3 gentle roosters in solitary bachelor pad pen, suddenly aggressive, and injuring one another.

[Snowborn]

Hello, we relocated 3 young roosters from our flock to their own coop, and run, out of sight of the hens, a little less than 2 months ago. They had one tussle early on, and then all has been very peaceful. A few day ago they began fighting with each other, and two of them had little bloody pecks on wattles and combs, but this evening, the rooster who we have been guessing is the alpha(but not sure) got attacked..luckily we were outside and ran to lift the electric fence so that he could escape. The attack was very aggressive... He was being repeatedly jumped on and pecked, and has big cuts on wattles and comb, and one torn wattle. We were able to catch him, bring him inside and clean him up, and give him some water to drink. Once the other roosters had put themselves to bed we snuck him in the little coop with them, hoping that all would be forgotten. They are sleeping peacefully now. But what happens in the morning, and how do we prevent this from reoccurring!?
Much thanks for any advice

 

[sourland]

Sadly, it's the normal progression of things. Frequently two subordinates will team up to depose the dominant bird. Once this behavior starts, it is unlikely to stop. If it were me, I'd get out there early tomorrow as it is very likely that he will be attacked.

 

[Snowborn]

Thanks for the reply..how exactly do we tell who is the dominant rooster? It's not totally clear. And in this recent bout of fighting(last 3-4days), this was the first time that this guy got attacked. Previously it was just between the other two.
Is there NO solution possible to salvage this trio of roosters?
We have one older rooster with the 17 hens in another area. Would it be silly to attempt to integrate this attacked rooster in with the flock like that?
Thanks

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

how exactly do we tell who is the dominant rooster? It's not totally clear.

If you watch your chickens, it is totally clear. A dominant male will chase away the males who are below him on the dominance hierarchy, or at least peck them to make them go away when they come too close. The dominant male will also have spurts of aggression where he grabs the weaker one by the neck and continually pushes and drags them to the ground until they are able to wriggle out of his grip. More uncommonly but still present in flocks with only males, the dominant one will mount the other males and mate them, as this makes them look weak and pathetic in the eyes of a chicken. All of these behaviors that a dominant male exhibits is to show that he is definitely the boss.

Is there NO solution possible to salvage this trio of roosters?

No, not really. Once males start showing immense aggression to each other, it will continue to be like that, as every day they will feel as if they have to prove their position in the hierarchy. They may calm down a bit, but not much at all will change.

We have one older rooster with the 17 hens in another area. Would it be silly to attempt to integrate this attacked rooster in with the flock like that?

Yes, it would be silly. The older rooster would only see the attacked male as a threat and beat him up worse. Furthermore, the hens in the existing flock would also see the new male as a threat, as they already have a male for themselves, and they would want to challenge him.

 

[Snowborn]

Thank you..phew, this is so hard. Our 6 year old has tenderly raised these 3 since they were chicks. We thought we had a solution with the bachelor pad..and they were doing so well these last couple months!

But what happens with the other two if we remove the attacked rooster?

And after your description of the dominant rooster it is still so unclear. They all exhibit some of those tendencies. Chasing each other, not mounting, but "side dancing" each other. It feels like maybe they have not sorted out who is the top yet. Is it possible thst they will and this could die down?
Thanks