stray Christmas chicken!

[StrayChickenMom]

This chicken showed up in our yard on Christmas (we are not rural). 5 days later it was back. Due to local flooding and foxes it is roosting in my garage in a broom! (We are feeding chicken feed). Potential new home has 3 hen sisters. We can not keep her due to city ordinances. Can you please advise me of gender and breed so I can find the right home?

 

[TheTwoRoos]

The bird looks young to me,I would say a young rooster.He looks like a plymouth rock

 

[kylie15]

I am almost positive that he is a young barred rock rooster. Mine looked the exact same when he was younger.

 

[donrae]

Agree he's a young rooster (cockerel). Any potential homes will need to be able to keep a crower.

I hate to say it, but that's probably why he was a "stray". He's at that age where his previous owners probably just confirmed his gender and dumped him, rather than being responsible and dealing with him.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

barred rocks feathers are not the lightly colored

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Plymouth roo:

 

[StrayChickenMom]

Wow! You guys really know your chickens. I took Noelle to try a new family that has hens. They placed her in the pen with their hens. Noelle was supremely bossy and I would say aggressive. Things settled down and we watched them for about 30 minutes. They think it is male also. So they moved Noel (we'll drop the le) to the covered dog run for now so we can make some decisions. In the meantime more information came forward from a neighbor who thought they might know where the chicken came from. Turns out the house diferctly across from mine on the cul-de-sac keeps chickens (1 at a time) in their garage. Then they slaughter and eat them. I am ok with that, I understand food comes from somewhere. Well, their garage flooded so they moved the chicken to the backyard and he flew the coop so to speak. But the backyard has no coop or place to stay dry, which is probably why we found him wandering during the rain and flooding. Also explains why he was in our yard when poultry is not allowed in city limits. And Plymouth Rocks are good meat chickens from what I have read, so a PR breeder may sell extra males since it seems people mostly want females. Anyway I had no idea our neighboors kept chickens in their garage. The chicken is theirs. BUT. They don't want him back, the wife says he poops all over their bikes and she is tired of it. So even in the garage it is not kept in a pen. ACK! Why do people do this? If you were going to eat it anyway, take it back and make it your meal! So now I have to figure out something to do with this rooster to be.

 

[Michael OShay]

Barred Plymouth Rock cockerel

 

[kylie15]

Wow! You guys really know your chickens. I took Noelle to try a new family that has hens. They placed her in the pen with their hens. Noelle was supremely bossy and I would say aggressive. Things settled down and we watched them for about 30 minutes. They think it is male also. So they moved Noel (we'll drop the le) to the covered dog run for now so we can make some decisions. In the meantime more information came forward from a neighbor who thought they might know where the chicken came from. Turns out the house diferctly across from mine on the cul-de-sac keeps chickens (1 at a time) in their garage. Then they slaughter and eat them. I am ok with that, I understand food comes from somewhere. Well, their garage flooded so they moved the chicken to the backyard and he flew the coop so to speak. But the backyard has no coop or place to stay dry, which is probably why we found him wandering during the rain and flooding. Also explains why he was in our yard when poultry is not allowed in city limits. And Plymouth Rocks are good meat chickens from what I have read, so a PR breeder may sell extra males since it seems people mostly want females. Anyway I had no idea our neighboors kept chickens in their garage. The chicken is theirs. BUT. They don't want him back, the wife says he poops all over their bikes and she is tired of it. So even in the garage it is not kept in a pen. ACK! Why do people do this? If you were going to eat it anyway, take it back and make it your meal! So now I have to figure out something to do with this rooster to be.

I would look around for a good home for him. One of our "hens" turned out to be a boy so we were going to look for a good place for him to live because we have neighbors. There are some people who will take him that have a bunch of land so that they can just run around. We ended up keeping ours because one day he went missing and the hens were lost without him, but you obviously can't so I'd suggest hanging a poster that says "free rooster" or something like that with your number at a Tractor Supply Co. or something. Someone will probably call for him or something. I can't believe that someone would just leave their rooster like that, poor little guy. He's so lucky that you're taking care of him!

 

[StrayChickenMom]

Good News, a wonderful person has stepped forward to take him, regardless of the chicken's sex, though I made it clear we thought it was a boy! He lives in N GA, will meet him tomorrow. Very excited for Noel.