Turns out that it's not Tristan the rooster's fault that I'm so sick. I had a flu shot Friday and now I'm having a reaction to it. It's like I have the flu. 3:19 A.M. here now and I've thrown up everything I've eaten for a month and am having dry heaves repeatedly. I have a temp (?) and my body aches all over; that's how I felt yesterday when my head was pounding, but it got progressively worse during the day.
I am leaving Tristan in the coop for a long while though. Last night my silkie and her chick slept in the coop with the hens. Tristan is outraged that he's in the silkie's coop alone, but between his incessant crowing, repeatedly raping the little silkie, and bullying the hens all day by hogging all the treats and pecking them, I had to do something. He's fit to be tied. The first hour in there he would not move, just stood on the floor like he was in a catatonic state. I went to check on him, and he flew to the door to try to escape. I wouldn't let him go out, so he got mad and flew up to a nest that he went into and spent a couple of hours pouting. I took the flashlight out last night to check on him, and he was up on the perches. What a character! He is beautiful, and in spite of how I've run him down, a very likeable rooster that will be a well-behaved one SOMEDAY when he's not a 22-week-old messed up teenager. All that's true based on the chance that I don't ring his neck someday. I guess it's true for roosters as it is for human teenagers, if their parents and teachers don't kill them before they're eighteen, they almost always grow up to be good citizens.
I haven't heard a peep out of him since I put him in the coop yesterday. Hope he's not on a starvation diet.
