Holy Rooster Hannah!

Yesterday I sold the "godfather" Rooster Floyd. He was in my buck pen, and the peace was kept. Last night was also the night I decided it was time to move my newest Marans Roosters out to the buck pen. All hell broke lose last night until i turned the lights off..
This morning....whew! they are going at it. One is fine...all he ever cares about is food. The other though..a very nice specimen is getting the %#@ kicked out of him by many other roosters. Then i noticed previously nice roosters are also battling it out...
So....i guess i wonder how long it is going to take to work out the kinks and decide on the newest pecking order amungst these boys.... I have opened both sides of the house, so everyone can escape if they need...they have a big garden area..but it is covered with snow, and not too many venturing out that way....
The youngest are hiding out of the way...and i guess there are 4 roosters vying for top position
Do i just let them duke it out?

Nope. I put them all in a small cage/pen. They can stand up but are pretty tightly shoulder to shoulder. Leave them there for 12 to 24 hours. You can put food and water in too but not sure they look at it.

By then end they all know one another VERY well and most will have stopped fighting. There may be one that just won't stop, put him back in the cage with all the others for another shift. That usually does it. Anything that isn't in the cage together will be "other" and picked on. If you add more roosters, put them all back in the cage before letting them out. I find it works really well but my two breeds - White Chantecler and Buckeye - aren't terribly aggressive. Better than losing a good looking rooster (it seems the nicest ones are always the ones hurt worst!)

Include the young ones too. It will be good future planning.

Here are my White Chantecter roosters, after a day in the cage.  Peace reigns!

Those that don't sell will go to the butcher in the spring (when poultry butchering resumes).

Heda, Beautiful boys. So snow white. You really like the chanteclers don't you. Are they really good layers year round? I always wondered what

happened to the Buckeyes, they were so popular a couple of years ago, now you hear nothing about them? What happened I wonder?

Those are beautiful aren't they. I have bought chickens off Heda before and would again they are always great healthy birds. I think she still has her buckeyes.

Thanks Ruffled F! I love the white of the White Chanteclers, and their calm serenity. They remind me of white doves sometimes. And so soft. They do lay all year although because I don't use heat or light (and half my hens are very young) the egg numbers do go down - but I'm fine with that myself, I like them to have a bit of a rest.

There are still lots of Buckeyes around - I think it is because CynthiaM used to have Buckeyes (eventually most of them landed with me) and then she sold out, Chantecler Eh had Buckeyes and sold out - also to me - so he could go off to college. So two people who used to post a lot about Buckeyes are not anymore. Maybe that's why?

They are the friendliest chickens I've had. The roosters especially always run to me to see what's going on. They also like to follow my LGD around, just in case he finds something good, or maybe to stay safe.

Didn't mean to hijack - sorry!

Our black Orpington cockerel has decided to be rude to the hens..... My chicken crazy daughter had me out checking why the hens are suddenly balding on their heads with open wounds. I could see nothing, no parasites etc. Watched the coop for a few min and the problem became clear! RUDE boy! No idea of proper courtship.... nope none at all! Daughter instantly sent him to the bachelor pad and I do mean instantly! I guess around here you treat the girls with respect or go to freezer camp! LOL I admit to being a little biased as our main rooster is such a gentleman. We had hoped that the young cockerel would learn by his fine example. Sadly it does not appear that was going to be the case....

Those white chantecler roosters are quite glow in the dark clean and bleachy white! I am envious. Anything with a white feather out in my coop looks like winter has treated it bad. They are all dirty dirty looking, need a bath!! I remember CynthiaM saying that dirty feathers can mean mites but we don't have those, just dirty coop syndrome I guess. roll on spring.

I have one rooster in particular whose fate is the clearest of the bunch. This would be one of the Judy's and I think his behaviour relates directly to an unconscious resentment for being called Judy   . Just joshing. Freezer camp is not far off for the boys and he might be first - with love of course but his personality is the least endearing I have found in all of them. He has been getting more testosterone orientated as each day goes by and I think he is taking his frustration at being down the pecking order on the nearest available target, me. When I go into the coop I always check his locale to make sure to keep a guard up. He's got me with his beak three or four times now and if my boots had nerves it would be too tempting to eject him by boot law (as I enlighten him to what Wheaton's Law is   ). I try not to yell at him for his indiscretion any more cause it upsets the WHOLE barn and have not kicked him (although sometimes I would quite like to - bad barn mother, bad bad bad   ). I am making my peace with him, no good to be a bad steward, his days are numbered, he's walking the green mile, so just want them to be good days where he lives well and I don't get attacked.

whoops. too much information. rooster stories . . . aye yae yae!

White Chanteclers are always spottlessly clean unless one of them has a digestive issue. I think it is something to do with their cold hardy feathers. I'm amazed myself - it is certainly nothing I do!

Heda Gobbler, give yourself credit where it is due, look at the floor of that coop, clean, clean, clean. No way any breed of poultry can stay clean when they live in filth. Good job.

You are too kind - that's deep litter, about 6 inches of it, with a little new shavings on the top. But it works!

It is the surface that keeps them clean. Deep litter is great, but I find i have to add to the top.

farmerrick wrote:Heda Gobbler, give yourself credit where it is due, look at the floor of that coop, clean, clean, clean. No way any breed of poultry can stay clean when they live in filth. Good job.

my deep litter looks just like that and I keep adding to it.  just looking forward to the snow/mud/ice/melty stuff to go so we can get on with ranging outside in the warmer climes. thinking about it, the white feathered birds are the females and the boys have been riding them I guess.

Sorry to hi-jack "again". But Heda, are there good buckeyes or Buff Chanteclers left in Alberta anymore?

I know Kyle Lawrence and Country Thyme Farm are working on buff Chanteclers, and producing some very nice birds. I don't know about Buckeyes though.

Thank you Butterboy. Much appreciated.