Rooster anyone? Naw, but thanks anyhow.

Ever wonder why there seem to be so many ads in the paper for “Free Roosters”?  It’s not because people want to spread the love of Chicken-Fancying.

There are three roosters in our chicken flock; the oldest is a black mutt and quite the chicken-gentleman, and the other two are mutts from a hatching last summer.  The younger two are not only little pecker-headed jerks, but they stick together & will gang up on a hen.  They’ll both ambush a wary hen & run her ragged.  I’ve actually had to order a chicken saddle for one of them because she’s getting too much “attention” from the roosters.

Side Note:  Wann'a win your own Chicken Saddle?  Click"Here"  to enter at Mandy's Rabbit Ranch.

Another problem with having a high rooster to hen ratio is that if the dominate rooster sees a subordinate rooster breeding a hen, he’ll not only go over there & chase him off, but will then immediately breed that hen again. 

The pecker-headed twins are smart enough to know to run like heak when they see me coming, but still cannot resist the instinct to roost with the rest of the gang at night…..even knowing that I will eventually come there to close them up (and they make quite the racket when they know I’m coming).  I’ve also noticed that they will hang around the coop door right before dusk as to be able to ambush the hens on their way in for the night.

When I go outside, I am usually mobbed by chickens expecting food.

One of the pecker-head roosters (in the distance) running from me.  With good cause.

After watching another ambush yesterday evening, I waited until they all went in, shut the chicken coop door and went in to wrangle the two troublemakers.  Feathers were flying everywhere as they did everything they could to avoid me.  I eventually got both of them and managed to tie a rope on one of their feet, tied it to the kidding pen & closed the pen.  I had to tie them up because the kidding pen is open on top & they would have just flown over the half-door.  I also managed to get a nasty bite from one of them.  I was sooooo close to just ripping his head off right then and there just tossing his body out into the woods for the coyotes to eat.  Yes, I know, he’s just “protecting” himself.  Don’t go PETA on me now.  I still have the urge to just go out there & bash his head against a rock.  And I suppose I could……if he were still tied up to the kidding pen.

They both managed to escape this morning, one before I went out to do morning chores, the other just as I went into the barn.  Guess I’m not the best at tying knots in bailing twine.

So I’m going back in the coop tonight, but I’ll don a pair of work gloves this time.  And we will be having chicken dinner this weekend.

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