Hello and help please

[dawn]

Hello, this is my first post, but certainly not the first time I've browsed the forum. I started keeping chickens last summer, and am really enjoying them. I have 5 young pekins, 2 boys and 3 girls and let them free range.
Until last week they were inseparable, particularly the boys. Then they started to fight and it got so bad on Friday that I had to separate them, and at present daren't put them back together which is causing all sorts of problems as one has to be shut up with a hen to keep him company (I'm alternating the one I shut up and rotating the hens so they still remember each other at the end of this). I don't know what to do for the best long term though, and hope some of you more experienced people can give me some advice.
Should I try them together again, or do they just continue to fight once started ?
Am I doing the right thing at present, or is that just upsetting the rest as well ?
If they can't be together again ever and I have to keep them apart, is it a good idea to let them out on alternate days and give them some hens of their own ? I hate the thought of keeping any penned up as they love roaming in the garden and I'm worried it'll be hard for the penned ones to see the others wandering freely but can't see any alternative.
Would it be better to try and find a new home for one of the boys, and how? I know it is hard to house roosters from what I've been told.
Any advice or suggestions will be so very welcome, not least because the only spare place to keep one at present is the front porch so that the house and nesting box stays available for the others. This means that the shut in rooster reassures us that he's still ok at 3am, 5am etc and it echoes throughout the house......

 

[girlracer265]

Hi and welcome
normally roosters that are brought up together, can live together, how old are they ?
maybe you might need more hens
i'm no expert, but i have 2 cockerel pekins living with 8 hens and they seem to get on ok

 

[snifter]

You can keep boys together with hens. Generally in my experience is they will have a tussle to see who is going to be top banana and then the other one simply is the one who isn't. The top cock bird will be the one to mate to your hens. The other one won't get a look in.

It can work just fine. It depends on the birds at the end of the day. I've kept cock birds and hens all running together. So long as there is enough space for them to stay out of each others way when they need to. Also depends how long you are prepared to let them sort out their differences. Two of mine were being kept apart but one got into the other pen and they went at it hammer and tong for about 5 minutes till one decided he'd had enough and ran off with the other chasing in hot pursuit. There was never any more fighting after that. Neither of them came to any real harm and I was able to let them all live together.

Alternating the cock birds or hens round isn't helping I'd not think. It would probably serve to make them more insecure and likely to fight.

If you want to keep them I'd let them out to range in the garden all together and let them sort out their pecking order. If they are young they are likely to sort it out amongst themselves soon enough. Be around to split them up if it gets a bit much but in my experience most of the time one backs down pretty quickly and there is little damage done. Mind you, I've never intentionally done this, just happened to be I had pens and the determind ones would get out and go in hunt of new women :lol: :roll: But my chooks lived together fine, just the lower ranked cock bird used to know to run if the other one got cross with him

 

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine with 2 cockerells and 5 hens had this problem, until she separated the cockerells from the hens. As soon as she did that the cockrells stopped fighting. So now the cockrells live together and the hens live together. Have no idea why this would work - perhaps they fight over the hens so without any hens they stop?

 

[snifter]

A friend of mine with 2 cockerells and 5 hens had this problem, until she separated the cockerells from the hens. As soon as she did that the cockrells stopped fighting. So now the cockrells live together and the hens live together. Have no idea why this would work - perhaps they fight over the hens so without any hens they stop?

Generally if the cock birds are together and no hens near by the won't fight. I kept all my excess cock birds together and never had a problem so long as there were no hens close by. Its normal for them to get on if no girls around to set their hormones racing.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi
I had 2 boys hatched together and grew up together. when they matured they had the odd fight but nothing to much after they decided who would be boss. know its very hard but if they are free ranging in garden so the looser can get away may be worth a try to leave them, there fighting can often look worse than it is and unless they really go for it and draw blood i would try letting them sort it out. hopefully after that they will be ok. mine were and are pekins. if not then I have 2 groups and they take turns free ranging and dont mind to much. but they are not used to going out every day anyway as only allowed in the garden when I'm home. I hang veg on a rope in there run so it gives them things to do and they dont get bored. good luck with them. what ever you decide let us know how you get on.

 

[dawn]

Thank you all for the advice. They were brought up together, about 11 months old and with plenty of room so it's reassuring to know it wasn't likely, I don't feel so bad about it now. I had thought it was my fault for having two in the first place, even though I took them in last summer because they weren't wanted in their previous home. I decided to try and rehouse one though as they had fought for several days, for half an hour or more at a time. I think they only stopped when they were too worn out to carry on. When we separated them on the third day one had the other pinned down in the chicken house (it was open so they could have run away), both were covered in blood to the bottom of the wings and one had so much blood down his throat that he was choking. They then tried to go for each other whenever they saw each other, even through the cage wire.
Luckily I've found a really good home and one went there yesterday. Hopefully the remaining chickens can settle down now, they are very unsettled and one of the hens has taken to going next door and spending the day with their chickens.

 

[Anonymous]

hi Dawn,

what a shame that they didn't settle back down together.Well done you for re-homing one,a lot of ppl in your situation would have dispatched one of them.
Now that is sorted,I'm sure your hens will quickly settle back down.thank-you for letting us know your happy ending.