Roosters fighting each other

[CAjamieb]

The two flocks have been kept separate for 3 weeks, but side by side where they could see each other and get used to each other. I would not put new chickens in with my established flock without quarantining them first to make sure they're healthy. So, that having been said, even though they've been near each other for weeks it didn't seem to help in the case of the roosters. As I said, I'm not one to just let them go at it until it's either settled or one is injured or killed. Just wish they would get along.

 

[marlo101freddy1]

if my roosters start fighting i separate them! that's all i do i put them in completely different pens!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Man (or woman) fighting roosters are made, not born. The only possible exception is highly inbred roosters who may display a tendency to act crazy.

The one sure way to teach a domestic barn yard rooster to attack you is to scare his hens. This is often accomplished by you startling him or his hens by approaching unseen or unannounced, or by rowdy children running and playing to close to the coop. The easiest or quickest way however is by catching or attempting to capture one of his hens and her objecting to your attention. In your roosters' little bird brain he is only protecting his family when he goes Chuck Norris on you.

In fact Centerchid correctly mentioned in a different thread that a true game rooster under normal conditions is the least likely rooster to flog you.
Game roosters are called "game" because they display an uncompromising disposition. This means that once they begin a battle they carry the battle through to completion.

If you isolate almost any rooster say for 12 months under ideal Free Range conditions with a couple dozen flirty hens to stoke his ego or massage his feelings of invincibility that rooster can reliably be expected to attack any strange rooster that enters his territory, maybe ever to the death.

Now that doesn't necessarily mean that he will travel to another location and show that same amount of gameness, he likely won't but when defending his home turf he will likely fight to either his death or to the death of his Nemesis.

Here is one unintended result of gameness. I had lines of about 20 pens and except for the two end coops the other 18 shared both of their interior walls with the pen next door. While feeding and watering I heard a ruckus. On investigation I found the rooster in the end pen, sitting in a depression,with his bloody head stuck beneath the dividing wall. He had dug a dusting wallow in this location that got below the level of the wall and when he saw daylight he poked his head under to have a look around. This depression however allowed the cock on the opposite side of the dividing wall to rain blows down onto his poor roosters noggin with total impunity. The poor guy however was still straining to wiggle all the way under the dividing wall so that he could get his blows in on his hated rival living next door.

Conversely a friend of mine kept large free range flocks of game hens, maybe 100 to 200 hens in each flock and each flock had one mature rooster who served as a flock master. Each flock however occupied a territory that was fully self contained in so far as chicken resources was concerned.
Hens did from time to time trade back and forth between these flocks so the flock masters had their hands full trying to keep their harems in tact. Oh yes all but 2 or 3 of these flocks were out of sight of each other but none were out of ear shot. I have seen two of these roosters challenge each other in a crowing contest from 200 feet but then a hen tempted by a lustful crow would try and go over the border line and then each rooster dropped what he was doing to round up his hens yet again less anymore of them tried to immigrate. His farm was 500+ acres in size and he kept 5 or 6 flocks there, each one tied to a physical feature on his farm, like the mule barn, dog kennel, old home place, milk barn, and the family's cemetery. Also only the two flocks centered on the mule and cow barns had a roof to roost under and most of these hens preferred to roost in the timber.

 

[Mrs. K]

I'm just so bummed out this morning---yesterday we integrated 5 hens and one young roo into our existing flock of 17 hens and one Serama roo. It hasn't gone well with the roosters

The new roo is a Phoenix/maybe Game? mix and is, of course, larger than the Serama roo, but that little booger is mean and isn't happy with the new addition. We have a large run and coop, very large, enough room for all and plenty of hens so that's not the problem. I left them all together for about 3 hours before time to roost and the Serama continually chased and attacked the other. My husband quickly decided to clip the aggressor's spurs off so as to avoid as much damage as possible but he never gave up. The new roo just kept running away and would bury his head in the grass or anywhere he could to protect himself. I thought they might settle down but really didn't. They all spent the night in the coop together and emerged OK this morning but then the fight was on once again. Our run is designed with the coop in the middle with a separate run on each side which can be left open for total access or each closed off. I finally got one roo on each side each with several hens and just shut the doors. I can't stand to see the one being beat up, he never defends himself, just runs away and tries to hide. There was a small amount of blood on this morning and that was my final decision to separate them. During the day, I can easily keep them apart but they must share sleeping quarters with the current set-up. I cannot just allow them to "fight it out" so I guess I'm just not sure what to do.....ugh. I hate stressing out the hens as well and they all seem to be getting along just fine. It looks like I'll either have to re-home the new roo (hate to do that, I like him) or talk the hubby into building another small coop in the one end for him and some of the hens to sleep in. I'm pretty inexperienced at chicken keeping and this is even stressing me out.

Oh I think there is an ideal solution for your set up, go ahead and cull a rooster now. That fight won't stop, however, with that separation ability, if you don't think your eggs are getting fertilized next spring, you could separate the rooster and just a few hens for a couple of days, and that should bring your fertility rates, then either set them under a broody hen, or integrate the chicks when rather young using a one way gate, and let them grow up in the flock. A father, son relationship is much more apt to work, than a stranger/stranger one.

 

[bobbi-j]

The two flocks have been kept separate for 3 weeks, but side by side where they could see each other and get used to each other. I would not put new chickens in with my established flock without quarantining them first to make sure they're healthy. So, that having been said, even though they've been near each other for weeks it didn't seem to help in the case of the roosters. As I said, I'm not one to just let them go at it until it's either settled or one is injured or killed. Just wish they would get along.

This is all good and well (not a true "quarantine", but that's another subject altogether), and may help lessen fighting and needing to establish a pecking order, but they still need to sort things out once they're together. Especially with males. If the two roosters were separated together - away from the hens - they would likely be fine, but when you throw hens into the mix, all bets are off. They are male animals, and one will be dominant. The younger one is hiding now because he is young. I don't know how old he is, but maybe not old enough to figure out that he could be the boss if he wanted to. That could well change once he reaches sexual maturity. Roosters, bulls, stallions, buck goats and sheep - they all can be OK if kept by themselves, but put a female in there for them to breed, and that instinct takes over, and they will all most likely fight for those breeding "rights" so to speak. (This is why you sometimes see a pasture with just bulls in it) It's how they're made. Survival of the fittest and all that. So, they have to fight to prove they are the strongest so they can carry on the species. Two or more males - without enough space and females to have their own separate flocks and territories - are more likely to be a problem than to just get along. I won't say it'll never happen, because as Ridgerunner often says, "We're dealing with living animals" and you just never know what they're going to do. If you want both roosters, I'd plan on having two separate flocks in their own spaces. Sometimes it can work, but I am willing to say that it's more likely that it won't.

 

[marlo101freddy1]

you know what if you had a dog pen you could put straw in it and put it in the garage where they won't see each other at all and see how he likes it!