Roosters Are Jerks

For over six years now we have raised our flock of Buff Orpington chickens.  We range as many as 75 and as few as 25 at a time.  We also always keep at least two roosters out with the hens every day, all day.  I have bragged on these roosters for all of these years - having never had an issue with the boys fighting or otherwise causing trouble.  I had been told that roosters will fight if there aren't enough girls to go around and I was always sure to keep the rooster-hen ratio just right.  And I patted myself on the back, too.  ​MY roosters NEVER fight because I am the chicken whisperer....

But a few weeks ago we found both of our mature roosters bloody and huddled in the cold rain.  Honestly, we were stumped as far as what had happened to them.  Equally wounded and missing a fair amount of feathers, we speculated that perhaps they had both nobly fought off an attacker in the rain.  Or maybe the peacocks beat the poor sweet boys mercilessly when we were not looking.  We even hypothetically blamed Loreto the Donkey because he's usually to blame for just about everything.

Things were quiet for a couple of weeks after that.  The wounds mostly healed with just a few tale-tell scars left behind.  It was peaceful.

And then we caught them fighting.  Brutally fighting.  Neither one ran. Neither one showed any signs of backing down.  They went after one another for at least an hour before we got out the water hose and tried to break things up.  It didn't work.  We had bloody, angry, WET roosters fighting in the driveway.

His comb was scarred, but starting to heal after the first incident.

With no clue what to do, one of the kids rounded up one of the roosters into one of the chicken coops for some solitary confinement so they could both heal while we contemplated our next steps.  But the roosters stalked one another and fought as best they could through the coop wire day in and day out.  It was obvious that these two were never going to call a truce.  We ultimately decided to release the caged rooster and let the two of them work it out in whatever way was going to be best for our flock.  Apparently, the best thing was for one of them to win.  The other is gone.  Not necessarily dead by rooster-fight.. but gone.  We are not asking any questions about his whereabouts now.  It's sad. But it's over.

So what happened?  Both roosters had enough hens between them.  They also had plenty of territory to claim for their own without infringing on the other with just over 17 acres to roam.  Food is plentiful this time of year and I have always been sure to do any supplemental feeding at at least two different locations during the day so that the boys can claim their own space.  They were raised together as chicks and have been together for two years without previous incident.  Everything I have ever read about keeping roosters together successfully had been covered.  And ... Don't forget.. We had been doing it for six years without a problem.  And, hello?  Chicken whisperer?  Remember?

In solitary confinement.

I think this falls on these particular roosters.  Yes, they were raised together, but more importantly they were exactly the same age.  They both reached full hormonal maturity at the same time this spring.  They also were evenly matched in size - so much so that it was pretty hard to tell them apart most of the time.  

In the past I had always kept one mature rooster with the hens while I raised the secondary rooster from a different batch of chicks.  What this meant was that we always had at least one older rooster who was boss.  The younger roosters would challenge him when they came into their own - but it really didn't take much other than a good display of awesomeness to send the younger boys running back into the little territories they had carved out for themselves.   

Given the fact that we exclusively free-range, we rarely kept a single rooster for a full two years.   Roosters do tend to end up getting themselves uh... eliminated... in the process of looking after the flock.  So we would often lose that boss rooster who would be replaced by one of the younger roosters... while we grew out another young rooster...  and so on.  This time.. it didn't happen that way.  Both of these roosters, exactly the same age, managed to survive a full two years...  There was no boss rooster and young challenger.  Just two bosses and one flock of hens.  And me, chicken whisperer, paying absolutely no attention to what was going on....

We will be growing out a young rooster to take up secondary position by the end of this summer and will be paying close attention to stature and attitude this time.  Hopefully, as long as one or the other of them will just LOOK LIKE a clear winner - there will be no more need for fighting.  In the meantime, we have peace... and one bedraggled, yet victorious, rooster.