Roosters & keeping peace in your flock

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VanZane

VanZane

In the Brooder
Mar 10, 2015
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As I've been growing in raising multiple breeds of chicken, some of us new comers might find out really fast that not all chickens are created equal. Just like people, They are individuals and some are simply better than others, despite being very instinct driven creatures as you raise a flock you find certain ones of the flock might cling to you and actually bond with you. For me, it happened with a few of the young cockerels, they were sold to us very young and the owners claimed they were pullets, so us being new to the world of home raised poultry, knew no different till months later when They began to crow lol. Sadly I had no desire for multiple roosters in my flock but these 3 boys had already became as tame as dogs with me & killing them was no option. They are well over a year old now, but one took sick over the winter and I had to take him out of the flock for frost bite, and a cold. After getting his health regained, my other 2 boys wouldn't allow him back into the flock. I've never had issues with them fighting, yes with more than one rooster even if they love each other they'll occasionally have a disagreement over food or a hen, but nothing bloody or extremely violent. So what I've found is in the case of having a sick hen and separating her, then later reintroducing her into the flock, that's not hard to do. But with multiple roosters, they aren't as forgiving and will kill their own brother if he's been away for more than a few days. My current goal is getting my 3 boys back together outside the flock and trying to get them back to peaceful living, so far I've had small success. I caged two that were into it, and after getting them to understand I wasn't having them fight, they will sleep in a pen together and get along actually very good, but my 3rd boy is going to be a challeng because he's very forward and stands his grownd. I know It's not comon people have pet roosters, even though they also are my breeders now... Any suggestions on how to calm them so they adjust back to getting along. Anyone who says it's unnatural and sell or kill one, save yourself some time and don't respond because I'm aware of the difficulty of this, but anyone who has had some level of similar experiences I'd love advice. But I have all 3 of them trained like pets, and selling one is hard enough but I know whoever I sell to more than likely would be cooking them later that night despite what I'd be told. So anyone know anything about getting roosters to get along? Lol
 
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Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Not sure from what you are saying, but you don't intend to run all three with a flock of hens, you are just looking to keep the three roos in a bachelor pen? I would try a long period of seeing but no touching through wire, like you would do if adding a new bird to your flock, ie dividing the coop into two sections or keeping the lone bird in a cage inside the coup for a couple of weeks to a month at least. Hopefully the roos will get to know each other again and sort of work out a pecking order before actually coming in contact with each other. Letting them free range together after a few weeks might help... It will take a couple of weeks to get the pecking order sorted out. Just be sure there is plenty of room for the lower level roosters to keep away from the dominant or aggressive roo.
I sometimes put my roos in bachelor quarters over the winter and pretty much just do that, and rearrange them if two aren't getting along, usually within a month or so nobody is too fussy about who their neighbor is.
If they are not a game breed, that may work, if they are games of some sort, you may wind up always having to keep them separate.
 
Hello and Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you decided to join! Feel free to ask any questions you may have, we will try to help you anyway we can.
frow.gif

I hope you get those boys calmed down soon!
 
Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

I agree with Kelsie2290. You might have to get rid of some roosters if they are fighting.

Pretty birds!
 
Thanks for all the welcomes! Well as you probably get from what I've written so far, I truly do love working with chickens... However stuff like this makes it hard because I'm currently keeping them on eating and free range shifts lol. I can't let them all run free at once, but I have my main coop and lot separate from them right now. They don't have game in them, but my smallest rooster "Denden" is probably the worst for picking fights, partly it cracks me up because though they're all the same age, he's a tiny terror at times. He's never been any different "thus the name Denden" I named him this while he was young because he was so roughty and bossy I said when he gets older I'll have to probably turn him into dinner. Turns out, he's not as much mean as he's the boss and demands order & respect from the others, and by far the most tame bird out of my whole flock. So I'm thinking this idea of keeping them caged close might be a really good idea, I know the 3 of them have been inseparable till this little blip. The last thing I want is them to kill or injure one another. Two of them are currently getting along much better, But as soon as I pour feed for them... It's on, they don't seem to want to share, or if a hen is in the mix... This can fire them into a territory battle.
 
And thanx for the compliments on them, two are white rocks, and their biggest brother is a white rock Brahma mix. They are probably babied and kept up about as good as a show bird in how I feed and care for them
 
Been a while since being on here, but really glad to say I've pretty much solved this problem with the roosters. I have placed the two that occasionally get along in a small dog carrier at night together, there is no room for them to fight. They basically have no choice but to sit side to side and get along, this somewhat uncomfortable closeness together pretty much has made them understand that they neither want to fight. Went a let them out in the morning to free range, they have been sharing food, no fighting at all, and freely walking around in peace. So now that this worked for me, I don't even always keep them in the same place at night just so they have a break. They're back to being buddies which is a huge relief. My 3rd rooster ended up being placed in my winter duck lot with an injured hen. One of my roosters in the hen lot had pulled quite a bit of feathers out of her and I had nowhere to put her... then it hit me, put her with Tennessee in the duck lot because they'll be happy together. I have bread them and got some awesome beautiful babies as well! I had to put down one of my roosters because he was causing hen injuries, yanking out feathers of other hens even after pulling the first one from the lot. Sadly even though it's slowed down, I still feel like there is another bird causing this problem... so I'm on watch to see who it is so this won't continue. Outside of that, we're doing awesome! I successfully hatched a ton of babies on my own, and all of them are growing like weeds! There are pains in raising your own flock, but the joys outweigh all the sorrow.
 

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