As you can see from the pullet next to him, Seymour is still a good way from fully mature but he’s turning into a fine-looking boy. Further, he has none of the bad habits that sent every one of his predecessors to the stewpot. He’s not loud, he doesn’t push hens away from the feeder, and he’s not hostile toward me. In fact he, along with the other pullets, still likes to take food from my hand. So he could possibly live a long pleasant life, like his counterpart in the Big Chickenhouse.
I’ve never quite figured out what purpose a cock bird plays, since I don’t particularly want eggs fertilized. But as he’s here anyway, I’m hoping that doubling the number of birds and keeping him alive might result in a calmer flock filled with less psychotic hens.
If it turns out he’s not worth the cost of his feed, I can always eat him. But I can only do that once, and I’m stuck with crazy hens for years.
We haven’t heard about your chickens lately. Are your new girls giving you any of those little “practice” eggs yet?
No, they’re still too young and at present everybody else is growing new feathers, so I’m getting most of my eggs from the store.
Don’t know if it’s a fact but it’s been my experience that having a rooster around tends to keep the hens from fighting among themselves and act generally calmer. If there’s no rooster, one hen will usually try to take on the role but she’s usually not that effective. A rooster will rip an obnoxious hen a new one so they tend to behave themselves. Plus, with a rooster in the house, if you get a broody hen, you can give her a clutch of eggs and get some homegrown fryers.
“I’ve never quite figured out what purpose a cock bird plays, since I don’t particularly want eggs fertilized. “
Whereas with rabbits we want the buck to get busy. To a point. Upon the first breeding…
The boss came in and announced (or words to that effect), “I think I lost the male. I thinked he just f****d himself to death.”
That sounds like a well behaved rooster you have there. Sounds like a keeper. Feeding him the extra chicken ration might get old in time though, if breeding extra birds is not a goal. A bag of feed only goes so far and birds which produce nothing for your efforts are an expense.
Do the birds create any problems with predators ? I know your dogs keep the ground dwellers away, I was thinking more of predator birds. When my brother had a pigeon coop, we had a few raptors hang around, hoping to nab a meal.
It was long ago, but my experience raising rabbits was that it was best to take the doe to the buck’s cage. They will mate almost instantly if she’s truly ready. Then remove the doe right away. If you put the buck into her cage, she may well beat the hell out of him and, if left long enough, kill him. It’s a savage world.
With chickens, I think the hysteria and other behavior problems you’ve had are more related to the breed of chicken. The Rhode Island Reds are well known to be aggressive. If your rooster actually does keep them calmer, he may well be worth his feed. 🙂
“…so I’m getting most of my eggs from the store” Feeding chickens with no current return on your investment. Sometimes life just isn’t fair!
The Rhode Island Reds are well known to be aggressive.
Are RIRs particularly social? If they don’t actually *need* to be kept in a flock, then partitioning the coop might be a worthwhile project at time and resources permit. Give each one her own little coop and yard so they can’t attack each other.
Much less than I feared. Coyotes come around but keep their distance, judging from the sign they leave. The chicken yard is completely covered with camo netting and I’ve never seen any interest on the part of the local raptors, of which we have many and large.
But the only coyote I ever shot was zeroing in on the first chicken yard, before I built the permanent one. So it could happen.
“I’ve never quite figured out what purpose a cock bird plays, since I don’t particularly want eggs fertilized.”
You will when the end of the world rolls around.
We lost a whole flock to predators. Owls, Cooper Hawks, racoons, bobcats, weasels, coyotes, dogs, and who knows what else. Never knew what to blame, but I’ve seen ’em all around here. I did see a Cooper Hawk dive-bomb our flock, which scattered. The chickens do seem to keep an eye pointed toward the sky.