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| Big Red our 3 year old rooster |
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| Little Red our 1 year old Rooster |
Well the other day I was in the kitchen when I heard our dog Jessie barking in a really odd way. All you dog owners out there will know what I mean. Jessie has a specific bark for snakes, another for when she is worried about something and one for when she is being naughty and trying to round up your feet in gumboots. This bark was not one I had heard before.
So out I go to investigate why she is barking and I hear a strange thumping in the chicken shed. By the time I get out there I see that Little Red has some how gotten into Big Red's pen and Big Red is chasing him around the yard and attacking him.
It was a war zone and the hens had retreated to the safe zone inside their shed. Meanwhile outside in their yard the two roosters were jumping up at each other kicking out with their claws and their spurs and pecking at each others combs. They had obviously been at it for a while as they seemed to be exhausted.
I was shocked to see that Big Red was covered in blood so much so that it had soaked into his neck feathers and they were matted down against his neck. Both roosters kept shaking their heads sending blood drops flying.
Now all I had to do was try and catch Little Red and get him back in his own pen. Putting myself between 2 warring roosters was not something I was keen on doing but as they so tired it was not too difficult.
Thankfully neither of the roosters is aggressive so I was able to corner Little Red and grab him.
After checking him over for any major damage I was able to get him back in his own pen and then it was just a matter of fixing the hole in the fence that was clearly the root cause.
Both roosters had bruised and bleeding combs and Little Red had a bleeding ear but there was nothing I could do but leave them to rest and hope they had not been hurt too badly.
The next day they both seemed a bit stiff and sore but on the mend and my patching of the hole in the fence seems to have done the trick so lets hope we do not have a repeat performance any time soon.
Has this ever happened to you?
yes, roosters are stupid! But then we ended up with a few that all got on ok, so we've kept them. I hope that a few from the next hatch will fit in and we can keep harmonious roosters, because it is a pain if you have to keep them separate. I don't know if we did anything special, we may have just been lucky with rooster personalities and they all worked out how to get along. The funniest was when we had 6 young roosters that we were growing up to eat, and they were in the house yard, which we thought that the big rooster couldn't get into, but he must have found a gap in the fence. I think he was intimidated by all the small roosters, so he just hung out with them all day, they walked around in a big group, I couldn't believe it as that rooster was usually so aggressive! So all I can tell you is that its not impossible to find roosters that will live together harmoniously, but I don't know what to do about two that are currently fighting, apart from just separating them.
ReplyDeleteI hope that Big Reds pride wasnt hurt, as he obviously came off worse.
ReplyDeleteWe too are lucky to have harmonious roosters. They've all grown up together and even as the new generations come to maturity they just seem to slot in. Sure there are some fisticuffs on occasion but never have I seen blood and the only war we had was when a new rooster came in from outside. He was put straight into quarantine and Mr Skinny-Legs (as our kids renamed him) and Black Boy (our top cock) were having a right old go at each other. With 1cm mesh though it was just a great display as no harm could be done to either Mr Skinny-Legs was destined for the pot though so it was a short term issue only.
ReplyDeleteWe've had to separate roosters for this reason. Our most aggressive was a bantam! He drew blood from several others. He had to go in the end. He was too nasty!
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