Good morning, Gardeners!
We had nice weather this past weekend, in the low 50s and no rain, so we got the new pen built for the roosters. We changed its name from "rooster jail" to "the bachelor pad" because it turned out pretty nice for them.
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About 6'x60' and 5' tall with netting over the top, for three roosters. It's not as "Fort Knox" safe as the hens' coop and run, but it's relatively safe within the enclosed garden area, an apron, and the boys all have large spurs to defend themselves if necessary. After this picture was taken, we built them a roost in the middle, where no hungry predator hands can reach through.
They seem pretty happy - immediately started scratching, eating grass and hunting bugs. The two brothers stick together and stay away from the older rooster Loki, though he's showed no aggression towards them at all.
The hens seem super relieved to have all the rooster drama gone! The only one who seemed upset was the boys' mama hen, who stayed near the fence line with her eye on them. The rest settled down to dust bathe and spent quite a while relaxing in the sun.
We checked on them at night, and Loki has taken over the dog house, and the boys together on the roost.
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Here's Rednar, who I mistook for a pullet. He's really small, the size of our smallest hen. Nice guy, very gentle and friendly.
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Here's Charles, the one we'll probably keep. Also friendly, good-looking, bigger than Rednar but still half the size of Loki (cuckoo Marans, didn't get a good picture of him.)
They've taken well to their new job of tilling and fertilizing our asparagus bed.