Hello everyone! I have had chickens for many years, but something that I have never dealt with was roosters. That was, until this summer.
My dad goes on daily walks with my dogs and one day he saw a black and white chicken walking by the road. It was not one of ours so he assumed it had wandered out of someone else's yard. However, the next day our neighbors called us and said a black and white chicken was sitting on top of her car. My Dad decided to take it home and call around to find out whose it was.
Sorry about the quality, but this is the first picture I have of Ferdinand!
When I got home I took one look at the chicken and realized it was a rooster. He was still young, so the signs weren't completely obvious. At that point it became clear why he was wandering on our road. We live on the edge of a forest. Someone must have realized he was a rooster and dropped him in the woods. This makes me so sad to think about.
We had two options from here. We could try to find a way to get rid of him... or we could keep him. We couldn't bring ourselves to kill him just after we rescued him. So, we decided if he was nice, he could stay.
Luckily, he was nice! I always knew if I ever got a rooster I would name him Ferdinand. We ended up calling him Ferdie for short. It turns out he was an Easter Egger and a beautiful one at that!
At first he was terrified of humans. I couldn't get near him. Luckily, he would run away instead of attack me. I read some great articles on this website about keeping roosters and using the advice in these I was able to calm Ferdie down. He would tolerate me holding him eventually and was never aggressive to me or my family.
Eventually, the crowing became a problem. He was still very young and liked to crow very early in the morning. We found a product called the no-crow collar. It is a product you have to be very cautious with (especially with growing birds), but it let us keep sweet Ferdinand so to us, it was worth it.
Unfortunately, Ferdinand died a couple months after we found him. We narrowed it down to some poisonous plants in our yard that I saw him in the day before. Even though my time with him was short, I still love Ferdie and I am so glad we could give him a good life!
Thank you so much for reading!
Check out my Etsy shop!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DreamofDaylilies?ref=hdr_shop_menu
My dad goes on daily walks with my dogs and one day he saw a black and white chicken walking by the road. It was not one of ours so he assumed it had wandered out of someone else's yard. However, the next day our neighbors called us and said a black and white chicken was sitting on top of her car. My Dad decided to take it home and call around to find out whose it was.
Sorry about the quality, but this is the first picture I have of Ferdinand!
When I got home I took one look at the chicken and realized it was a rooster. He was still young, so the signs weren't completely obvious. At that point it became clear why he was wandering on our road. We live on the edge of a forest. Someone must have realized he was a rooster and dropped him in the woods. This makes me so sad to think about.
We had two options from here. We could try to find a way to get rid of him... or we could keep him. We couldn't bring ourselves to kill him just after we rescued him. So, we decided if he was nice, he could stay.
Luckily, he was nice! I always knew if I ever got a rooster I would name him Ferdinand. We ended up calling him Ferdie for short. It turns out he was an Easter Egger and a beautiful one at that!
At first he was terrified of humans. I couldn't get near him. Luckily, he would run away instead of attack me. I read some great articles on this website about keeping roosters and using the advice in these I was able to calm Ferdie down. He would tolerate me holding him eventually and was never aggressive to me or my family.
Eventually, the crowing became a problem. He was still very young and liked to crow very early in the morning. We found a product called the no-crow collar. It is a product you have to be very cautious with (especially with growing birds), but it let us keep sweet Ferdinand so to us, it was worth it.
Unfortunately, Ferdinand died a couple months after we found him. We narrowed it down to some poisonous plants in our yard that I saw him in the day before. Even though my time with him was short, I still love Ferdie and I am so glad we could give him a good life!
Thank you so much for reading!
Check out my Etsy shop!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DreamofDaylilies?ref=hdr_shop_menu
