Say hello to Speedy.  Speedy is staying at the farm for a little while until his new family can come and pick him up.

Speedy is a young silver lace Wyandotte rooster.  He was hatched here at the farm early this spring and we thought he was a she, but she’s a he and so my friends that bought him for their urban coop could not keep him.  So I had said we would take back any roosters for sure, since, well, we’re not perfect at this whole sexing chicken thing!

But you know, my friends grow SPLENDID roosters!  In fact, we’ve now got three roos out of the batch!  A beautiful guy named Sheldon, who is now partners in our poultry barn flock… a beautiful barred rock boy.   And we also just picked up Martha… who is now, Martin!  Haha..

Now Martin is a lovely wheaten Marans boy, that was also hatched and grown here at Windhaven.  But that’s another story, and this is Speedy’s tale.

Speedy, like Sheldon and Martin, is just a sweet boy!  Very nice bird, friendly and well behaved.  We let him out of the rooster coop to see how he would do a couple evenings ago and he was so happy to get out and dig around, explore.

The funny thing is that he followed Maggie and I all the way back to the poultry barn and just hopped up on the open ledge and came in to check out what we were doing!  Since we were checking on all our little chicks, he hopped right up on the brooders and peeked in, just surprised and enjoying his freedom.

Well, Maggie didn’t want him to get hurt or lost outside, so she put him up on top of the big coop in there and he settled down to roost for the night.

In the morning, we came out and we were surprised to find Speedy, up on the coop, pacing back and forth!  I don’t think he knew how to get down.  His home coop before was lower to the ground and he came right over to Maggie and took her up on the offer to get down.  He was so funny.  He followed us around as we did our barn chores and then followed us out like he knew just what his day was up for.

That was until he met the boss man.  Bucka Roo…   king of Windhaven.  At least King of the Poultry.  Gideon and Cody are still trying to debate WHOM is the real head honcho.  (My bets are on Cody, since Gideon doesn’t get free ranging privileges…  )

Now, Bucka’s welcome to the neighborhood for all young roosters involved a great deal of posturing and a lot of fuss.  Being a French Marans…  he’s not into a lot of fighting.  But he will if the youngster doesn’t back down immediately.

As you can see, Speedy was not backing down.

They danced around for a little while, back and forth, each eyeing up the other and seeing who could puff up their mantles more.  I think Bucka does have a little advantage in this game, he’s definitely a mature and hefty boy.

However, Speedy is the first young roo I’ve ever seen that actually didn’t just rush off to hide in the bushes!  He stood his ground.

Handsome, sweet temperment towards humans and a good brave heart?  Speedy is going to make a fantastic flock roo for our friends little group.

Now, they did finally get into it and Speedy got a whooping.  Bucka is a tough bird and treachery and age always beats youth and inexperience.  And Speedy got a little bloody gash on his head that got him a lot of attention and a room back at the roo coop.  We don’t like fighting roos here and this little battle lasted about 30 seconds.  Maggie is good at breaking up fights and thankfully, we don’t have very many at all.  In fact, it’s rare.  Most of the younger roos know better than to challenge Bucka.  And Maggie is good at getting in, grabbing one and shooing off the other.  Safely.

Speedy got an afternoon in the screen porch after a little medical attention to his boo boo.  It wasn’t bad at all, and it’s fine now, a day or two after the situation.  He’s rooming with Martin and they are fine together.  Speedy’s new family will be out in a few weeks to pick him up, so until then, we get to enjoy him and fuss over him.  Just no more free ranging!

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