Bye Bye Birdie

We are sad to report that our poor cute rooster is no more...

As I mentioned before, we put the rooster in the brooder for a couple days so he could adjust to his new home and all the other animals around here. He seemed a little stir crazy in there so we let him out a couple times for a short time when we were able to supervise. And every time we did the turkeys (and a few hens) wouldn't leave the poor guy alone... which kept the rooster scared pretty much all the time. 

Friday night we thought we would let him out into the barn at night so he would already be there when everyone woke up in the morning. Ironically that night, we went to "tuck in" everyone and the rooster had already gotten out of the brooder (he knocked over some boards which had to hurt) and was just sitting on top of it. Made our job easy! We decided to do this Friday night so that we (I'm using this word loosely, by "we" I mostly mean Sam) could be out there Saturday morning to supervise without having somewhere to be. Sam went out and checked on the rooster in the morning and he was still in his spot on the brooder (we assume he felt safer there) so we just let him stay there. 

We had planned to play pickleball with some friends that morning so Sam checked on the rooster again right before we left and he still hadn't moved from his spot on the brooder. We figured he would be fine there so we left and played pickleball for a couple hours. Then we went to our friends' house and had brunch and picked raspberries... so by the time we got home again about 4 hours had gone by.

When we went into the backyard we couldn't find the rooster anywhere so we figured he jumped over a fence somehow and we got ready to go on a rooster hunt (I was used to this with having to chase down a few mischievous turkeys in the past). We couldn't really see or hear him but then Sam looked more closely into our neighbor's yard just to the north of us and saw white feathers alllllll over... never a good sign. Especially when that neighbors has two really big dogs. The poor rooster unfortunately became one of the dog's morning snack. :(

We assume the rooster got brave and decided to venture out of the barn but was being chased/bullied by those blasted turkeys and jumped over anything it could to find refuge from those dang turkeys. Unfortunately, of ALL the yards he could have jumped into (we have 5 different yards that meet up with ours) he jumped into the WORST ONE!

We are sad about our poor rooster but there is not much we can do about it. Even though having animals is mostly a lot of fun, death is something you have to deal with too, especially with these kinds of animals. It is never fun to lose an animal and I still have a hard time with it, no matter how many times it happens.

We hope to get another rooster in the future and will keep you posted, as we don't know when that will be!

P.S. Our turkeys are driving me crazy and even though this is probably terrible to say, I think I will be happy when they will be gone next month!

Help us name our rooster!

Last night we acquired our very own rooster! 

We got it from Sam's friend who lives a couple miles away. The rooster would constantly peck at his kids' feet and since the kids are the ones who take care of the chickens, they decided to get rid of it. 

We have been talking for a while now about how we want a rooster so we were excited to pick this guy up!

Here is the deal with roosters (in case you don't already know) - they can be a bit aggressive. And loud (which doesn't bother us). But we were always hesitant to get one because we heard they can be really mean to people. Some people who have them have told me that they have to distract their rooster while they go out to collect the eggs because otherwise the rooster will become aggressive trying to protect the eggs. The stories go on and on. But then again people told us how mean turkeys can be and so far we haven't had any problems with them trying to peck us! Not one! So who knows...

The COOL thing about roosters, though, is their protective instincts. Roosters are actually good to have around because they protect their "girls" from any predators that might come their way. And they make it so we can hatch our own chicks!

I think the level of aggression depends on the breed and just the individual rooster. Last night when we brought this guy home we let him out in the run to see what would happen between the rooster and the hens and turkeys. The hens seemed a little curious but most didn't seem to care much. BUT THE TURKEYS! Holy smokes, they were not having it. Those turkeys of ours can be bullies. They started puffing out their feathers (a post on this to come because it is quite hilarious and also seriously cool) and going after the rooster like it was their job! They wouldn't leave the poor guy alone. We were chasing the rooster around trying to protect it/catch it. Let me tell you, this rooster is definitely stronger than our hens. He is not an easy catch, my friends. We were also a little nervous he might peck at our hands during the process (hence the gloves in the picture below) but he didn't go for them once. (He did go for Sam's feet a couple times when we went to pick him up). Once he was caught I took him for a nice tour of the yard and held him a lot so he would get used to me. He hardly even tried to shake free from me! Very surprising considering when we pick up most hens they are uncomfortable and try to get away pretty much the entire time.

The rooster is currently separated from the rest of the flock and is being held in our brooder in the barn. The rooster can be seen by the rest of the flock while in the brooder but is protected from them completely. Introducing a new member of the flock takes time and the flock will not accept it right away (which was quite clear with the turkeys last night). We are going to keep him in the brooder for at least a few days so everyone can see each other and get used to one another. Then, from what we have read, we are going to let him out at night once all the other animals are settled in their spots and cannot really see the rooster. People say having the chickens wake up and having the rooster already there helps with acceptance. So we are going to try it!

Also, this is all an experiment to us but we are going to see if we can get the rooster to stop pecking at peoples' feet. With roosters (and hens) you always have to make sure that they know YOU are the boss, not them. So if they try to peck at you, you give them a little (not painful or mean) kick or swat to let them know that is not ok and that you are the boss here.

We are going to try all this and see what happens! Hopefully it all works out! We will keep you posted!

OH AND PLEASE HELP US NAME THIS GUY! Survey found below :)