HELP! Cockerel's crowing disrupting flock

[aart]

He has the most mottling and is double tufted

Isn't the double tufting a 'fatal' gene?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Isn't the double tufting a 'fatal' gene?

Tufting is the fatal gene when both copies at that gene pair are the tufted gene. I don't know what Trish means by double-tufted but she cannot see the genes so it cannot be that both genes at that gene pair are the tufted gene.

Terminology can be a pain, I don't always know what people are talking about even when they use a common term, let alone something technical.

So Trish, what do you mean by double tufting?

 

[Trish1974]

Isn't the double tufting a 'fatal' gene?

Yes, when the tufted gene is inherited from both parents chicks usually die in the shell between days 17-21. I only have one tufted pullet, her sister and mother are clean faced. This snippet is from the araucana club website:

"It is often asked whether it is better to mate tufted to tufted or tufted to clean-faced birds. According to classic genetics, crossing tufted with clean-faced will give you 50% tufted and 50% clean-faced, with none dead in-shell. This cross will give you the greatest number of live chicks. If your goal is to produce the largest percentage of tufted birds and minimize the percentage of undesired clean-faced chicks, then tufted to tufted matings are best. In this case, 50% will still be tufted, 25% will be clean-faced, and 25% will die in-shell because they have two copies of the tufts gene. So the percentage of birds that hatch will be 75% tufted and 25% clean-faced. In both cases, you will get the same number of tufted chicks."

 

[centrarchid]

Trish,

Discord you are seeing likely has little directly to do with behavior of cockerel or the broody hen. I have seen what you describe many times and suppress it by having either a mature rooster or an older cockerel without presence of hen to suppress fighting. Hen is likely being counterproductive in your case.

Below contains videos I made during one of many events similar to yours.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/battle-royal-among-american-gamechicks.669296/

My cookbook procedure now is to place fighting group into a pen with either a well vetted cock or a good natured stag. I stay around for an hour or so and supply structures young birds can hide behind if attacked.

 

[Trish1974]

My cookbook procedure now is to place fighting group into a pen with either a well vetted cock or a good natured stag. I stay around for an hour or so and supply structures young birds can hide behind if attacked.

How about separating them without a mature cock? Will removing them from the estrogen zone help calm them down (once they establish a new pecking order)? They will not be able to see the other flocks.

 

[centrarchid]

I have been able to separate combatants, but keep them where they can hear each other clearly without pecking to do harm. My setup had each combatant in his own little cage. I have cages in excess but do not like the approach because too much work.

The fighting urge is somehow cyclical and it does pass, even with game chickens. It is a testosterone driven behavior, even when females involved.

 

[Justso]

Isn't the double tufting a 'fatal' gene?

Maybe what is meant is that he's well tufted on both sides?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I have [chickens]... I let them out this morning... only to return... to find 2 cockerels bleeding from their combs, and one was cowering in a corner with his head down....

Chickens are no more bothered by crowing than they are bothered by feathers sticking out of their bums every-which-way. What you are seeing is the second manifestation of the pecking order. Just have a plan in place incase in the future your cockerels refuse to gee haw or live together.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

When discussing Araucanas double sifted means that a bird has a tuft on each side of the face, single tufted means the bird only has one tuft, clean faced means no tufts.
If a tufted cock is bred to a tufted hen I believe 75% of the chicks will inherit two tufting genes and die in shell, the last 25% will also inherit the two tufting genes and hatch.
Most Araucana breeders breed clean faces cocks to tufted hens or tufted cocks to clean faced hens so that they get double tufted, tufted, and clean faced offspring.