Rooster Only Flock

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EdnaAndEdith

Songster
8 Years
Mar 31, 2016
154
230
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Hello,

I have three roosters and in the fall the two younger ones (about a year old) attacked our old, disabled rooster. We separated them into a separate barn and decided to create a rooster only flock to solve our problem.

The two young ones, Moe and Murphy, had two pretty significant squabbles at first that were about a month apart. They were both equally bloody and swollen faces and one had a small laceration on his head that ended up healing well. I chalked these two initial fights up to figuring out how to live in their own space and who was in charge. They have been fine since.

I have seen no signs of stress and they seem to love each other. Just the other night was laughing to myself at how they seem to be best buds. Dust baths together and sleeping snuggled up together and chirping and purring when they see me and trying to show love to me. (Saying a lot since they were very unsocialized when we rescued them)

But tonight I go to the pen to say goodnight and shut the door and they are both bloody from head to toe. Swollen faces and Murphy’s area around his eye looks like he’s been decked in the face. He didn’t even get on the roost but was instead sleeping by the nightlight I keep in there. It seems to be some limping and mostly superficial wounds. I didn’t see anything serious but I’m seriously concerned that it’s now fight number 4 in the course of 5 months. (1st one with the main rooster, two at initial separation, and now another).

I’m so sad. The last couple of days I was making mental notes of how successful I had been at keeping a rooster only flock happy and hoping that in the future I could rescue more “unwanted” roosters and grow my little male flock. The ability to keep a rooster only flock successfully was a huge matter of pride and happiness for me as I firmly believe rescue is the only proper way to help animals.

The environment seems to be the best that I can make it. They have a 25x25 ft barn all to themselves, tons of vertical space and rafters and roosts added, nice warm pine shavings that are clean and dry, a tub of sand to dust bathe in, access during the day to a fenced, enclosed run that is about 12x12’, a swing, a night light. They don’t really like treats or human foods except blueberries so I try to give them those at least once a week. They have one feeder and two waters, items scattered to block visuals if they do get in disagreements and a stuffed animal that I leave in there should they feel the need to get any frustrations out on something (I’ve never seen it touched). The female flock with our old man have free range rights to the pasture outside their pen but only very rarely wonder far enough to be within view of the boys. (They are on opposite ends of the pasture)

The only thing I can rationalize is the change of season and maybe the girls wondered farther than usual making it so they felt frustrated and turned on each other. But I have no evidence of that.

I wouldn’t know what to use to block their view that would be both inexpensive and not terribly ugly.

Now I feel super defeated and unsure how I can help them. If I split them up I feel like they will just fight that much more when I reintroduce them and if I keep them together I’m afraid they will keep attacking each other and live in fear. I’m a strong advocate that no animal should have to live in fear in any preventable situation.

Any advice? What am I doing wrong? I don’t want to see them hurt… but I also don’t want to give them away only to see them end up dead on someone’s dinner plate. Is living in a home with the situation above and fighting still better than death?? I think so. But I want to make it so they are really enjoying life, not just existing.

Am I better off going and adopting a ton of female chickens and giving them a large enough flock to balance things out or am I better off giving the boys another chance?

I dread what I will wake up to tomorrow. I hope they don’t continue to fight in the morning.

Thanks in advance for any advice or expertise you may have.
 
One of my flocks is rooster-only (8 roosters and 2 male turkeys). It doesn’t work for everyone. In my situation, I monitor mine a lot for any signs of bullying… and, I am prepared to separate one when necessary. I have a temporary rooster jail ready for when I need to do that. My boys sometimes do squabble. No blood gets drawn, but one will need to be separated until he calms down. I also provide lots of hiding places and multiple food and water stations. All of mine were hatched and raised together by me. I choose to keep any males every single time I decide to fire the incubators up. It’s a lot of trial and error with a rooster-only flock, but you’ll ultimately figure out what works best for you. Don’t be discouraged. It CAN be done. Just be prepared to keep them separated at any given time.
 
Hello,

I have three roosters and in the fall the two younger ones (about a year old) attacked our old, disabled rooster. We separated them into a separate barn and decided to create a rooster only flock to solve our problem.

The two young ones, Moe and Murphy, had two pretty significant squabbles at first that were about a month apart. They were both equally bloody and swollen faces and one had a small laceration on his head that ended up healing well. I chalked these two initial fights up to figuring out how to live in their own space and who was in charge. They have been fine since.

I have seen no signs of stress and they seem to love each other. Just the other night was laughing to myself at how they seem to be best buds. Dust baths together and sleeping snuggled up together and chirping and purring when they see me and trying to show love to me. (Saying a lot since they were very unsocialized when we rescued them)

But tonight I go to the pen to say goodnight and shut the door and they are both bloody from head to toe. Swollen faces and Murphy’s area around his eye looks like he’s been decked in the face. He didn’t even get on the roost but was instead sleeping by the nightlight I keep in there. It seems to be some limping and mostly superficial wounds. I didn’t see anything serious but I’m seriously concerned that it’s now fight number 4 in the course of 5 months. (1st one with the main rooster, two at initial separation, and now another).

I’m so sad. The last couple of days I was making mental notes of how successful I had been at keeping a rooster only flock happy and hoping that in the future I could rescue more “unwanted” roosters and grow my little male flock. The ability to keep a rooster only flock successfully was a huge matter of pride and happiness for me as I firmly believe rescue is the only proper way to help animals.

The environment seems to be the best that I can make it. They have a 25x25 ft barn all to themselves, tons of vertical space and rafters and roosts added, nice warm pine shavings that are clean and dry, a tub of sand to dust bathe in, access during the day to a fenced, enclosed run that is about 12x12’, a swing, a night light. They don’t really like treats or human foods except blueberries so I try to give them those at least once a week. They have one feeder and two waters, items scattered to block visuals if they do get in disagreements and a stuffed animal that I leave in there should they feel the need to get any frustrations out on something (I’ve never seen it touched). The female flock with our old man have free range rights to the pasture outside their pen but only very rarely wonder far enough to be within view of the boys. (They are on opposite ends of the pasture)

The only thing I can rationalize is the change of season and maybe the girls wondered farther than usual making it so they felt frustrated and turned on each other. But I have no evidence of that.

I wouldn’t know what to use to block their view that would be both inexpensive and not terribly ugly.

Now I feel super defeated and unsure how I can help them. If I split them up I feel like they will just fight that much more when I reintroduce them and if I keep them together I’m afraid they will keep attacking each other and live in fear. I’m a strong advocate that no animal should have to live in fear in any preventable situation.

Any advice? What am I doing wrong? I don’t want to see them hurt… but I also don’t want to give them away only to see them end up dead on someone’s dinner plate. Is living in a home with the situation above and fighting still better than death?? I think so. But I want to make it so they are really enjoying life, not just existing.

Am I better off going and adopting a ton of female chickens and giving them a large enough flock to balance things out or am I better off giving the boys another chance?

I dread what I will wake up to tomorrow. I hope they don’t continue to fight in the morning.

Thanks in advance for any advice or expertise you may have.
Hi there! I don’t have experience with a rooster only flock but it’s a bit of a dream to have a “bachelor pen” of sorts because I have a soft spot for Roos. I DO have experience with roosters a fair amount and sometimes boys get agressive in the spring time. I noticed it with my latest young roo Jose. He’s separated from the hens and isn’t very peckish but has become OBCESSED with dancing in front of the ladies pen. This has only happened recently as we’re coming close to spring. I experienced it with his father that he’s pretty mellow but once winter ends the hormones fire up and he’s desperate to procreate and make a ton of babies. He only became successful last summer- hence the introduction of Jose and his sister Miranda🥹. The father Blanche is no longer with us unfortunately but was such a sweet bird. I’m sure yours are two and from what I hear they are BESTIES for the most part. They are just going through a horny epoch and May need some separation until they cool their heads. I’ve seen others successfully have bachelor pens and I’m sure yours will do quite well with some time.🥰
 
Thank you all for your encouragement. I appreciate it so much.

What is the best visual blockade I can use around their pen? I see Home Depot has some “reed” privacy screen and sun block fabric but I feel like they will still be able to see through the cracks and semi sheer fabric.
 
Thank you all for your encouragement. I appreciate it so much.

What is the best visual blockade I can use around their pen? I see Home Depot has some “reed” privacy screen and sun block fabric but I feel like they will still be able to see through the cracks and semi sheer fabric.
Have you tried landscaping fabric? It’s black,fairly opaque(let’s in a bit of light), and doesn’t look too bad!
 
Have you tried landscaping fabric? It’s black,fairly opaque(let’s in a bit of light), and doesn’t look too bad!
I was kind of thinking along those lines. I’m going to go to the hardware store and see what they have. But I was worried that the boys would be able to see too much through the fabric style. Here’s an example picture.


IMG_6674.png
 
Okay, now I’m really confused…

This morning Murphy’s eyes were crusted shut with dried blood. Looked like his comb had started bleeding at some point overnight.

Yesterday I left the boys together because I’ve still been afraid of them fighting worse when I reintroduce them back again and they had seemed fairly relaxed. Maybe not best buds like normal but were not acting aggressive in any way.

Since Murphy couldn’t see I grabbed him and washed his eyes (as best as he would let me) enough to where they could open and kept him in a large dog crate while I was at work just to be safe. Now that I’m home I am supervising them together and they did not immediately charge for each other but Murphy went straight to fiddling around in the shavings looking for things to do or eat. Moe watched him closely. Did a dominance (mating) “dance” and Murphy quickly turned the other way which I took as “I don’t want to fight, man, you can be in charge”. Ten more minutes goes by and moe is following Murphy around and watching him but no further displays. Then Murphy walks behind Moe and Moe turns and tries to bite him and chases Murphy off for a a couple feet but stopped when I took a step forward.

No further interactions between the two and they are sitting a few feet apart. Murphy really looks down. I’m sure he’s hurting. But I just don’t trust Moe not to go after him again.

If I put Murphy back in the cage (he was SO ANXIOUS TO GET OUT) I feel like every time I let him out Moe will feel the need to put him back in his place, and if I put Moe in the cage then when I let him out, he’s going to come out fighting for top position.

I almost feel like it would be easier if there were more roosters so Murphy does get the brunt of Moes assertiveness.

Is it better to risk keeping them together or is it better to pen one of them up? Sitting calmly together now only a foot from each other.

P.s. there was Zero chance they have seen females since the fight.
IMG_6680.jpeg
 
Also, I just read that melatonin can lower testosterone levels in roosters. Does anyone know if this is true?

Maybe if I can get Moes testosterone level down during this first spring, he will mellow with age next year. My old roosters first spring was hard too but he quickly calmed.
 

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