elphabafalls
Songster
- Jul 27, 2020
- 108
- 158
- 123
I had a rooster that I ended up rehoming simply because our neighbors are very close, and I didn't want to bother them. It was an open adoption, so I get updates and pics frequently. He's a Barred Plymouth Rock, and he is the sweetest little thing to us humans. He was curious and loving toward us from the beginning. If I was eating a plum in the backyard (one of his top favorites), he would jump up in my lap or on my shoulder and help himself to bites. He's now crowing and coming into sexual maturity in his new home. He was a natural leader from birth, however. He would discipline the others and break up fights. When he and a couple of our females were rehomed, he oversaw the integration of our girls into their pre existing flock. He absolutely didn't allow their older hens to bully our younger pullets. My point is that he's protective. He breaks up disputes. He negotiates integrations. I don't know if you can do this with yours because you'd have to raise the rooster probably to develop that kind of relationship with him - and, so you'd know he's a good rooster. It may help to have one just in case this or something like it happens in the future. Geez I miss that baby. We also have a chicken that the others pick on. They've picked on her since she came here to live with us. Recently, 2 things happened. The 2 Black Sex Links we have that are much younger have finally gotten big enough to integrate with the rest of the flock. The other thing is that 5 of our 8 older chickens have started laying. When the 2 babies showed up, the whole flock decided to make sure the babies knew who was in charge by chasing and pecking them. Also, the one older chicken that should be laying because she's older than several that are laying suddenly dropped to the bottom of the pecking order when she used to be at the top. Since our original picked on baby also chases the youngest 2, they're not chasing her really at all anymore. And, since the one that used to be at the top of the pecking order is now at the bottom, that's also helped them forget their ongoing grudge against the one the has been picked on since the beginning. Big changes in the flock made them forget their previous bad behavior.
