- Mar 23, 2020
- 14
- 31
- 99
After losing a couple of hens to hawks last winter I decided to get a rooster for the first time. As a new chicken keeper, I didn’t really know what to look for in a rooster, but I wanted one who would do a good job protecting my lovely but vulnerable hens who spent much of their days free-ranging — at least until the hawks started showing up.
Looking through Craigslist, I saw someone had an Ayam Cemani cock for sale, and after some brief research I was intrigued. But as a relatively new bird to the U.S., I couldn’t find much info on whether it would make for a dutiful protector of the flock. Persuaded by the breed’s striking features and the idea of a fierce all-black rooster stalking the homestead grounds, I decided to pull the trigger. If I was scared by the chicken’s Reaper-like appearance, so should be the hawk, I reasoned.
Searching for a name that suited his macabre looks, I settled on Edgar Allan Crowe, or Eddie for short. He took to the hens and farm immediately, and after a couple days you would have thought he’d been raised with the flock. Weeks went by and between him and my bluetick hound Jack, I didn’t see any hint of predators around the coop or yard. Seemed like he was doing his job, although I couldn’t be sure — maybe the hawks had just moved along while on their southern migration.
That was until one morning, while sitting on my back porch picking the guitar on an unseasonably warm February day, I heard a panicked alarm call from one of the hens and a large commotion around the side of the house. I jumped up and sprinted around the house to see....nothing. But almost immediately I heard a loud scuffling sound from underneath the house, in an expansive dirt floor crawl space below a large storage room. I bent down and saw Eddie in full-pitched battle with a Cooper’s Hawk. The hawk had apparently flown underneath the house where my Black Copper Marans hen Big Mama was cowering in the furthest dark corner she could find. Hackles flared and spurs at the ready, Edgar Allan Crowe had seen the attack and dashed into the crawl space to place himself between the hawk and Big Mama’s makeshift bunker. Ready to battle one defender, but not two, upon seeing me the hawk turned tail and flew low out from under the house and away and off the property.
Edgar walked out cool and calm, with a single drop of blood on his comb, but seemingly no worse for the wear. Big Mama huddled in the dark depths of the crawl space for about another half-hour until she was sure the coast was clear and then emerged fully intact, apparently not missing a single feather thanks to Eddie’s heroics.
In the six months Edgar Allan Crowe has been with the flock, I haven’t lost another hen, despite them free-ranging from dawn until dusk. He is a great protector, ever-vigilant, and very caring of his hens, happily tidbitting whenever a tasty morsel is found. So if anyone else finds a good deal on a striking Ayam Cemani rooster and wonders if they make for good guardians...they most certainly do!
Looking through Craigslist, I saw someone had an Ayam Cemani cock for sale, and after some brief research I was intrigued. But as a relatively new bird to the U.S., I couldn’t find much info on whether it would make for a dutiful protector of the flock. Persuaded by the breed’s striking features and the idea of a fierce all-black rooster stalking the homestead grounds, I decided to pull the trigger. If I was scared by the chicken’s Reaper-like appearance, so should be the hawk, I reasoned.
Searching for a name that suited his macabre looks, I settled on Edgar Allan Crowe, or Eddie for short. He took to the hens and farm immediately, and after a couple days you would have thought he’d been raised with the flock. Weeks went by and between him and my bluetick hound Jack, I didn’t see any hint of predators around the coop or yard. Seemed like he was doing his job, although I couldn’t be sure — maybe the hawks had just moved along while on their southern migration.
That was until one morning, while sitting on my back porch picking the guitar on an unseasonably warm February day, I heard a panicked alarm call from one of the hens and a large commotion around the side of the house. I jumped up and sprinted around the house to see....nothing. But almost immediately I heard a loud scuffling sound from underneath the house, in an expansive dirt floor crawl space below a large storage room. I bent down and saw Eddie in full-pitched battle with a Cooper’s Hawk. The hawk had apparently flown underneath the house where my Black Copper Marans hen Big Mama was cowering in the furthest dark corner she could find. Hackles flared and spurs at the ready, Edgar Allan Crowe had seen the attack and dashed into the crawl space to place himself between the hawk and Big Mama’s makeshift bunker. Ready to battle one defender, but not two, upon seeing me the hawk turned tail and flew low out from under the house and away and off the property.
Edgar walked out cool and calm, with a single drop of blood on his comb, but seemingly no worse for the wear. Big Mama huddled in the dark depths of the crawl space for about another half-hour until she was sure the coast was clear and then emerged fully intact, apparently not missing a single feather thanks to Eddie’s heroics.
In the six months Edgar Allan Crowe has been with the flock, I haven’t lost another hen, despite them free-ranging from dawn until dusk. He is a great protector, ever-vigilant, and very caring of his hens, happily tidbitting whenever a tasty morsel is found. So if anyone else finds a good deal on a striking Ayam Cemani rooster and wonders if they make for good guardians...they most certainly do!
