Sparrow-Song
In the Brooder
- Aug 6, 2022
- 9
- 29
- 37
Ok, so I need advice on this one as I’m not sure what to do!
I currently have three roosters who aren’t with a flock, and I’ve been hoping to integrate them into a rooster flock—they are taking up two stalls in the barn, and I’d love if they could take up one stall instead (for another issue I’ve been having with a roo that is overdoing it with his hens).
However, the situation is a bit complicated… because the roosters know each other. Two of them are brothers, True Blue Whiting boys who grew up together and are currently sharing a stall. The other is a Silver Laced Wyandotte who was kicked out of his old flock very viciously by a younger rooster.
For background, they actually all grew up in the same coop. The SLW boy, Harvey, is slightly older, and the other two were added as babies after he and his sisters were about 3 weeks. We had gotten the SLWs sexed, and thought he was a girl so there wouldn’t be a problem, but obviously that didn’t work out for us. Now, there were originally 5 True Blue Whiting boys, but one of them was a lot bigger than his brothers, his name is (sorry) Roo. Harvey and his sisters were pretty mean to the younger chicks as they were growing up, but it lessened the older they got, and for a while all of the True Blue roosters were subordinate, even though Roo was bigger than Harvey.
But then one day we found Harvey laying in the corner of the coop. We actually thought he was dead at first, but he had just been really badly beaten up. We had to take him out, and soon after that we removed all the True Blues except Roo, and put them in one of the barn stalls.
I moved Harvey around a lot, but he wasn’t compatible with Cornpop’s flock, (though he worked fine as a subordinate rooster, Cornpop wouldn’t let him stay nights in the coop with them, for understandable reasons) so I eventually outfitted the other barn stall for chickens and moved him in there.
We sold two of the True Blue Whitings, but I am keeping the other two, Cheeto and Vers, for sentimental reasons and as breeders. My problem is that I’d also like to keep Harvey, but I need the barn stall back to keep Roo at night to prevent him from stressing his hens out. Hence my current dilemma.
I tried to put Harvey in with Cheeto and Vers once before, but the two of them bullied him really badly. So today I let both Cheeto and Harvey out to free range at the same time.
It was only a success if success was measured by amount of feathers scattered all over the pasture
They just kept fighting the entire time, very evenly matched, and when Harvey would try to run away Cheeto chased him and would not leave him alone.
I picked Cheeto because he and Vers are pretty even in rank but from what I can tell Vers is slightly bossier. But obviously he wasn’t having it. I didn’t want to let both of them out because I felt that it would turn out the same way as it used to where they would bully him, but maybe that is what I should have done instead?
Does anyone know what to do with chickens holding grudges? Is there any way for me to integrate them, or am I just going to have to give Harvey away?
Anyone else been in a situation like this?
I currently have three roosters who aren’t with a flock, and I’ve been hoping to integrate them into a rooster flock—they are taking up two stalls in the barn, and I’d love if they could take up one stall instead (for another issue I’ve been having with a roo that is overdoing it with his hens).
However, the situation is a bit complicated… because the roosters know each other. Two of them are brothers, True Blue Whiting boys who grew up together and are currently sharing a stall. The other is a Silver Laced Wyandotte who was kicked out of his old flock very viciously by a younger rooster.
For background, they actually all grew up in the same coop. The SLW boy, Harvey, is slightly older, and the other two were added as babies after he and his sisters were about 3 weeks. We had gotten the SLWs sexed, and thought he was a girl so there wouldn’t be a problem, but obviously that didn’t work out for us. Now, there were originally 5 True Blue Whiting boys, but one of them was a lot bigger than his brothers, his name is (sorry) Roo. Harvey and his sisters were pretty mean to the younger chicks as they were growing up, but it lessened the older they got, and for a while all of the True Blue roosters were subordinate, even though Roo was bigger than Harvey.
But then one day we found Harvey laying in the corner of the coop. We actually thought he was dead at first, but he had just been really badly beaten up. We had to take him out, and soon after that we removed all the True Blues except Roo, and put them in one of the barn stalls.
I moved Harvey around a lot, but he wasn’t compatible with Cornpop’s flock, (though he worked fine as a subordinate rooster, Cornpop wouldn’t let him stay nights in the coop with them, for understandable reasons) so I eventually outfitted the other barn stall for chickens and moved him in there.
We sold two of the True Blue Whitings, but I am keeping the other two, Cheeto and Vers, for sentimental reasons and as breeders. My problem is that I’d also like to keep Harvey, but I need the barn stall back to keep Roo at night to prevent him from stressing his hens out. Hence my current dilemma.
I tried to put Harvey in with Cheeto and Vers once before, but the two of them bullied him really badly. So today I let both Cheeto and Harvey out to free range at the same time.
It was only a success if success was measured by amount of feathers scattered all over the pasture
They just kept fighting the entire time, very evenly matched, and when Harvey would try to run away Cheeto chased him and would not leave him alone. I picked Cheeto because he and Vers are pretty even in rank but from what I can tell Vers is slightly bossier. But obviously he wasn’t having it. I didn’t want to let both of them out because I felt that it would turn out the same way as it used to where they would bully him, but maybe that is what I should have done instead?
Does anyone know what to do with chickens holding grudges? Is there any way for me to integrate them, or am I just going to have to give Harvey away?
Anyone else been in a situation like this?
