. We just enjoy chickens, and are not planning to breed, I mean if a hen gets broody with eggs then that's fine, but it's not like a goal. During this spring my dad wants to get porcelain d'uccles, mille fleurs and bantam cochins. My dad goes after chicken like a woman goes after new shoes, he can't help it. He is probably going to build more to accustom for the chickens to make it better.