Roosters fighting abnormally long

[irradiatedsnakes]

(Sorry if this isn't the right place to post this, I puzzled for a while over whether this should go here, in chicken behaviors, or in chicken injuries. let me know if i should delete ths and post elsewhere)
I've got a couple cubalaya roosters. This morning, two of them- Marius & Armageddon- were brawling for a really long time. At least an hour, according to my dad, was how long they were at it before he called me down to deal with it. When I got in there, they were dead tired- put up no fight when i picked them up (these are friendly birds, but they don't like being manhandled at all), and the way they were going at each other was sloppy and obviously exhausted. It was raining all morning and the both of them, unlike the entire rest of the flock, were soaked.
I've brought Armageddon in to rest and dry off, and put Marius in isolation near the others outside. I'll switch them out and let Marius dry once Armageddon's dry.
Neither are super badly hurt- just some pecking & pulled feathers in the comb/back of the neck area, but still. I worry if I hadn't intervened this would've gone til one of them was dead.
I think it was Marius who was the instigator. He's generally a bit pushy, but nothing outside of normal top-of-the-pecking-order things, taking first go at food and stuff like that. I want to emphasize how out of the blue this is- ive seen these roos get into spats before, but the longest it ever went on was maybe 3-5 minutes. They have a big run, makes it easy to disengage when one backs down.

I'm just stuck at what to do. The obvious solution is cull Marius. And if it comes to that, I'll do it for the sake of the others, but I really, really don't want to. He's a friendly, beautiful, wonderful bird and I love him a lot, the last thing i want to do is have to cull him. Is there anything else that can be done to keep them from fighting like this? And is there any way to know if this'll be a repeat incident?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I think that breed is similar to Cornish and games in that roosters sippy don't tolerate other roosters well. May be best to make 2 seperate flocks if you want to keep both

 

[Shadrach]

(Sorry if this isn't the right place to post this, I puzzled for a while over whether this should go here, in chicken behaviors, or in chicken injuries. let me know if i should delete ths and post elsewhere)
I've got a couple cubalaya roosters. This morning, two of them- Marius & Armageddon- were brawling for a really long time. At least an hour, according to my dad, was how long they were at it before he called me down to deal with it. When I got in there, they were dead tired- put up no fight when i picked them up (these are friendly birds, but they don't like being manhandled at all), and the way they were going at each other was sloppy and obviously exhausted. It was raining all morning and the both of them, unlike the entire rest of the flock, were soaked.
I've brought Armageddon in to rest and dry off, and put Marius in isolation near the others outside. I'll switch them out and let Marius dry once Armageddon's dry.
Neither are super badly hurt- just some pecking & pulled feathers in the comb/back of the neck area, but still. I worry if I hadn't intervened this would've gone til one of them was dead.
I think it was Marius who was the instigator. He's generally a bit pushy, but nothing outside of normal top-of-the-pecking-order things, taking first go at food and stuff like that. I want to emphasize how out of the blue this is- ive seen these roos get into spats before, but the longest it ever went on was maybe 3-5 minutes. They have a big run, makes it easy to disengage when one backs down.

I'm just stuck at what to do. The obvious solution is cull Marius. And if it comes to that, I'll do it for the sake of the others, but I really, really don't want to. He's a friendly, beautiful, wonderful bird and I love him a lot, the last thing i want to do is have to cull him. Is there anything else that can be done to keep them from fighting like this? And is there any way to know if this'll be a repeat incident?

If you are considering killing one of them you may as well let them make the decision and let them fight it out. I realise this sounds horrible but with some roosters, they just won't let it go.
An hour flat out isn't likely. What happens is they stop and start.
Your best hope other wise is to seperate them. But, to avoid cruelty in my view you would need to let both have some hens. To do this well, you need to know who is whose favourite and split them with their favourite hens.
You would of course need to house both groups seperately.

 

[SulkyBantam]

If you are going to cull one, please do it quickly and humanely, rather than letting them kill each other.... but do you have enough hens to make 2 flocks?

 

[irradiatedsnakes]

Thanks for the advice, all. Sounds like splitting em up is the only option, save for culling him (which, rest assured, if it is done will be done swiftly, along with the ones we're culling in a week or two for food. the idea of letting them fight to the death like shadrach said is downright inhumane and, i really don't mean to be rude, but pretty ridiculous. would just end up with one dead chicken and one exhausted, injured chicken).
I'm not sure if i have enough hens at the moment for a proper 2 flocks. We'll be getting more next year, but at the moment we've got 11.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Thanks for the advice, all. Sounds like splitting em up is the only option, save for culling him (which, rest assured, if it is done will be done swiftly, along with the ones we're culling in a week or two for food. the idea of letting them fight to the death like shadrach said is downright inhumane and, i really don't mean to be rude, but pretty ridiculous. would just end up with one dead chicken and one exhausted, injured chicken).
I'm not sure if i have enough hens at the moment for a proper 2 flocks. We'll be getting more next year, but at the moment we've got 11.

You might have enough gals with that number. Have you witnessed breeding behavior from either of them yet? If they aren't agressive, they should be fine with 5 or 6 gals

 

[ackie]

I'm not sure if i have enough hens at the moment for a proper 2 flocks. We'll be getting more next year, but at the moment we've got 11.

I think 5 & 6 each should be enough. Definitely check out who runs with which hen & consider that when splitting.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Thanks for the advice, all. Sounds like splitting em up is the only option, save for culling him (which, rest assured, if it is done will be done swiftly, along with the ones we're culling in a week or two for food. the idea of letting them fight to the death like shadrach said is downright inhumane and, i really don't mean to be rude, but pretty ridiculous. would just end up with one dead chicken and one exhausted, injured chicken).
I'm not sure if i have enough hens at the moment for a proper 2 flocks. We'll be getting more next year, but at the moment we've got 11.

What did you think would happen with 2 roosters together in the same area. I think some have the idea that chickens came from a Disney movie.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

What did you think would happen with 2 roosters together in the same area. I think some have the idea that chickens came from a Disney movie.

Lots of people are able to have 2 or even more roosters inhabit the same flock.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Lots of people are able to have 2 or even more roosters inhabit the same flock.

no foolin? Certain breeds are more likely to fight. While Cubalaya aren’t exactly game cocks they aren’t salmon faverolles either. Gotta read between the lines a little or I suppose I can continue to explain everything.