SKIPPER IS ROOSTER OF THE YEAR!
Today my little 3 month old bantam rooster risked his life to save his 14 bantam girl friends!!!
A big hawk/falcon decided to attack my chickadees in daylight while they were free ranging before being put up for the night. Mind you, me and hubby were right there with them! That predator did not care!
Before hubby and I could figure out what that heck that thing was doing and what was going on, Skipper was in full frontal attack mode! While he was confronting the enemy he was also making a wierd noise that apparently told the girls to hide and play dead, which they did! After the long few seconds it took for us to figure it all out...we started running and clapping and yelling to scare the enemy off. After it left, Skipper went around and took a head count of his girls. He then patroled for a while, with the girls still lifeless looking in hiding. When Skipper felt all was ok he began to crow and make this other weird sound. With that, all the girls came running. When they were all gathered to him, he led them to the coop! Then we secured them in.
As we sat back in amazement and watched our young Skipper through his process to risk his life for the safety of his girls, it became VERY CLEAR to us why we need a loud bossy rooster!!! He was already our favorite, but today he gained the utmost respect from us as well...oh, and tons of treats for a lifetime!
FYI: He also makes sure all the girls eat first, comes out of the coop first to make sure all is clear then calls them out, keeps track and herds them while free ranging, herds them in at bed time, and breaks up chic fights! He has come to me squaking when a girl was stuck and guided me to her, and taken off treats ive given him and dropped them in front of the others to eat! And he is never bossy with us, he is very submissive to us. NONE OF THIS I ever knew a rooster does!
CROW AWAY SKIPPER, CROW AWAY OUR LITTLE BOSSY ROOSTER!