What to do with young roosters that are fighting?

[ChickieChick04]

Hi everyone, I’m sorry if this has been asked but I’m new to chickens and to this forum. I currently have 6 cockerels that are eight weeks and 10 week olds and they are fighting. The plan was originally to grow the excess boys out for meat, but with them going at it now unsure. Do I cull early and use as dog food or is this normal behavior not to worry about? Thanks for advice.

 

[sourland]

How much space do they have. Given enough space to get away from one another, they may resolve their positions in the pecking order. What breed are they? If they are games or game crosses, separation may be the only solution.

 

[ChickieChick04]

How much space do they have. Given enough space to get away from one another, they may resolve their positions in the pecking order. What breed are they? If they are games or game crosses, separation may be the only solution.

They have a 6ft wide by 6.5ft long grow out pen they sleep in inside my garage while our coop is under construction. Inside there is a 2 tiered roosting bar for vertical space and I have their feeder in the center and water also to break up the line of sight. During the day they are in a 16x8 run with logs and tree branches to play on. I have 10 birds total in this set up for the time being. They are one Rhode Island Red roo, two black copper marans roo and 3 olive egger Roos

 

[BigBlueHen53]

So are all 10 birds in the grow-out pen, or just the cockerels? It's 36 sq. ft., big enough for 9 birds at 4 sq ft each.

The run is 128 sq ft, divided by 10 birds, is almost 13 sq ft per bird. 15 would be better, but 13 is probably adequate.

Be clear, you have no roos, what you have are cockerels. IMO at this age, it's fairly normal behavior and I wouldn't worry too much unless I saw blood or somebody really getting beat up. Ideally, however, I'd separate the girls from the boys if you possibly can. At this point it's basically about dominance and flock dynamics - pecking order. In three or four weeks, however, their hot little teenage hormones are going to kick in and then, hoo boy! You'll REALLY want to separate the girls from the boys! The cockerels will mature way faster than the pullets and they'll have only one thing on their little minds - and they'll start harassing and terrorizing the girls. That's normal and natural too, but it's not good.

 

[NatJ]

The plan was originally to grow the excess boys out for meat, but with them going at it now unsure. Do I cull early and use as dog food

Why would you use them as dog food instead of eating them yourself?

If you want to grow them much longer, I would plan on separating them from the pullets as a previous poster suggested, but I would not worry about them "fighting" with each other provided they do not cause actual injuries.

 

[Finchbreeder]

I see a bunch of nice roast roosters in your future.

 

[ChickieChick04]

So are all 10 birds in the grow-out pen, or just the cockerels? It's 36 sq. ft., big enough for 9 birds at 4 sq ft each.

The run is 128 sq ft, divided by 10 birds, is almost 13 sq ft per bird. 15 would be better, but 13 is probably adequate.

Be clear, you have no roos, what you have are cockerels. IMO at this age, it's fairly normal behavior and I wouldn't worry too much unless I saw blood or somebody really getting beat up. Ideally, however, I'd separate the girls from the boys if you possibly can. At this point it's basically about dominance and flock dynamics - pecking order. In three or four weeks, however, their hot little teenage hormones are going to kick in and then, hoo boy! You'll REALLY want to separate the girls from the boys! The cockerels will mature way faster than the pullets and they'll have only one thing on their little minds - and they'll start harassing and terrorizing the girls. That's normal and natural too, but it's not good.

Thank you so much for this advice. I currently don’t have the ability to expand their grow out pen, or to separate them yet and one of the cockerels has a bloody comb. So that’s what prompted my concern and why I considered early cull. I read 10 square foot of run space was adequate so I thought we were okay with our run. I will have to work something out

 

[ChickieChick04]

Why would you use them as dog food instead of eating them yourself?

If you want to grow them much longer, I would plan on separating them from the pullets as a previous poster suggested, but I would not worry about them "fighting" with each other provided they do not cause actual injuries.

My husband said they’re much too small to have much meat on them, I will attach a photo. They’re very light weight still, and at only 2-2.5 months I figured he was right. I crock pot bone in chicken thighs for our dogs every week so I can add the meat and bone broth to their food so he suggested I could just do the whole bird if we cull these guys so soon.

 

[ChickieChick04]

I see a bunch of nice roast roosters in your future.

That was the plan but I’m not sure now with them sparring lol. The one does have a bloody comb

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Combs do bleed a lot, they have an extensive circulatory system, but that may not indicate a serious injury. Go out after the birds roost at night and clean him up with some saline solution and try to see how serious the injury actually is. If it has stopped bleeding and scabbed over don't worry about it. If it's still red the others may peck at it, that's not good so you may want to hide it with BluKote or something similar.