Roosters Fighting

[outdoorbunny]

I need some advise on my rooster situation. I have 40 hens and 3 roosters. The group was happy and there was no fighting. Then a couple of weeks ago, the second rooster attacked my alpha rooster and nearly killed him. This rooster has always been aggressive, even with us, but our alpha kept him in line. After the fight, we separated the aggressive rooster away from the group. It took about a week to nurse back the blooded rooster but now all he does is hide. He even runs from the third younger rooster...who is now chasing and pecking at him.

My question is will my #1 rooster ever be normal again? It breaks my heart to see him so down and scared. I really don't have another coop and area to separate him and his hens because they all roam 2 acres in our front yard and sleep in our only barn on the property.

Will he ever be a confident rooster again?

 

[chooks4life]

Given time to heal, he may regain dominance, but if the vicious one did permanent damage he may never regain it. At least, while the vicious ones are around.

Personally I would cull the nasty one and if the once-lowest one keeps bullying the once-alpha I would cull him too. What's he attacking a non-challenger for? No good reason. That's an unhealthy mentality. It's not like there's a shortage of hens.

Vicious birds and bullies should not be bred or you will only ever perpetuate a flock of bullies and their miserable victims. Animals should have quality of life as well and a bully only takes that from them.

It's strongly heritable. If I were you, I would keep my original alpha roo, as he is most likely the healthiest of them all since he was originally alpha, as long as he's not aggressive to people, and I would let him breed. I would then raise the sons among the normal flock so they learn to get along, and so it keeps your alpha from becoming intolerant of other males (as sometimes happens if they no longer see other males) and then you will have a peaceful situation again. He will regain alpha status as soon as the bullies are gone and his sons won't challenge him seriously for about a year to come, or possibly ever.

I assume not all your hens are from the same family line? It won't be a problem to keep multiple males from the same family line, then, as long as you keep track of the breeding to prevent chronic inbreeding.

Best wishes.

 

[chickenfarmgirl]

You sounds about like I did a couple of months ago. I had the exact same situation. I removed the attacked rooster for almost 3 months, let him recover, gave him some of the younger hens to watch over, and then just recently I put him back in with the flock. He hasn't been in a big fight yet, (I'm keeping a close watch!) And he is taking care of the hens I gave him. So far there hasn't been any trouble.
In answer to your question, he will probably never be the same confident rooster he once was, but it'll be close!
Hope this helps, and have a great day!

 

[4 the Birds]

I need some advise on my rooster situation. I have 40 hens and 3 roosters. The group was happy and there was no fighting. Then a couple of weeks ago, the second rooster attacked my alpha rooster and nearly killed him. This rooster has always been aggressive, even with us, but our alpha kept him in line. After the fight, we separated the aggressive rooster away from the group. It took about a week to nurse back the blooded rooster but now all he does is hide. He even runs from the third younger rooster...who is now chasing and pecking at him.

My question is will my #1 rooster ever be normal again? It breaks my heart to see him so down and scared. I really don't have another coop and area to separate him and his hens because they all roam 2 acres in our front yard and sleep in our only barn on the property.

Will he ever be a confident rooster again?

Probably not. Roosters fight to establish pecking order.

Free ranging and a large coop/run area is about all you can do. I have a 30 chicken flock with 4 roosters and the old rooster fights with the up and coming young and bigger rooster that has taken over the Alpha roll. Not much you can do other than to let things play out or to remove the weak rooster. Our rooster that gets picked on is our best rooster since he will stand watch over the flock and even stay and fight (once had a friend accidently let her dog into our free range area and the roo fought off the dog until we corralled him).

 

[chooks4life]

While both roosters and hens (and chicks too) do fight to establish pecking order, there is such a thing as becoming obsessed with harassing or killing others. Bullying is a neurotic behavior best culled out because otherwise it breeds on. It's proven to be heritable and something that takes generations to breed out or into a breed or family line.

As you have seen, having dozens of females per male and space to roam does not solve anything nor does it magically prevent anything bad. That all depends on the birds themselves. There are posters on this forum who have had problems with lone males, with up to 100 hens, who simply cannot accept another male. It's not that they're even able to mate with half those hens, or that they 'need' even a quarter of those hens, just that they are oriented towards attacking other males, obsessed with it.

I have a flock averaging around 100 adult birds at any given time, whose ratio reaches half male, half female, and I don't have violence issues, period.

They free range together, sleep in two main coops, feed together, switch mates as either partner sees fit, raise babies among the main flock, and there's no bullying or damaging behaviors. No cannibalism, no chick-killing, no feather-picking, no hierarchy squabbles degenerating into bullying or bloodshed, no injured or ill birds being attacked.

It's simple to achieve simply by culling bullies and excessively violent animals and only breeding on those who get along.

Yes, they fight, and it's natural, but it's rare and there are no injuries dealt because mentally stable and socially healthy birds don't go killing one another to change the ranks in the hierarchy. My roosters fight without stabbing one another with their spurs or harming one another. That's normal, even in the wild. Fights to the death are not actually normal, they represent an extreme.

A decent boot or two is all it takes for them to realize which one is stronger, and they then go their separate ways and don't have a problem sharing the yard with one another. My hens also fight. They're also balanced about it and sort it out swiftly. There is no constant stress.

I selected for this social mentality so I can raise birds for eggs and meat, as well as work on breeding my own strain, while having them live the most fulfilling high-quality life possible, thereby giving them the best health possible, which directly translates into the health of the humans who eat them or their eggs.

You choose what sort of flock you have by what animals you keep and breed on.

Best wishes with your decision and shaping your future flock.

 

[outdoorbunny]

Thank you all for your advise. I wasn't too surprised by the second rooster's aggression. We were planning on culling him anyway but my husband was so busy that we kept putting it off. Now he is gone, (a little too late of course) but I was surprised to see the 9 month old EE Rooster start to pick on my alpha as soon as I removed the second one. I want harmony in my flock and my original alpha (a wyandotte) is very sweet and took great care of the hens. So I'm getting rid of the EE Rooster too. I don't want drama for my chickens and I only want to breed well balanced chickens.

I just hope that once we are back to one rooster, he will get his confidence back and start strutting again. He had a beautiful strut. LOL.

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[chooks4life]

Thank you all for your advise. I wasn't too surprised by the second rooster's aggression. We were planning on culling him anyway but my husband was so busy that we kept putting it off. Now he is gone, (a little too late of course) but I was surprised to see the 9 month old EE Rooster start to pick on my alpha as soon as I removed the second one. I want harmony in my flock and my original alpha (a wyandotte) is very sweet and took great care of the hens. So I'm getting rid of the EE Rooster too. I don't want drama for my chickens and I only want to breed well balanced chickens.

I just hope that once we are back to one rooster, he will get his confidence back and start strutting again. He had a beautiful strut. LOL.

Thanks again for the advice.

I'd bet he'll start strutting again... Best wishes with them.