Castrating A Rooster ?!?

[Little Fuzzy]

That was a very interesting story, thank you.

 

[wcfinklized]

Oh my goodness -- thank you everyone for all the ovations.  I guess I should finish the story with the funniest part.

Emerald came home the next day with a two inch incision held together with lots of stitches.  He was SOOOO happy to be home, and was feeling his hormones in a big way.  The backyard had been bisected down the middle, and I was working to enrich his side of the yard by putting in new shrubs around some of the trees near the house.  The yard had a slope to it, downhill from the house to a 20 acre community pond below.  All the houses in the neighborhood had a similar design, two stories, with an outdoor balcony or deck coming off the second story looking out over the backyards and the pond.

A few days after him coming home, I was outside working in the yard, and had a few of those white 5-gallon buckets outside with me containing various supplies.  Emerald was strutting around, acting studly, an awkward 4 month old trying to court the mature hens on the other side of the yard, coming back to mom for sympathy when they didn't take him seriously.  At one point I had laid a white 5 gallon bucket on its side for some reason.  It was white like Sydney, it was big and round like Sydney, he was on hormonal overload, and it started looking distinctly feminine to a frantically horny young cockerel.  All of a sudden he jumped on top of the bucket, and it started rolling downhill.  I jumped up as quickly as I could, but not in time to stop the whole event.  I can still picture it in my mind:  the bucket rolling downhill towards the pond, Emerald riding it with feet running backwards -- like a lumberjack in a logrolling contest, awkwardly pelvic thrusting as much as possible while still running backwards as the bucket rolled all the way down to the fence at the shoreline, me running after him loudly screaming, "Emerald, stop trying to breed with the bucket.  You'll break open your stitches!!" 

Now that's a scene that brings neighbors out onto their balconies!  Yeah, all of them, laughing hysterically.  With entertainment like that, no one ever complained about Emereld's crowing.

omg im rolling hard laughing so bad.... Tears and all

 

[k2panman]

I hope this is not too old of a post, but Sydney Acres, that is a great story, and very interesting and useful information! I don’t know if your experience had been saved as a Stickie (do we have them here on BYC?) but I think your information on castration/caponing is valuable information for us newbies - especially those like me who like to know everything they can about our hobbies.

 

[Peppercorngal]

Sydney great story! Informative and funny too. But now we still need to know from HomeLife why fertilized eggs are not acceptable? Most people cannot tell the difference anyway. ???????? I'm sure you have a reason.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Oh my goodness you guys, I haven't thought about that story in a couple of years. It happened 18 years ago. I miss Sydney and Emerald.

Peppercorngal, few people who aren't hatching out their eggs care whether or not the eggs are fertilized. The issue isn't the eggs. The issue is the rooster. Non-caponized rooster can be challenging to keep.

They crow. A lot. Really loudly. Really early in the morning before most people want to be awakened. That can be a huge problem if you have neighbors that don't appreciate the noise, especially if you live in a community where it is illegal to have a rooster. You can't hide him behind a privacy fence.

Some of them are aggressive to people, and other roosters. Some of them are outright dangerous to children and inexperienced keepers. People who just want to enjoy the peaceful interactions of a flock don't want to worry about being attacked and left bloody.

And lots of people love their hens, don't want chicks from the hens, and don't want their hens to be constantly harassed by an amorous rooster. Some roosters are sweet, respectful of their hens, and have appropriate courting behavior. Unfortunately, most do not, especially most roosters out of hatchery stock. Most will chase a hen down for breeding, whether she wants to breed or not. Many hens are constantly terrorized by roosters, feathers are torn out, backs are scratched raw, skin ripped apart, skin peeled off, etc. Some hens are even killed from breeding injuries by roosters that are aggressive, clumsy, or too large for the hen.

Keeping a rooster, or many roosters, can create management challenges, and many people just want things simple. A few sweet hens are extremely easy and uncomplicated. A rooster adds a whole different dimension to chicken keeping.

 

[Folly's place]

Thanks for resurrecting this story; I loved it in 2016, and loved it all over again tonight!
Mary