This weekend my silver sebright Roo and a ginger red silkie were fighting so I seperated them. This morning I let everyone out except the silkie roo. I went to the VT birdfanciers sale and when I came home one of the partridge roos I hatched, Blue, the largest of all the silkie roos looked like his face and top of his head had be put in a meat grinder, well, the skin isn't chewed up but the feathers are gone, blood everywhere on head and his crest and above his eyes are swollen and bloodied. Since I have never had chooks before is this from a fight? And if so, do you think it is Sylvester, the sebright, being the aggressor? And if that is the case, I want to seperate him from the flock along with his harem of five SS hens. How big of any area do they need? I was thinking 5x5x3 And do you think they would be ok is a size appropiate suspended cage with proper nestboxes and roosts (I almost wrote perchs LOL)KInda like a second floor in the hen house so I can take advantage of the 8 ft ceiling? Atleast for the winter till I can break to my hubby we are adding onto the chicken palace?
Need help figuring this out, fight roos or something else
And now to add to it, I found my oldest hen (17wks) guinea hen that is, under the porch and unable to walk, she can kinda scoot and run though! I am thinking of putting her in large dog kennel here in the house. I put her in the hen house with the really injured roo and he attacked her (STUPID LORA!) so I have two roos locked up in seperate cages and one injuried guinea hen. I could cry. I hope she isn't permanently injured. When I have a bad day I have a REALLY bad day........
never mind the guinea is dead
Oh I'm sorry about the guinea !!! My tom turkeys are fighting something fierce today.... must be something in the air. I separated the two worse offenders and now they are trying to go at it thru the fence. They both have bloody heads and snoods.
Your issue sounds more then likely from a fight, cockerels/roosters fight for dominance no matter the size. I still need to cull out some of the guys but am hard pressed for time these days.
Hope your silkie is ok, I lost one last week (hen) she had been completely scalped poor thing. I had to put her down. I have no clue what went wrong or who was the main offender/aggressor in the attack as I was at work. I don't know if she set somebody in the flock off or if there was something wrong with her and the others sensed it, all I know is it was very sad !!
They should do fine in a suspended cage and with proper housing they will think they have it made !! It's hard to say who starts the fighting most times it seems pretty mutual to me. It's the downside of having roosters.
On a brighter note.... how was the bird fanciers sale ?? Did you buy anything interesting ??
Julie
Oh the sale, well if I had had a herd of children like some women (the kids stood by the cages and I was told several times that they were probably sold they had to wait for her answer) or stalked the entrance where you had to have your birds tested by the state of Vermont I would have done great . Unfortuntely, I did neither. I went alone and waited for the people to park and unload. Before entering the field everything that was of interest was SOLD. Sure if you wanted a free rooster or buy a pidgeon, a duck, a fancy pheasant or goose you were in luck. Oh they did have plenty of 4-6 week old guinea keets, pearl and white. If you wanted anything else except mixed breeds or extremely bad examples your were out of luck. $40 in gas, a loss of a guinea and a severely wounded roo is how my day went. I really thought it would have been different. I am staying away from unless I contact the seller and meet them there and are guaranteed to get something I want. It was a totally disappointment. I guess going to one is like going to flea market, you have to get the good stuff before the antique dealers. Honestly thought that people would wait till they were unloaded, I peeked at what they were having tested and if there was a nice bird I made a mental note of the type of car and then when it parked I would go to check out the chooks and they were SOLD, so after about 3 times I figured out what was going on. IFanyone goes to a VT one be VERY aggressive in the "chicken hunt" stick your head in everyones trunk and truck bed and buy them on the spot.
They say things happen in threes, my almost 20yr old cat died (natural causes), now Pearl, I think my pets will be packing their bags for the next week or so!!!!!!!
Well I am going to go get myself a "beverage" and mourn for awhile
Ok now my other cats limping!!!
GEEEEEZZZZZZZZZZZZ,
ok so I checked Arizona's foot out, it is the toe that would be our pointer finger is the problem (he WASN'T happy about it), its defintely not a infection or something stuck in it (I shaved the area) so I think he either got it stuck, over extended or landed wrong (he likes to climb trees) either way I will watch for the next couple of days and if it doesn't improve or worsens I will bring to the vet. Until he feels better I will keep in the house.
Ok what thats saying??? When it rains it pours? I wonder if theres a local vet that I can get a 2 for one? A chook and cat! Is the Universe teasing me?
Must get beverage!
WOW you are having a bad day !!! Hope tomorrow is better and the cat is back to normal again !!!!!!!
Sorry to hear the show was a bust !!!!!
About the beverage.... make it a strong one...lol.
Julie
Oh Lora, I'm sorry. As for the roo with the bleeding and the bald head, I had something happen similar last fall, when an overly aggressive roo tried to mate with my head hen. She hated him and he eventually ripped all of her head feathers out. She was so bloody and bald, i thought she was really injured, but it turned out that it was one of those scalp wounds that bleed a lot and are not serious. I think that will probably be the case with him. get some neosporin on it, or something like that and he'll heal up. He'll probably look a lot better tomorrow. My neighbor's roos fight something aweful sometimes but they heal very fast and are okay. I'm glad his eyes are alright.
i think that your plan sounds good, although I have a hard time picturing how you will get light to, and clean out the first floor?
as to who is the aggressor, it is hard to tell. anyone else have blood on them or look beat up? sometimes the smaller roos are dominant, not always the biggest ones. My smaller silkie roo is the dominant over the silkies and right now over the standard speckled sussex roo! when will he realize he is 3x the size of that little guy? lol
I love my chickens like pets. I know that a lot of people out there think of them as utility farm animals and I do respect that, but mine are pets first and anything else second. I always cry every time one dies. I'm so sorry you had such a bad day. it HATE coming home to a chicken disaster. it is just heart breaking. I'm thinking of you!
I was thinking of just hanging the "cage" in the side of the coop but on one side, I will have to rake out the shavings underneath I think it will be worth it though. I have 10x10 "shed" as a chicken palace so if I run a suspended cage the length of the shed and three feet wide and three feet tall Sylvester and his harem should be happy. I have friends that breed their parrots in suspended cages, they have either trays under them or newpaper over vinyl flooring. So I could build a cage and make or have made a sheet metal pan so they don't poop on the other birds. I will of course have to have acess to the nestboxes and most likely run electricity to the place where the waterer will go. It might be warmer higher??? Well I will run it anyways. I am going to draw up my plans! Which brings up another question, insulation. I will have that post that one seperately so I don't come back to Pearls (RIP)
Thanks for the nice thoughts, I am 43 and a guinea dying makes me cry. I am better if I have time to adjust to it, like Ashton (RIP), I knew his kidneys were failing, the vet gave him a year and he lived 11 months and 10 days.
Thanks again for the warm thoughts
Lora
Lora, I'm so sorry for your loss. Sounds like you had an extremely traumatic day. Hope your beverage brought you some relaxation. The second night outside for my first little flock a few weeks ago and something got a claw through my hardware mesh and sliced Chicken Little's face. She was bleeding horribly and then the others had pecked her bald and all the way down her neck. It was AWFUL. We put neosporin on it and separated her for 8 days and she was healed and well enough to be reintegrated with the flock. As a nurse I am STUNNED that chickens heal that fast. Wish we could bottle it for humans. I'll be praying for your injured ones that they have a speedy recovery. Suz
Poor Baby! Lora you have had a rough time of it! It seems our highs in the Chicken field come so very often that we sometimes forget the low points! When they do come they seem to roll in , in bundles!
I hope all your problems will stop now and wish you a happy and rewarding week! No more pet problems , just happy times!
ok Arizonas paw did have an infection, it was ballooned up today. I rechecked for old cuts etc and found a foreign object inside the fold od skin on his 'thumb'. I soak it very warm espom salt water solution then took a pair of tiny needle nose pliers and got it out with a bunch of fluid (nice way of putting it). Yuck to say the least. He has more soakings in his future. Thanks everyone for your warm thoughts
Do you have a betadine solution in your first aid stuff ?? I like to use that on wounds. I use a lot of bag balm too.
Good luck with the paw, hope it heals quickly !!
Julie
I put some stuff called dermacleanse, I use it on my parrots its waterbased so it non greasy. Thanks for the hint on betadine. I will have to pick some up and put it with the rest of emergency supplies. I just ordered some hemostats for the next "removal", I think they will work better that needle nose pliers!
Don't have time to read all the replies but it is natural for cocks of breeding age to fight and they will fight to the death.
This does not mean they have "bad temperaments."
Some cocks will tolerate other cocks in their pen but most won't.
If one just has a flock of hens for eating eggs and fun, one cock is enough.
Otherwise be prepared to have separate pens for all your cock birds if you plan to breed more than one variety.