- Jan 16, 2011
- 16
- 1
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Hi everyone,
I relatively new to chicken-keeping, so please bear with me!
I have five hens and one rooster, and the hens are laying everyday. But my rooster is acting a bit strange.
For a while now, all he does for most of the day is sit down on the grass, asleep. He eats well, I see him eat, and he mates with the hens. But he sits down, A LOT. And he makes a strange noise - kind of like a creaky door? A bit like he is snoring, or gurgling? Really hard to explain.... it's quite a quiet noise.
I picked him up earlier to check him over, he is growing new feathers (he is approx 8 months old, I think), but there is a vertical line down the middle of his chest that has no feathers. Is this normal? It's a bare ridge of yellow skin (the same colour as his legs).
He's been wormed today too.
I was reading online the other day about a roosters "job", which they said was to look after his hens and scout out food etc, and it didn't sound like him at all. He's always the first one in the food trough and pecks the hens out the way if they try to eat before he has finished!
Could there be something wrong with him? I've never owned a rooster before so I'm not sure what "normal" rooster behavious is!!
Are there things I should be checking him for? He eats pellets and corn just as the hens do, and the occasional papaya.
Any help or advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Sarah
I relatively new to chicken-keeping, so please bear with me!
I have five hens and one rooster, and the hens are laying everyday. But my rooster is acting a bit strange.
For a while now, all he does for most of the day is sit down on the grass, asleep. He eats well, I see him eat, and he mates with the hens. But he sits down, A LOT. And he makes a strange noise - kind of like a creaky door? A bit like he is snoring, or gurgling? Really hard to explain.... it's quite a quiet noise.
I picked him up earlier to check him over, he is growing new feathers (he is approx 8 months old, I think), but there is a vertical line down the middle of his chest that has no feathers. Is this normal? It's a bare ridge of yellow skin (the same colour as his legs).
He's been wormed today too.
I was reading online the other day about a roosters "job", which they said was to look after his hens and scout out food etc, and it didn't sound like him at all. He's always the first one in the food trough and pecks the hens out the way if they try to eat before he has finished!
Could there be something wrong with him? I've never owned a rooster before so I'm not sure what "normal" rooster behavious is!!
Are there things I should be checking him for? He eats pellets and corn just as the hens do, and the occasional papaya.
Any help or advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Sarah
