Rooster stories

My two favorite rooster stories:

Barney I (barnevelder) was the sweetest, most delightful rooster. He always took such good care of his ladies, calling them over for treats, calling out warnings when hawks flew over. When he became a daddy for the first time, I wondered how he would be with the chicks as I broody hatch in the coop. Well, momma brought the babes out at about day 4 into the main coop area. An aggressive hen rushed over to put momma immediately into the lowest setting of the pecking order. Barney rushed over. Placed himself between momma with babies and the aggressive hen. He did his little swoop dance with lowered wing and literally scooped the aggressive hen out of the coop area so momma and babes could be undisturbed. I loved him even more.

Barney II (his son) is a good rooster, however not quite as bright as his father. Barney II likes to spar with Fife II (grandson of Barney with a Cream Legbar, his daddy Fife I sadly died from a heart attack at a young age). They can poke at each other through the fencing which also has some bird netting draped down. I went out one day to take care of the birds and noticed no Barney II. I found him hanging upsidedown on his side of the fence with spurs caught in the netting which had drooped down obviously pulled down in the fight. He looked totally ridiculous. I had no idea how long he had been hanging there. I walked over to him, and he merely looked up at me with a calm eye seemingly to say "need some help here." I gently picked him up, uprighted him, and set him off...with a slight limp, but sadly no smarter. He did it twice more before we corrected the netting. Each time he calmly hung upside down until I could rescue him. Each time politely allowing me to free him and set him back on his way. I do believe he has lost some street creds in front of his Barney ladies, while Fife II is laughing and strutting in front of his Cream Legbar and Olive Egger ladies. LOL.

LofMc
 
My two favorite rooster stories:

Barney I (barnevelder) was the sweetest, most delightful rooster. He always took such good care of his ladies, calling them over for treats, calling out warnings when hawks flew over. When he became a daddy for the first time, I wondered how he would be with the chicks as I broody hatch in the coop. Well, momma brought the babes out at about day 4 into the main coop area. An aggressive hen rushed over to put momma immediately into the lowest setting of the pecking order. Barney rushed over. Placed himself between momma with babies and the aggressive hen. He did his little swoop dance with lowered wing and literally scooped the aggressive hen out of the coop area so momma and babes could be undisturbed. I loved him even more.

Barney II (his son) is a good rooster, however not quite as bright as his father. Barney II likes to spar with Fife II (grandson of Barney with a Cream Legbar, his daddy Fife I sadly died from a heart attack at a young age). They can poke at each other through the fencing which also has some bird netting draped down. I went out one day to take care of the birds and noticed no Barney II. I found him hanging upsidedown on his side of the fence with spurs caught in the netting which had drooped down obviously pulled down in the fight. He looked totally ridiculous. I had no idea how long he had been hanging there. I walked over to him, and he merely looked up at me with a calm eye seemingly to say "need some help here." I gently picked him up, uprighted him, and set him off...with a slight limp, but sadly no smarter. He did it twice more before we corrected the netting. Each time he calmly hung upside down until I could rescue him. Each time politely allowing me to free him and set him back on his way. I do believe he has lost some street creds in front of his Barney ladies, while Fife II is laughing and strutting in front of his Cream Legbar and Olive Egger ladies. LOL.

LofMc
That's so funny and cute I have a silkie roo who in my mixed flock of standard and bantam birds thinks he is a big boy roo lol but is the sweetest thing ever and has never been aggressive he will sit in my lap and watch his ladies.
 
I have several stories about Ludwig, the Black Langshan king of the very expensive castle, Neuchickenstein (he's currently for sale).

First, he's fabulous with chicks. When he was only a 7-month cockerel I put a new batch of 26 chicks into the integration pen in the big coop. Of course the entire flock was curious, but Ludwig actually came over to them and sat down next to the pen with the chicks sitting next to him.

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I didn't see it, and my son didn't get a photo, but when those chicks made their first venture into the run with the adults they did it under Ludwig's escort.

I also didn't get a photo the other day when my latest batch of chicks got out of their pen (this batch is a pack of escape artists). The adults were pecking at them but they went right under Ludwig for safety (Now that he's an adult he's very tall -- knee high on my 6-foot son).

Second, he's so gentle with the hens that I've only once ever actually seen him trying to mate and that was back when he was still a cockerel. The Light Brahma in my avatar is strongly resistant to being dominated and never squatted for me like the other hens. One time I saw Ludwig standing on her back while she ran away -- like he was surfing. But within a month of that her eggs were fertile.

Third, he's remarkably mild-tempered about other males. The junior cockerel, Rameses, often mates hens right in front of him and Ludwig just comes over to watch -- as if he's making sure that Rameses is doing it right. (No, Rameses and the hen are not caged. The birds just like to hang out in the broody-breaker when it's not in use).

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Finally, I discovered that Ludwig and Rameses are extremely diligent about getting the girls to roost at night. Last summer with a hen-headed flock I had an awful time getting them into the coop before full dark. I haven't gotten a photo yet, but this year I see the two boys working together to herd any possible late-stayers into the coop.

The one night Rameses stood guard next to the door to keep the hens and chicks who were already in from coming out and to shut off the escape in one directions while Ludwig carefully rounded up the stragglers and herded them through the door.

The other day I caught Rameses in the nest box making soft sounds to tell the hens he'd found a good place for the eggs. I tried to take a photo of that but it didn't come out (Sorry, I'm a lousy photographer).

Here are a couple of gratuitous photos of the boys.

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Well my rooster is definitely being a turd today, first he was crowing this morning and I wanted to enter the crowing rooster contest so I got my phone ready and as soon as I put it on him he stop crowing I gave up after around 10 minutes and then he crowed again. Then I filled up the feeders and he comes over to the feeder calls all these girls over and starts getting food out of the top of it of course all the girls are eating out of the top of one feeder now. he's also a sneaky little one he goes into the dust bath digs the hole and acts like hes dust bathing then he calls one of the girls over to dust bath with him then as soon as she lays down he'll get up and jump on the way back cuz the girls will not squat for him yet almost every egg I get is fertile. And for some reason they fall for it every time, and for some reason my chickens always like to dust bathe together.
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and him just being weird
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