KEEP HIM!!!5/19 Updates:
Daisy is "done" with the Crazy 8 Puffs. There was no drama that I observed; she is simply off to forage with the other ladies and the babies seem to know they are not explicitly invited. They stick to one another quite happily, in all the shady and convenient places she's taught them to go. A very good momma. That's what, about 5 weeks of patient, steady mothering? I'm nothing but pleased with her performance.
I don't like posting without a picture, so here's Yorvir a few days ago, looking a bit more haggard as a full grown sire than he did as a spunky cockerel:
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Here's a compilation; the first one could be him but the rest definitely are him as he matured:
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He was never intended to be anything but dinner. We raised a batch of 21? 22? I can't recall, crossbreds from the neighboring farm. Buff Orpington over Leghorns. And he was one of the nameless cockerel crowd until my husband noticed he'd made himself the boss of the group. He got a name, just for fun, but his bossy personality did not seem unkind nor did he show any human aggression when most of his male siblings did. He became so tame and such a buddy to my husband that we had to make room for him. And I'm quite pleased with him... the first boy I've fully been able to turn my back on and trust he's not going to be tempted to flog me. A true sweetheart.
A good rooster is a joy. I've had both good and rotten.
I wonder if my cockerels being raised by a flock of hens will be a little more...mellow?