Spring must be in the air - Roosters gone wild

[NellaBean]

I have a flock of 19 hens and 2 roosters....they sleep in an 8x8 coop and spend the days out in a fenced half acre yard. The 'head roo' is my black Jersey Giant who is about 10-11 months old. The other roo is my Rhode Island Red (RIR) who is about 9 months old. They have lived together peacefully since summer.....both were fine with me. RIR roo is a scaredy cat with people, no aggression at all. Jersey Giant roo used to be fine and has gotten slowly more and more aggressive. He has flogged strangers multiple times but usually left me alone. He flogged me once or twice but I always punted him afterwards and he would learn his lesson.

Except yesterday when he repeatedly flogged and spurred me over and over. I have punctures on my left leg as well as a big bruise from where his body slammed into my leg (he is a jersey giant so is huge). I kicked him repeatedly, whacked him with the empty waterer on a rope I was carrying, repeatedly....finally had to get a 2x4 and use it like a baseball bat REPEATEDLY to get him to finally back off.

Obviously he is going to be gone within the week. I don't process my own, so have offered him to anyone who wants a nice meal.

So that was yesterday.

Today I get home and the jersey Giant rooster and the RIR rooster are fighting in the back yard. Straight on cockfight, dancing and jumping at each other and just straight up knockout throwdown fighting. I went out to break it up and found them both pretty bloodied. The red was obviously losing.....he was much more bloodied and was panting and exhausted....wings hanging down and just getting whooped. Here is his "good side", the other side was more blood than comb.....you can see the feathers on his head sticking up weird, they were blood soaked as well.

I took the red rooster out of the coop, only because he was the more badly injured of the two. Tomorrow I will get the Jersey Giant roo and stick him in a big dog crate to live until he gets culled....and I figure I will be able to put the red roo back out with the flock....I think he just needs to rest and recuperate.

My question is this......why did the jersey giant rooster get so aggressive so suddenly. I have had some minor aggression issues with him before but it is like a switch was flipped this weekened....the weather just got warm again (it was 60 today) after a long really cold spell....is "spring in the air" and hormones raging?

I have a replacement rooster already.....a blue barred rock that I bought recently. He is only a couple months old, but I wonder if this may be the best time to introduce him....with the Jersey out of the pecking order....

Any ideas?

 

[TK Poultry]

i have no idea but that is bizzare i have had oeg be like that and he attacked my sister!!! i hope your red boy is okay and all goes welll

 

[PeepsInc]

They know spring is just around the corner. Mine have been feeling oaty lately too. I had my smallest oeg roo stand his ground until he couldn't stand, against a Cochin roo yesterday. I found him soaked pumbled into the snow. I gave him warm bath & some electrolytes,& he was crowing an hour later. There pretty resilient.

 

[Tala]

Mine hasn't been being that kind of bad lately, but all of a sudden he's been escaping a lot. He's NEVER escaped before (the hens are frequent escapees though) and he's been out twice this week!

 

[NellaBean]

My red roo was crowing away this morning from inside the garage in the crate. I put him into an 8x8 pen that butts up to the coop, to spend the day......left the big black roo out with the flock as he is way to aggressive to handle morning and night to separate. Once he is "gone" permanently, I will reintegrate the red roo with his girls. I did this once before to calm him down when he was overly aggressive breeding, so there shouldn't be any problems with reintegrating.

He looked horrible with all the dried blood and marks all over his face and comb, but he was acting normally........as was the big black roo. Crazy roosters.......

 

[Uzuri]

Mine's been LOUD and antsy. With snow still on the ground, he has no interest in coming out of the coop to scrap with anyone, but I've been making sure to fire a warning kitty-litter scoop every time I get in to clean. And the ladies are like a bunch of teenagers who've been on vacation for a week -- whiny, lazy, and generally unhelpful. I've caught myself starting with "if you don't get off your dead butt and help out around here..." before I realize I'm talking to a chicken.

They know. Oh they know.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

I won't tolerate a flogging rooster. If he jumps me I'll boost him Over The Rainbow - once. If he learns his lesson all is well. If not he's history. If he jumps one of my kids he's done then and there. I think the older hens must brief the newcomers because I haven't had a flogging rooster in years now.

If they're fighting amongst themselves I ignore them unless one is really getting badly beaten up then I'll separate them. I mostly keep all of my roosters in their own pen so it's a constant state of low level bickering all day long, but usually not much serious combat once the pecking order has been established. I've taken to calling it Rooster Island - All Drama, All Day.

.....Alan.

 

[NellaBean]

Yeah, I won't normally tolerate it. My giant rooster is on his way out, way too aggressive to keep around.

As a matter of fact, when I got home tonight I yanked the giant rooster out of the coop and stuck him in an xlarge dog crate. The kind that is 30 inches tall. His comb is about an inch from the top. GIANT rooster. So he will stay there this week, either until someone takes him to eat or I off him myself.

The RIR roo was locked in a separate pen all day, so I then let him out. He ran right to the coop, jumped in and had a little snack and then hopped on the roost with his ladies. I noticed some of the girls hanging out near his pen earlier, I think they like him more than the giant guy.

Both roosters look bad.....their faces are all torn up and a mess. But they are acting fine, crowing, eating, drinking and visiting the ladies. I think Red roo will be fine....and I think black roo will be delicious.

 

[thiskat]

Sorry I'm new to this site. My roosters has started doing the same thing. It's just gone crazy, started 2 weeks ago, it was like Monday morning boom!!! Won't let the other hens eat, has atcked me 3 times since, I had to boot it to get rid of it coz it just kept coming!!! Wat got me even more was it attacked my pet duck and cracked it's beak in 4 different places!!! I'm trying to re home it now. My friend was going to take it but the just killed theirs coz it started doing the same thing!! It's just come into spring and it's been a cold winter so I don't know if that's wat it is?? My friends rooster attached her mother and their sheep. Does anyone has any pointers on wat to do??? I'm pretty my got it shut in the coop most of the time atm coz if I let it out it attach everyone and everything. It's also escaping to but over the fence to get to the other animals

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! Nasty roosters taste great, and it's by far the best outcome. If you can't eat him yourself, offer him to someone who can. Nice roosters are wonderful to have, but not the idiots who are a danger to everyone. Mary