Rooster Chat

[cowboysgirlfrnd]

Now I'm a little paranoid to go out amongst the hens with my earrings in, listening to these horror stories!!

This morning my red roo emerged from under the barn, and I think blue immediately set about picking on him. Red stood his ground for a bit, and scurried off with a few pullets. They certainly seemed glad to see him and keen to stay near him. He is quite a bit gentler than the blue roo. Haven't seen anybody this afternoon, they are all hiding out in the shade as it is baking hot here, but I'm hoping red is still out and about. The fact that the girls seem to like him better is making me more sure that he is the one I want to keep around. They seem a bit stressed by blue roo.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Now I'm a little paranoid to go out amongst the hens with my earrings in, listening to these horror stories!!

This morning my red roo emerged from under the barn, and I think blue immediately set about picking on him. Red stood his ground for a bit, and scurried off with a few pullets. They certainly seemed glad to see him and keen to stay near him. He is quite a bit gentler than the blue roo. Haven't seen anybody this afternoon, they are all hiding out in the shade as it is baking hot here, but I'm hoping red is still out and about. The fact that the girls seem to like him better is making me more sure that he is the one I want to keep around. They seem a bit stressed by blue roo.

I always trust my hens opinion on a rooster. Glad he came out.

 

[microchick]

cowboysgirlfrnd, I am so glad that your missing roo resurfaced and made a stand. Looks like you have a decision that you are going to have to make. I know how hard that can be. Been there, done that and now have two adult roosters living in a pen by themselves.

I agree with oldhenlikesdogs. Trust your hens. They will never lead you down the wrong path.

 

[cowboysgirlfrnd]

I posted an advert on a local Facebook chicken group to see if anybody would take pesky blue to a home where his talents would be more appreciated, and somebody responded just a few minutes ago! They have a few wayward hens who don't always make it back to the coop at night, which blue roo would be perfect for. They are coming to look at him tomorrow! Hoping it works out and he can quietly move on. Then red roo can take over my girls and everybody should be happy!

 

[microchick]

I posted an advert on a local Facebook chicken group to see if anybody would take pesky blue to a home where his talents would be more appreciated, and somebody responded just a few minutes ago! They have a few wayward hens who don't always make it back to the coop at night, which blue roo would be perfect for. They are coming to look at him tomorrow! Hoping it works out and he can quietly move on. Then red roo can take over my girls and everybody should be happy!

 

[cowboysgirlfrnd]

Oh gosh... Red roo is so funny. He peeked out from under the barn when I went out to clean out the horse stall that I'd used for the chicks. I was shovelling sawdust and turned around to find him hanging out right by me, watching me pretty closely. He followed me around the whole time and looked like he'd climb in my lap for a hug if I would let him. He seems to think I am his only friend in the world! He also sounded like his voice is breaking, he was having a hard time vocalising. He wasn't trying to crow at all, but his clucking sounds were very squeaky. I had no idea roosters were so strange.

 

[microchick]

Strange, well, yeah, that's one word I use to describe them. Tonight the words would have been more like "Bleep! Bleep! Bleep! Stop it! You Stupid Bleep!" something along those lines.

Two days after the great pink sandal attack, I enter the coop with my usual gallon ice cream pail that I use to put their bed time snack in their treat trough, then use the same pail to pick up the last of the eggs, check food and water and then call it a night. Chester and two hens were in the coop, I bent over to pick up the trough to dump out the pine chips they'd scratched into it during the day and WHAM! Chester lets fly at the pail. Treats go flying. Before I can even recover, WHAM! He lets fly at it again almost knocking the whole thing out of my hand and it was the only thing between me and him at that point. I managed to pick up a second trough and used it to fend him off. He must have seen that I meant business because he headed for the exit real fast.

I just don't know what I'm going to do with him. He is a beautiful Welsummer Rooster. 15 minutes before this incident he was eating bread out of my hand, sweet as pie.Night before he was the first one bellying up to the trough as I poured out treats using the same pail. But he is unpredictable. Tomorrow I'm going to switch him out with the second Welly roo and see what happens. I have three young roosters that are 13 weeks old and starting to crow. Two are Welly Buff O crosses one is a full blooded Buff O. My Buff O rooster is a doll but even he has been traumatized by the two Welly roosters when they were together with him,Yet he isn't happy if I leave him alone with the young cockerels.

The problem with the second Welsummer Rooster is that he nailed me with a spur two weeks ago. I've had a heck of a time getting the wound healed. It was deeper than I thought. Once again, he is unpredictable. I had my back to him when he attacked that last time, filling a water container.

So both of the Welsummer roosters are unpredictable, my Lavender Orpington Rooster is just a big walking .....well, you know. And my Buff O rooster goes into a depression when I leave him alone with the young cockerels and they will not be mature for another 3 months.

I'm starting to feel like the old 'who's on first' joke. I know what I should do I just don't want to do it. And yet I really do love these boys and don't want to cull them.

Sorry. Just needed to vent I guess.

 

[cowboysgirlfrnd]

Vent away, microchick! I"m learning a lot from this thread. Mostly I am learning that maybe I don't want a rooster after all...

Today, somehow, I ended up giving away my red roo instead of the blue one. I figured I needed to get rid of one, and the people who wanted a rooster were so taken with red roo. They didn't like how flighty blue roo is, even though I tried to explain why I had raised him to be healthily frightened of people. I felt good about it at the time, but now this afternoon I am feeling rather sad and annoyed that I gave away the one I really wanted. I did send them with instructions that if he turned out to be a horrible rooster when they got him home, they could bring him back. I'm secretly hoping that he finds his hormones when he gets there, starts terrorising their hens, and they decide to return him. What was I thinking??

In the meantime, I'm resigning myself to the Iowa Blue. I know he is going through his adolescence and can't help himself, but it's a bit tough to watch. I really hope he mellows out - about what age do roosters get over this first flush of manhood?!

 

[the poppster]

Strange, well, yeah, that's one word I use to describe them. Tonight the words would have been more like "Bleep! Bleep! Bleep! Stop it! You Stupid Bleep!" something along those lines.

Two days after the great pink sandal attack, I enter the coop with my usual gallon ice cream pail that I use to put their bed time snack in their treat trough, then use the same pail to pick up the last of the eggs, check food and water and then call it a night. Chester and two hens were in the coop, I bent over to pick up the trough to dump out the pine chips they'd scratched into it during the day and WHAM! Chester lets fly at the pail. Treats go flying. Before I can even recover, WHAM! He lets fly at it again almost knocking the whole thing out of my hand and it was the only thing between me and him at that point. I managed to pick up a second trough and used it to fend him off. He must have seen that I meant business because he headed for the exit real fast.

I just don't know what I'm going to do with him. He is a beautiful Welsummer Rooster. 15 minutes before this incident he was eating bread out of my hand, sweet as pie.Night before he was the first one bellying up to the trough as I poured out treats using the same pail.  But he is unpredictable. Tomorrow I'm going to switch him out with the second Welly roo and see what happens. I have three young roosters that are 13 weeks old and starting to crow. Two are Welly Buff O crosses one is a full blooded Buff O. My Buff O rooster is a doll but even he has been traumatized by the two Welly roosters when they were together with him,Yet he isn't happy if I leave him alone with the young cockerels.

The problem with the second Welsummer Rooster is that he nailed me with a spur two weeks ago. I've had a heck of a time getting the wound healed. It was deeper than I thought. Once again, he is unpredictable. I had my back to him when he attacked that last time, filling a water container.

So both of the Welsummer roosters are unpredictable, my Lavender Orpington Rooster is just a big walking .....well, you know. And my Buff O rooster goes into a depression when I leave him alone with the young cockerels and they will not be mature for another 3 months. 

I'm starting to feel like the old 'who's on first' joke. I know what I should do I just don't want to do it. And yet I really do love these boys and don't want to cull them.

Sorry. Just needed to vent I guess.

It sounds like that boy needs some time in the isolation pen with the other boys...honestly, if any of my Roosters start with that kind of behavior....they get a few chances to quit the aggressive stuff with me....and plenty of warning....if it continues! It's "Off With His Head! And into the freezer"....that could be a very serious issue if you have a problem with any wounds not healing, I would get rid of any overly aggressive rooster right away. Don't wait till he sticks a spur into you. They are not "Playing" or "Warning" you when they attack in that manner. He is serious about Beating you up. Or he's got a thing about that ice cream bucket....the last roo who went after me when I had a bucket in my hand, had a midair collision with a 5 gallon drywall bucket half full of grain...sent him into the corner of the run, in a heap of feathers....he gave that bucket and me a wide birth from then to now.

 

[microchick]

My oldest roos are 15 months old. I'm still obviously waiting for those hormones to settle down.

Iowa Blue may surprise you. I hated my Buff O rooster when he was a young cockerel. Talk about a totally obnoxious bird, then suddenly something clicked with him and how he is my much loved favorite. I wouldn't take a million dollars for him.

My problem child has been a perfect gentleman today. I went in this morning to do some measurements and he looked at me as if saying, 'nah, don't wanna go there, thank you' either that or 'Good grief, she's up!'

On the opposite end of the spectrum, one of my young 13 week old welsummer/buff o cross cockerels tried to grab one of the 15 month old buff o hens tonight with the intention of doing a real bad attempt to mate her. She was on him like ugly on an ape. It was really comical to watch. She chased him and pecked him as if saying, "No way, Junior, not in a million years!" I kinda felt sorry for the boy.

The Poppster. I wouldn't doubt that he doesn't like that pail. I've used it to fend him off a few times when he's been aggressive, well, not that exact pail. They have busted up a few. Good thing we like frozen yogurt. The pea brain probably thinks the pail is the source of all his problems and not me. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, the pail is too flimsy to cause him any damage or me any real protection. The rooster that stuck the spur in the back of my left calf is in permanent time out in the bachelor pen. I seriously considered trading the two birds out and thought better of it for safety sake. My safety that is. Or maybe his depending on how you look at it.

Tonight I was outside and heard one of the young cockerels strangle out a bad crow. I rushed over to see which one it was, Primo or Dos. To my dismay I saw it was Trey. I thought Trey was a girl. That means out of 8 chicks, 4 are cockerels. I know it's an average turnout but man, I don't need no more cockerels.

(bet that whine was heard clear around the world!)