Early this spring, I went to my local feed store to get some chicks. I wasn't planning on getting silkies, but there they were. I told myself I was just looking...we all know how that goes! I soon decided to get just three. While I was visiting with them, one little white chick kept racing over to me and jumping into my hand- over and over, chattering away at me. I was pretty sure he was a rooster even then- he had that air about him. I already had a white silkie pair at home, but he was so determined I couldn't resist, and he came home with me, along with three other silkie chicks.
Even as a chick, Trouble was into everything- extremely curious, outgoing, and always had a ton to say. His incessant need to poke his beak into EVERYTHING earned him his name.
He's always been a little different than the other chicks- a little more people-oriented, and a little less bonded to the flock, always exploring on his own. Something of a maverick. He's also something of a mama's boy- he'll cuddle or go anywhere with me, inspect new things and tell me about them, but isn't particularly pleased to be held or handled by other people. Never aggressive, just suspicious and none too pleased.
He is now most of the way through adolescence, and I've noticed a marked preference for other roos. Specifically, buff roos- he has a thing for redheads, apparently. I do have a few too many roos at the moment, and thought it might just be an availability thing. However, one of my silkie pullets (one of the other chicks I got at the same time as Troubs- they grew up together) regularly flirts with him and does the squat, and he totally ignores it- completely uninterested. I know that roos sometimes do this sort of thing while they're figuring things out as youngsters, but flat out ignoring invitations from pullets is something new to me! Has anyone seen that sort of thing before? I've seen it in pigeons and once in a pair of male geese owned by a family friend (who were awesome foster parents to rescue ducklings and goslings), but never in a chicken.
In any event, here's Trouble:
Even as a chick, Trouble was into everything- extremely curious, outgoing, and always had a ton to say. His incessant need to poke his beak into EVERYTHING earned him his name.
He is now most of the way through adolescence, and I've noticed a marked preference for other roos. Specifically, buff roos- he has a thing for redheads, apparently. I do have a few too many roos at the moment, and thought it might just be an availability thing. However, one of my silkie pullets (one of the other chicks I got at the same time as Troubs- they grew up together) regularly flirts with him and does the squat, and he totally ignores it- completely uninterested. I know that roos sometimes do this sort of thing while they're figuring things out as youngsters, but flat out ignoring invitations from pullets is something new to me! Has anyone seen that sort of thing before? I've seen it in pigeons and once in a pair of male geese owned by a family friend (who were awesome foster parents to rescue ducklings and goslings), but never in a chicken.
In any event, here's Trouble:
