The Story of the Old Rooster

[Leogakasmoke]

I had a black star rooster, he ran around the yard, stalked me through the windows, chased my sister, her boyfriend, the cats, and would just sit outside my window looking at me . I eventually set him up with some hens to divert his time. He fertilized many eggs, and two of the baby chicks grew up to be young roosters, one was dominant over the other but they all seemed to get along. Until the day i came out and found the dominant of the two younger roosters, almost dead, and the old rooster, also hurt pretty bad, obviously from a fight. the young rooster died, So the weaker of the young roosters took this as his time to take control of the flock. he chased the old hurt rooster off to the other side of the property and took over. months passed, all the chickens were caged up, and the two roosters kept in seperate cages with hens, while the younger rooster continued to crow and taunt and act like he was top dog. Then one day i come out and think to myself, why is the old rooster not in his cage. where is he? He is walking around inside the cage where the younger rooster was kept, which is now dead. He escaped his cage, then went and hopped in the other cage just to kill that other rooster. That is two he killed. about 6 months later he died one day when it was 100 - 105 degrees. This was my first experience with roosters but man, that guy was a tough mean one.

 

[centrarchid]

Based on your album I assume you have some game chickens. I have many myself. You must be more on your toes with those to prevent what you observed. Even the crossbreeds involving games can be problematic as can some nongame roosters. If keeping roosters again, allow the the opportunity to form non-overlapping territories either in time (release only one at a time) or space (have sufficient areas each a can rule at the exclusion of other roosters). Make so penned birds can not reach each other or another bird on the outside.

For you to have a repeat of this is not a problem of the birds, rather it is poor management. Make certain you have sufficient resources in place before keeping chickens in general but do a double check when multiple roosters are involved.

 

[theoldchick]

Roosters are a tough mean lot. Gotta watch them or you'll end up with more dead roosters.