Raven and Tribble, nestmates, brothers..... Buddies!

[MacTech]

The two most recent additions to my flock were two roosters, both Cochin/Silkie mixes, I brought up from my sister's flock, they've been part of the flock for about 3 months now, the hens are still alpha, but they're starting to accept the two roosters as flock mates.

We kept chickens back in the late '70's, but never had roosters, hens only, well, we had one rooster, a white leghorn, stereotypical neurotic, mean roo, after he spurred mom, he was put down, and we've never kept roosters since, up until now (after a 30 year hiatus)

There's just something endearingly funny about having a flock with two roosters that hatched from the same batch of eggs, and were raised by pastured hens, these roosters don't have a mean bone in their tiny bantam bodies, heck, the hens are more agressive then they are...

One of my favorite behaviors that they engage in is "rooster-tag" usually when I open them in the morning...

Raven is the first one out, scampering out onto the lawn to free range, then Tribble trundles out, spies his brother, drops his wings to the ground, and takes off running after him, he chases Raven a bit, with his wings down, all puffed up to make himself look bigger, at some point, Raven decides he's had enough, turns to face Tribble, flares his hackles, puffs up, they do a couple chest-bumps.....

And then trundle off together, bestest buddies, doing their best to avoid the hens who have decided to raid the cat food dish on the porch that contains that most rare of chicken delicacies, dry cat food!

R&T truly seem to be the best of buddies, after a long day of free ranging, they return to the barn, and happily nest together in a big fluffy hay flake that's hidden under a platform roost, it's too low to the ground for the hens to even contemplate squeezing under, so the girls can't bully them...

This was Tribble soon after he joined my flock;

And this is him today, his hackles have grown, and are getting a faint yellow accent

And this is his brother, Raven

 

[b.hromada]

Beautiful boys! Love their story. I can see you love chickens too, that's great! Enjoy them, and thanks for sharing.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

They are adorable. I love watching rooster buddies together, they are so funny. We had a couple of roosters friends who hatched together and then got their own bachelor coop.

 

[MacTech]

It's interesting how my flock reacts to snow, this is their first winter, and we had about 4" from the Thanksgiving day storm (IOW, a dusting), and the flocks reactions couldn't be more different;

Chiana (EE) Amelia, and Aeryn (both PPR) flat out refuse to venture beyond the leaf litter next to the barn, they'll pick at the snow, but refuse to walk in it

The Minions (3 BO) will venture out a little into the snow, but prefer to stay on the leaf litter, none of the hens want to leave the chicken yard

R&T? They're out running around in the snow and playing tag in the shrubs, perhaps it's their feathered legs giving them more insulation, and their tiny combs and wattles, but they're not fazed by the snow, to them, it's just a cold, crunchy ground...

I think the fact that the hens are afraid of the snow means they realize they have the whole yard to themselves, and won't get hassled by the hens

It's funny, I always thought that having multiple roosters was asking for aggression issues and other problems, but that's not the case with these two (so far....)

 

[scratch'n'peck]

It's interesting how my flock reacts to snow, this is their first winter, and we had about 4" from the Thanksgiving day storm (IOW, a dusting), and the flocks reactions couldn't be more different;

Chiana (EE) Amelia, and Aeryn (both PPR) flat out refuse to venture beyond the leaf litter next to the barn, they'll pick at the snow, but refuse to walk in it

The Minions (3 BO) will venture out a little into the snow, but prefer to stay on the leaf litter, none of the hens want to leave the chicken yard

R&T? They're out running around in the snow and playing tag in the shrubs, perhaps it's their feathered legs giving them more insulation, and their tiny combs and wattles, but they're not fazed by the snow, to them, it's just a cold, crunchy ground...

I think the fact that the hens are afraid of the snow means they realize they have the whole yard to themselves, and won't get hassled by the hens

It's funny, I always thought that having multiple roosters was asking for aggression issues and other problems, but that's not the case with these two (so far....)

My feather footed chicken - the Brahma- seems least upset by the snow come to think of it. Most of my chickens don't like fresh fluffy snow on their feet, but once it is packed down snow, they don't seem to mind it.

Roosters who were raised together are said to get along better. It also helps that your roosters are a mix of mellow breeds. Of course, being on the bottom of the pecking order means they are not really in a position to compete for the hens' attention either.

 

[MacTech]

I love the randomness of genetics....

R&T share the same parents, mother is a black Silkie, father was a Cochin, but the father was a human-agressive jerk that had to be put down...

...anyway...

Tribble is mostly Silkie, he has hard feathers on his wing tips, but they're vestigal and narrow, clamped looking, when he was a bit younger, he could achieve extremely short flights at low altitudes, but now at adult size, his wings no longer generate sufficient lift to get him off the ground, he can make himself "lighter" and run extremely fast, all while comically flapping away with his non-lift-producing wings, but his days of airborne freedom are gone....

Doesn't bother him much though...

Raven, OTOH, is mostly Cochin, and is an AMAZING flier, he can span a good distance, at about shoulder to head height (I'm 5'8"), and at amazing speeds, he easily outperforms the hens in both height and speed, he's cleared about 15-20 yards easily, probably because he is slightly smaller than Tribble, and has a true set of hard feathered wings

It's clear that Raven loves the freedom of flight, and he uses almost any excuse to grab some airtime, good thing they have a huge lawn at their disposal....

Just this afternoon, I was having Cooper (Portuguese Water Dog) help me herd the brothers in, it was getting dark, and they were obstinately refusing to leave the shrub they were hanging out in, I told Cooper to "Bring 'em in" and he herded them towards their barn, Tribble frantically waddle-flapped to the barn (Yakkety-Sax from Benny Hill would have been an appropriate soundtrack), while Raven engaged evasive maneuvers and flew from the shrub, banked a couple times, and alighted on an old grapevine at the edge of the barn, hanging sideways and looking smug... (Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" would have been the perfect soundtrack) he felt the need, the need for *speed*

They both returned safely to the barn, and I closed them up...

 

[scratch'n'peck]

I love the randomness of genetics....

I know, that's why mixed breeds can be so fascinating. And even with pure breeds, you can't be certain what you are going to get. Although many Cochins are mellow like my jumbo cochin roosters were, I certainly have read about mean cochin roosters. Those dearly departed roosters lived to about age 5, they were big round balls of feathers waddling around and flapped their wings mostly for effect.

Your description of the herding back to the barn is so funny. I can picture the whole thing with the soundtrack.