Monday, April 16, 2012

Rooster Count

One:  Napoleon, aka Nappy, bantam, Old English


















Two:  Big Boy, silver laced Wyandotte, huge next to Nappy
















Three:  Sir Elton, a bantam, mostly Cochin















Four:  no name, mostly Old English


Of the five chicks we bought this year, three are roosters!  We gave number four away last week, and now we are down to three.  Nappy, whom we've had the longest, is by far the loudest and crows the most often.  Of the three, he is the one that is most annoying to me.  Sir Elton has a very soft crow, and he only crows a few times a day.  Big Boy just started crowing and while his crow is definitly loud, he also only crows a few times a day max and normally in the morning.  Fortunately, none of them crow early in the morning, at least so far.  Nappy doesn't get revved up until about 7:30, and on a few occasions, around 6:30. 

We've decided to keep Sir Elton (named after Elton John).  We love his flamboyant feathers and his feathered feet.  Since we separated him from the other Old English bantam rooster, he has kept to himself.  He is not aggressive to the other roosters, nor they to him for the most part.  The fact that he rarely crows is a plus for him too.

I actually don't like Nappy.  His crow is shrill, and he has started attacking me when I enter the animal yard.  It doesn't hurt because he is so small, it just startles me when he does it because he comes from behind while I'm walking.  It's terribly annoying.  Nate loves him.  He is very protective of the older hens around Big Boy.  My goal was to get two bantam girlfriends for Nappy, but since both turned out to be roosters, I didn't really meet that goal.

Big Boy is coming into maturity.  He has started crowing and also mounting the ladies, or trying to mount.  A few of them do submit, but Nappy usually runs over and puts a stop to it before anything happens.  Even though he is 5 times the size of Nappy, he runs.  I am curious to see how this plays out.  The other older hens give Big Boy what for when he tries anything, and they end up chasing him away.  His two sidekicks (the light Brahma and black Australorp) are still a bit young, but I suspect if he stays around, they will be his primary hens.  I would like to keep him, so we will wait to see how his crowing develops.  So far, he only crows about once or twice a day for about 5 minutes.  No early crowing either.  Of course, now that I've written that, he will start crowing at 5:30 a.m. 

This is my rooster saga.  If the neighbors have not complained about Nappy, they should have no reason to cmplain about the other tow, at least for the moment.  We shall see how it develops.

Happy homesteading,


Candace       

10 comments:

  1. I don't envy you all those roosters, LOL. Good choice for your keeper.

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    1. We're planning to keep all three unless they start to fight each other or start crowing excessively.

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  2. Mean roosters end up in the stock pot around here; cute or not. Life's too short to have to deal with nasty livestock. Hope all works out for ya!

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    1. Thanks! Since he's a bantam, he would make a lean meal! LOL!

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  3. Last spring we ended up with too many roosters (8?) with about a dozen hens. When the males matured enough, they were chasing the hens and fighting over who got the hens first. The hens started looking pretty ragged so we ended up keeping only the calmest, best looking Australorp. He didn't chase the hens, rather he kept watch and took care of the hens that followed him around.

    We also kept one little bantman rooster, which sounds like your Napolean, who was the favorite of my daughter. I hated his shrill, frequent crow, but after I while I realized that he was the "watchdog" of the flock and notified the others when potential dangers were nearby. This balanced out the larger calm rooster who only crowed a few times a day. This little guy didn't chase the girls (they ignored him, generally) and the larger rooster didn't seem to be bothered by his presence. Unfortunately, being small has its disadvantages when there are predators around and one day last fall he disappeared suddenly. We live on the edge of town where there are racoons, foxes, coyotes, and hawks... any one of which would love a chicken dinner, especially if it is small enough to not fight back. Now we have to keep better watch ourselves and keep the birds in a secure chicken run when we're not around.

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    1. That sounds exactly like my situation. Our bantam is the watchdog. He's a great hawk spotter. The other standard rooster is pretty quiet so far, but he's big enough to "service" the girls, if Nappy will let him. Plus, the girls aren't too keen on the idea yet. They have gone several years without the love of a roosters, and for all of them, this is a new experience. I'm sorry you lost your bantam, that's so sad.

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  4. And who says chickens don't have personalities??

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  5. 3 out of 5 oh man that's a noisy average. Caught up on your last post and WOW very exciting more babies what fun! Happy your new mama is being good too. I like your style, chocolate cake for breakfast, right on! Have a great day

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    1. I know, that's my luck! However, I just learned roosters are not illegal where I live as long as they aren't violating the noise ordinace from 10:00 p.m to 6:00 a.m. and someone has to complain as well. I'm excited about the meat rabbits. Chocolate cake, that's how I roll!

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