Rooster fight!

[Wyorp Rock]

Total bird count for this pen is 12. The run is about 40 x 30 feet so about 1,200 sq ft?

Is your run covered and secure? (have a roof)

Any way you can temporarily section off some spaces inside the run for holding pens?

 

[ldrchickens]

If I had a weekend, I would try to experiment with ways to keep them all together, but darn they would still on occasion try to ding each other up.

Ya right!? Normally i have saturday and sunday (have for the past 6 months lol) And the one weekend i work my roos decide to go crazy. thats just my luck

 

[ldrchickens]

I have a bunch of 4' x 5' pens used to house my American Dominique roosters singly. Your birds could get by with a lot less until your breeding pens are ready.

thats what i was thinking! im just worried about them getting to cold? they wont get cold by themselves in 25 degree weather at night?

 

[cmom]

You pushing into a realm I am unable to do with confined roosters. I have trouble keeping small numbers (<5) more than one together. I either have more roosters without females or have only one male per pen with females.

Same here. When there are females and more than one male in the same pen together, there will be fights. I have one male in with some females per coop and pen. There are certain times of the year after I have hatched out chicks that they go out into a grow-out coop all together. Before the males start to crow I move them to a bachelor coop and pen. Once removed from the females they usually do fine. Every once in awhile the males may pick out one of the males to pick on but for the most part they get along fine as long as there are no females in with them.

 

[ldrchickens]

Do you have a roll of 2" x 4" welded wire laying around. You could quickly make some little cock-pens to hold the little guys away from harming each other.

I think so. We have all sorts of wire around so i will have to check today and figure something out

 

[FnWeirdo]

i dont think the boys will stop fighting until a clear victor establishes himself. and with the addition of new girls theres something to fight for. i read minimum of 3 weeks for the see but dont touch method and thats what i go by ( this will only be my second year with chickens) but i do have a total of 13 chickens that i had to do 4 different integrations with this method. I've noticed its a lot easier introducing a group rather then a single chicken. males will fight until someone wins.
i also learned after a couple weeks to start giving them " yard time" every day. i usually do this while im doing my chicken chores, i serve as the distraction and toss food and such to distract the other chickens, let them squabble but dont let things get too serious and just monitor then i round them back up.
oh and another good pointer i learned from BYC, if you stop the fight your only postponing it. chickens hold a grudge and that fight will be coming. my first big mistake with integration was trying to stop the fighting, they just kept getting more aggressive until i let them figure it out how they wanted to figure it out lol. had me a little worried but after a decisive victor came forth everything calmed down and those 2 are best buds lol.

 

[ldrchickens]

Is your run covered and secure? (have a roof)

Any way you can temporarily section off some spaces inside the run for holding pens?

no sadly its just a 5 foot tall fence made with chicken wire. I am planing on making it taller and covering it but like i said they didnt give me time lol

 

[centrarchid]

thats what i was thinking! im just worried about them getting to cold? they wont get cold by themselves in 25 degree weather at night?

They will be able handle cold so long as you can keep them dry. On smaller pens I simply drape an old rug over the top to block rain. A board on north side can the be used to block coldest wind. For birds where feathers are in poor shape (heavy molt) I provide them a box stuffed with a little hay they can retreat to.

 

[cmom]

thats what i was thinking! im just worried about them getting to cold? they wont get cold by themselves in 25 degree weather at night?

Chicken can stand cold weather.

 

[ldrchickens]

i dont think the boys will stop fighting until a clear victor establishes himself. and with the addition of new girls theres something to fight for. i read minimum of 3 weeks for the see but dont touch method and thats what i go by ( this will only be my second year with chickens) but i do have a total of 13 chickens that i had to do 4 different integrations with this method. I've noticed its a lot easier introducing a group rather then a single chicken. males will fight until someone wins.
i also learned after a couple weeks to start giving them " yard time" every day. i usually do this while im doing my chicken chores, i serve as the distraction and toss food and such to distract the other chickens, let them squabble but dont let things get too serious and just monitor then i round them back up.
oh and another good pointer i learned from BYC, if you stop the fight your only postponing it. chickens hold a grudge and that fight will be coming. my first big mistake with integration was trying to stop the fighting, they just kept getting more aggressive until i let them figure it out how they wanted to figure it out lol. had me a little worried but after a decisive victor came forth everything calmed down and those 2 are best buds lol.

I believe thats what may have caused it. They showed absolute no aggression until i got the new girls. I have read that as well, My friend where i got some of my birds from said she just puts them together and lets them fight it out and never had any serious harm. of coarse this is my first year in chickens so im too scared to do that but i might have too. I do plan on supervising them before permanent placing them together. I know not to seperate anything due to this only can prolong the issue due to them needing to establish their pecking order. all i know is this next week is going to be hella stressfull