Squaring off

[Beans513]

Hello to my fellow chicken peeps I have a question and I trust all of your opinions. I have 5 2 month old chicks: 1 Black Copper Marans roo, 1 Golden Wyandotte hen, 1 Barred Rock hen, 1 Speckled Sussex hen, and 1 Black Frizzle Cochin. I believe the Frizzle is a roo and I say that because even though it is much smaller than the others it is squaring off with the others more my Marans than the others. I have read at first it may of been due to space so because of all of the wisdom I get here I realized I had the best brooder for them all this time, I have an old pack n play so now it's a new brooder, oh thank you guys for that. So how can I be sure it's a roo and how can I reduce the confrontations? Do I need to separate? I really don't want to do that but I trust your advisement. Thanks guys.

 

[Mrs. Light Sussex]

A picture will help us to determine the sex. I don't think you have to worry about minor scuffles as long as nobody is getting hurt. That is the natural way of establishing dominance. Every flock will eventually have a pecking order.

 

[azygous]

Trot out photos of all these little rascals and we can tell you. Give us some closeups of heads and saddle feathers and tail feathers. You could have more than one cockerel.

More than behavior, though, color of the comb is the first indication of a cockerel. By eight weeks, you will see noticeably redder combs on the boys. Also, those breeds where the roos have colorful feathers have bright color emerging on the back, and there may even be the beginnings of sickle feathers curving out from among the tail feathers on any cockerels.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Don't separate. This is the best time in life for flocks to establish themselves. They will work it out and it's best they do so at a young age when there is less potential for injury. If you separate birds then reintroduce they start from scratch vying for their rung on the flock social ladder.