Nmfensley94
In the Brooder
So a little background; we started out with five chickens that came from a family member (who is also new to chickens) so we didn’t have concrete answers on their breed or sex. We received them at roughly eight weeks old and were immediately able to identify one as a rooster. While we were right about one rooster, we mistook another for a hen. Our misidentification was only solidified by the fact that he behaved differently than our known rooster, we never noticed him crowing and we never had any issues with aggression between the two. Within the last month or so we lost two hens to a hawk as we often let them free range. Roughly two weeks ago my boyfriend went out to open up the coop and noticed that our two larger chickens (now both thought to be roosters) had black spots all over their combs and wattles. After spending some time researching, frostbite seemed to fit the bill as we were approaching the end of winter. I called our local avian vet and explained their appearance but was immediately met with refusal to see them due to bird flu cases popping up in our state. After gaining some knowledge about AI, it was apparent they weren’t infected as they exhibited none of the symptoms. Once I was finally able to examine them in person, I quickly realized the black spots were actually dried blood and the chicken we initially thought to be a hen was far more injured than our rooster as he was missing feathers in the chest area with obvious pecking wounds. We cleaned them up and monitored them closely, everything was normal and we noticed no further fighting. Fast forward to today, we came home and went to close the coop up for the day only to find both of them with fresh blood on their combs and wattles, the one that previously had feathers missing from the neck area was now missing feathers on its back. Our only hen has gone completely unscathed through all of this. My thought is that we actually have two roosters and although we never had the recommended rooster to hen ratio, we also never had issues with aggression/fighting until we lost two hens. Common sense points me in the direction of rehoming a rooster, but it’s the last thing I want to do. While we have someone who is willing to take a rooster, I want to make sure I’ve exhausted all other options before giving a rooster up (they’ve both been an absolute pleasure until recently). We only have one hen in the coop but we have six chicks that are nearing the age where we can begin introducing them to the existing flock. Under the impression that the conflict is stemming from a single hen being present, is it reasonable to separate the roosters until we can add more hens to the flock? Or should we just go ahead with rehoming one of them? I’ll attach the picture my boyfriend sent me after the initial incident, hopefully someone can assure me that they’re both roosters.