Rooster fight

[centrarchid]

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?

Since the birds are not game and the loser can get away, the strong possibility remains you can roosters settle in with new pecking order without much further discord for a while. Obviously they got dinged up but in most instances damage will not be life threatening. That part of fun keeping multiple roosters, regardless of hen to rooster ratio.

I see similar each year with my Missouri Dominiques but have lost none to date over 8 years of such fun. No serious damage other than to feathers. Eyes will occasionally be damaged but it is far from the rule.

 

[Folly's place]

It's much more peaceful, and less stressful, to have fewer roosters. I like mine too, but fewer is better than too many! Hatching chicks will likely be over 50% males; what then? I think most of those boys need to move on, to the freezer, or another flock.
Mary

 

[canalcolt]

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.

I like having my roosters.. they really help to look out for predators And make a noise that is different to my hens laying egg noise which is nice when a fox, raccoon, etc. just only buy pullets so u know there's a high chance of no more roosters

 

[aart]

My dad goes after chicken like a woman goes after new shoes, he can't help it.

Well, he could help it.

He is probably going to build more to accustom for the chickens to make it better.

He should build more coops/enclosures....unless y'all like to watch cock/erels bloody one another.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

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.

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.

If you want to keep all your roosters, I suggest reading this: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/rooster-flocks.72998/

 

[Michelle. LeVrier]

Ok, thanks for the info., my dad says he loves his roosters. Could you separate the two roosters with their own hens, and that would fix it? The lavender rooster could go with the rhode island red because they get along fine.

 

[canalcolt]

Ok, thanks for the info., my dad says he loves his roosters. Could you separate the two roosters with their own hens, and that would fix it? The lavender rooster could go with the rhode island red because they get along fine.

I have 3 roosters. One stayed in one coop And the other two stayed in one together (they are brothers). I wish I had known this but one of the brothers got hurt and we had to bring him in to care for him (about 2 weeks or so) . When he was better we allowed him to go back out .. he no longer gets along with his brother. now we have to decide what to do...if we should build a 3rd coop or what.