The pecking order :(

[jebelious]

Hi All

I was just curious on a few things really, our little chicks are becoming not so little anymore and it would seem that we may have 2 roo's and 2 hens. The issue now is that it seems the 2 males are fighting quite alot and one of them in particular "the smaller one" seems to really go for the bigger one to the point where the bigger male cowers away.

I was just curious on how long this normally lasts until they sort the pecking order out as it only seems to have started today really.... (will post some pics of the little ones shortly)

 

[jebelious]

Youlku (male 2 the bigger one who loses)

Tweety (the smaller one who attacks Yolku)

The 2 we believe that are Hens

 

[Ridgerunner]

With two cockerels and two pullets, you will have two different things going on. The pecking order will be between all four of your birds, male and female. You may see the pullets square off or a pullet and cockerel square off. A lot of the time, the pecking order sorting is just as the name implies, pecking without fighting. They have been sorting out the pecking order since they were first put together and they will continue to do so as they mature. It is not at all unusual for a pullet to be on top of the pecking order until the cockerels mature. When they are raised together, it is usually sorted out without much violence. The pecking order is likely to change as they reach maturity and one of the roosters will probably wind up on top. Don't be too surprised if the other rooster winds up below the two pullets.

The other thing that will go on is flock dominance between the two roosters. There tends to be more fighting to settle this. It is possible they will fight to the death, depending on how well they are matched. If they are very evenly matched, neither may be willing to accept the second in command position so they keep fighting until one is seriously injured or killed. Certain breeds, like Olde English game, are notorious for this. If one greatly dominates the other, the stronger one may kill the weaker one, as if he is thinking, I don't want your weak genes in my flock. (It is actually instinct. He is not really thinking that.) What usually happens, especially when they are raised together, is that they reach an accommodation. Raised together can mean as siblings in a brood or in a father-son relationship in a flock. One becomes flock master and one becomes his able assistant. They work together to protect the hens. For example, one may be the first out the pop door when you open it to be ready to defend the hens while the other is the last out, giving them maximum protection. Or if a hawk flies overhead and they run into the coop, the two roosters will stand on either side of the pop door looking out, ready to defend the hens. Settling flock dominance can be pretty violent sometimes and sometimes it can go pretty smoothly.

There is a lot of misinformation going around about having multiple roosters. Some people think that if you have two roosters one will kill the other but if you have three roosters, they will get along. I have had two roosters and I have had three roosters with my flock. I have never had one rooster kill another.

Some people will tell you that you have to get rid of one of the roosters or you will have barebacked hens. That is where a rooster takes off a lot of feathers from the back of the hen during mating. He can actually cut her skin with his claws and spurs while mating and kill her. Especially with young chickens it is a real threat and something you need to be aware of and look out for, but whether this happens or not depends on many factors, mainly the individual personalities of your chickens. Some people have ratios of one hen to one rooster and do not have this problem. I remember one report where someone had 18 hens and one rooster and had this problem with three of the hens.

I hope this has answered your question a bit. You can expect to see some squabbling for a while. Some of it is play and some is serious. And as you have observed, it is not the physical size of the chicken that determines the winner but the size of the spirit.

Good luck!!!

 

[jebelious]

Thanks for the reply i think it is handy to know, i believe that we will not be keeping the roosters as we live in a built up area and even though my parents also keep chickens they do not fancy having a roo as it may annoy the neighbours

. Hopefully we will take the 2 roo's to a nice local farm who will keep them and look after as we will be keeping the 2 hens with our other 6 chicks at my parents house which i hope will work out ok.

I think one of the issues was the fact that they are only in a small enclosure at the moment "inside" so we are investing in a nice coop to put outisde for the day time and bring them in at night as its still quite cold here in the UK

, i noticed that when i let the roam the kitchen (i know not ideal but funny never the less) they are not fighting any where near as much at the moment just the occasional peck so i think more space will do them well as soon as we get the new coop tonight/tomorrow.

Thanks again