Rooster problems

[Helicopter Mom]

We have 2 roosters and 16 hens. One rooster is an Oliver Egger who is 3 years old (hatched in 2018) and the other rooster is a Black Americauna who just turned 1 (hatched 2020). Up until now the two roosters got along, with the Olive Egger being the main dominant rooster. Just this week, we started to notice the Americauna beginning to seriously bully and chase the Olive Egger. Thankfully, no injuries have been seen on either bird yet and none of the hens show signs of over breeding, etc.

We'd really like to keep both birds if at all possible but we're not sure if this is doable. Since the larger bird, the Americauna, was preventing the Olive Egger even getting into the coop enclosure to get a drink, we did pull the Americauna out for the night and put him in the garage. We know this is a risk as if he is gone too long, trying to put them back together won't happen.

So I'm looking for any advice on how best to handle this situation. We don't have the resources either to split the flock and have each rooster have their own brood of hens.

Also, the Americauna was introduced to the main flock as a cockerel with the other 6 hens he was raised with as a chick when they all reached the appropriate age to be merged with the other birds. Because of this, our main dominate rooster never had a problem with him an vice versa. But now that the Americauna has turned 1, he's trying to assert his dominance.

Should we just let them try to work things out but keep a close eye on them, cull one, purchase chicken glasses for the Americauna? Ugh....no clue what to do.

 

[Coops Dad]

I have two large roosters for our main flock of 16 hens. I built two coops and the dominant roo takes one with the majority of the hens and the other roo takes the other coop with his three girlfriends.

They share common space and all free range together but big roo doesn't let roo #2 eat until the ladies and he are done eating, and big roo doesn't allow #2 to mount anyone. #2 has developed sneaky skills, though.

 

[Mrs. K]

Adding more feed stations and water stations, where as a bird eating at one, cannot be seen from another feed station. Use small pieces of plywood, to build a mini wall, or lean against a wall, will help.

If you want them in together, get that one back in there ASAP. It might work, but then again, it might not...this will either get better or worse. There is not much you can do about this, time will tell.

Do have a plan B set up and ready to go. And have a way that you can separate the fighting birds, either a chicken hook or a fishnet. If you are unfamiliar, most people vastly underestimate chicken fighting until they see it.

Mrs K

 

[Soonermagic254]

We have 2 roosters and 16 hens. One rooster is an Oliver Egger who is 3 years old (hatched in 2018) and the other rooster is a Black Americauna who just turned 1 (hatched 2020). Up until now the two roosters got along, with the Olive Egger being the main dominant rooster. Just this week, we started to notice the Americauna beginning to seriously bully and chase the Olive Egger. Thankfully, no injuries have been seen on either bird yet and none of the hens show signs of over breeding, etc.

We'd really like to keep both birds if at all possible but we're not sure if this is doable. Since the larger bird, the Americauna, was preventing the Olive Egger even getting into the coop enclosure to get a drink, we did pull the Americauna out for the night and put him in the garage. We know this is a risk as if he is gone too long, trying to put them back together won't happen.

So I'm looking for any advice on how best to handle this situation. We don't have the resources either to split the flock and have each rooster have their own brood of hens.

Also, the Americauna was introduced to the main flock as a cockerel with the other 6 hens he was raised with as a chick when they all reached the appropriate age to be merged with the other birds. Because of this, our main dominate rooster never had a problem with him an vice versa. But now that the Americauna has turned 1, he's trying to assert his dominance.

Should we just let them try to work things out but keep a close eye on them, cull one, purchase chicken glasses for the Americauna? Ugh....no clue what to do.

is splitting the flock an option?