Hi all, I'm caught in a bit of a dilemma so maybe somebody could help.

My story is thus: we had two roosters, an Australorp and (what I think is) a Rhode Island Red. The Australorp used to be the head rooster for a couple years now, but at the end of last summer we also got a third cockerel (whose breed I haven't bothered to identify, unfortunately) with a batch of broilers we'd ordered. Seeing how he grew to only about 1/2 the size of the other two roosters we figured we'd let him stay since he couldn't possibly cause much trouble.

Now, for the most part the roosters were pretty peaceful. The Aussie was completely tame and never got aggressive with anyone or anything. The Red would try to challenge people if they came in within about a foot of him but the Aussie would check him if he refused to let me into the coop or something. However, a couple days ago the Red and the new guy apparently ganged up on the Aussie and overthrew him, with Red becoming the new alpha. At this point I guess Red got possessed by the devil and started attacking everyone. If he saw someone coming down to the coop from the house he'd immediately run out and pick a fight. Long story short it took us about an afternoon to get fed up with him so we put him into a crate for the time being. Problem solved? No! The new, small rooster started getting all uppity instead, so now they're both in crates.

As of right now it seems like both the violent guys will be going into the pot, but maybe it's possible to keep them for a while longer? I was thinking that if I keep them locked up for a few days and let the Aussie reclaim his leader position, and then let them out one by one (maybe clip their spurs too), perhaps the Aussie would be able to put them straight again? Or should I just do away with them?

Any help would be much appreciated!