roosters

[kristylw73]

Opened up chicken coop this morning,and I have three roosters,about 30 hens.why would my two roosters be bloody.I have had them all from baby chicks.they should all get along right?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Opened up chicken coop this morning,and I have three roosters,about 30 hens.why would my two roosters be bloody.I have had them all from baby chicks.they should all get along right?

Wrong, they should not get along at least as long as the two roosters in question are close to each other in sexual powers and social standing in your flock.

Roosters add the violence of the hens' pecking order to the roosters' extreme sense of sexual jealousy. If one roo consents to be a hen to the top rooster then everything will be hunky-dory. There is also any number of other possible combinations or scenarios as well as
Combinations-of-Scenarios that could arise out of this.

No one said how old your two "roosters" are. In my book a cockerel is not a rooster until he has finished his first adult molt, at say 18-24 months of age. That imo is why many young roosters go to freezer camp before their time.

As a 6, 7, or 8 month old cockerel these "boy" chickens are too young for a hen to take serious when it comes to granting them her affections. What the chicken keeper, especially the new chicken keeper sees as aggression by a young cockerel is in fact the hen displaying her disdain for the low ranking cockerel
that you've chosen for her. She displays her disdain by avoiding the cockerel at all costs. All the squawking is designed to bring the flock master to the hens' defense. Which also serves to make a calm rooster a man or woman fighter, especially if you try to chase down a hen and the rooster gets it into his bird brain that you have immoral designs on the virtue of his pullets and hens.

 

[krista74]

Opened up chicken coop this morning,and I have three roosters,about 30 hens.why would my two roosters be bloody.I have had them all from baby chicks.they should all get along right?

I'm no expert by any means, but I would presume that even though they are related, that doesn't mean much to the chickens!

As the hormones start to flow, it is natural for the cockerels to challenge each other to determine who is Master of the Domain and who will be submissive. In time, they will sort out their pecking order, with the Dominant Cockerel/Rooster laying claim to the hens. He will get first choice of mating rights and the flock will defer to him. The other cockerels/roosters will be under him, and may either start their own small harems with the remaining hens or skirt around the edges of the flock, getting what they can when they can. It may be that the head rooster suppresses their 'manliness' even further, with many submissive cockerels being too afraid to even crow in his presence! In due course there could be further challenges for the Head Rooster's position, and make no mistake about it - these challenges can be quite vicious. So all in all, I'm not surprised at the state you found your birds in this morning.

The question now is what can do about it! It could be that the current set-up you have may not work out for you and that you need to consider an alternative. You might like to try leaving one rooster in with the hens and having a bachelor pad on the side for the other males. Or you could start up a couple of separate mini flocks, dividing the hens accordingly between the available males. The other resort is to remove one or more of the roosters, but I presume you have three on hand for a reason? Breeding purposes perhaps? In that case, the former two suggestions may be the most appropriate for your situation.

My best wishes to you - do keep us updated!

- Krista

 

[krista74]

Oh!

And

!


Delighted to have you on board!


- Krista

 

[azygous]

Yeah, it's a myth that cockerels should get along as long as they have been raised together. It's purely coincidental if they do.

I had two boy chicks that were raised together, and as soon as their hormones began flowing, they began fighting. Unless separated, they would bloody each other something awful.

I built a coop just to house these two, and I put up a partition made from plastic deer netting to keep them from fighting. It didn't work. They managed to shred the deer netting one morning, and one ended up losing his entire set of tail feathers. I had to replace the partition with poultry wire.

The never did learn to get along.

 

[kristylw73]

Thanks for the imfo,feedback.yes their is the one that seems to be the head guy.he has even shown my three year old who is boss by attacking him two times ,and then the third visit recently to barn went up and shoved him instead of pecking.My son is now afraid to go to the barn.Guess I will have to figure out where to put him.