The Mobile Home Woman

I have a confession to make.

I love roosters.

Of all the animals here on the farm, it’s the roosters that really capture my attention. I love the sheep and of course, Cody Pony… but I always smile when I see Bucka Roo with his ladies. It amazes me how important he is to our flock. And our other little roos. They are protectors, guides, and of course, love machines. I wish we could have more than we do, and everyone would get along together, but it’s hard. Because roosters do not love other roosters.

Bucka Roo is definately the king of Windhaven fowl. He is the biggest of the boys and smart and tough and just does not back down. I’ve seen him take on dogs and hawks to defend his girls. He’ll square up with a 500 pound pony and that pony will back down. He commands respect from his son Copper and the little banty roos. And the girls just love him.

Just a day ago, I watched the sweetest thing from my bedroom window. Bucka was digging around in the lilly patch when his favorite little hen Carolyn came over to see what he was doing. Quietly, in the nice chilly winter morning, he just lowered his head and she began to preen him! All around his ruff and mantle and his head. They must have sat there for 15 minutes, just quiet and enjoying each other’s company. It was so sweet. What just made it even better is that Bucka is named after a favorite grandpa in our family and Carolyn, in real life, was his dear wife.

The thing, though, that struck me most, is that I’ve never seen him accept grooming from any other hen. He usually prefers to do his own preening. But it was just another aspect of chickens and roosters in particular that I have come to just adore.

Now, Copper is Bucka’s first born chick here at Windhaven. He was the very first chick to hatch back in the summer and will always be a special bird to us all. Even Jessy likes Copper. At first, it seemed that he would just look like his mother Eleanor, a wonderful little spunky Rhode Island Red. She’s our only red, so, it was pretty obvious that Copper was her boy. Copper was a nice red, with a little dash of grey here and there. But just the last month, he’s begun to change and is growing a nice coppery mantle like his old man. And iridescent green feathering in his tail feathers! He’s beautiful.

When we first graduated him from the little coop to the free range flock, after Josh the banty’s unfortunate passing, Copper was full of himself and ready to prove he was the new heir apparent. He spent 4 days in the holding pen, learning about the big flock and the barn and all that time Bucka would watch him but never attacked through the wire or did any posturing. He simply ignored the boy for the most part.

However, that evening when we let Copper and a few other pullets from the little coop out to join the free range flock and hopefully roost with them, Copper headed straight for Bucka to set him straight. It was about 5 minutes of pure chaos and Copper was NOT the winner. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Bucka knocked him back a notch or two and very quickly bloodied the boy a bit and sent him squawking out into the night! Poor Copper roosted in a little tree that night, shaken, beat and ready to submit to the king. We tried to comfort him and Maggie sat and held him for a long time but he was a teenager that needed a little lesson from the old man and his wounds were not bad. He lived.

The next morning, he stayed far away from the main flock, just on the edge, watching and getting driven away a few times by Bucka Roo. A few sympathetic loner hens were his pals for a week or so, and finally, he was back in the barn with everyone at night, just keeping his distance. After a while, Bucka began to accept him and soon the two were working as a team. Watching and protecting the girls, finding choice bits of bugs and other sweet treats and of course, giving the ladies a little love now and then. Bucka depends on Copper as an outrider guard, he’s like a scout for the flock. If either sounds the alarm, the other will respond and immediately start to search he skies or grounds for the danger. Copper stays away from Bucka’s main girls, 4 or 5 dominant hens that are always at his side. But equally now, Bucka stays away from Copper’s gals, a little group of low ranking peeps that hang with the boy. It’s a perfect situation.

Now in the little coop, we have a pair of brothers. Silver is the older rooster, a hatchling brother of Copper, the second chicken ever hatched at Windhaven. Silver is a stunning half Marans roo that we are pretty sure is the son of our little barred rock hen Kathryn. He is blue (silver) feathered for the most part, but he has black and white hackle feathers and tail plumage and he is just a stunning bird. He was happy being the second lieutenant to Dammartin, our black copper Marans rooster, but when Dammartin died from an impacted croup, Silver stepped up as head rooster.

Over at Junior and Julia’s place, they had too many roosters. In fact, they had a set of chicks from our homestead that they had hatched and one was a blue Marans rooster! Another son of Bucka. They needed to find a home for him, so I offered to take him back. I thought because he was a young rooster and Silver was still pretty new at the whole game, they might work out nicely together. We named the youngster Rooben and brought him home late one evening.

When I introduced Rooben to the little flock, Silver paid him no mind. And in fact all the girls were pretty much ignoring him. It wasn’t until he decided to try and mate with Turkey Girl that Silver finally decided enough was enough and the two roos had a little fussy fight and it was over in a minute or two. Both just headed for seperate corners and everyone seemed fine. (Except Turkey Girl was a little confused… haha… she’s about double the size of all the chickens and no one messes with her.)

I thought we had achieved rooster harmony as a week passed and everyone was fine. The girls were comfortable and the two brothers were doing just fine. In fact, they were often outside together, walking around, patrolling the perimeter of the yard and reacting to any yard flock alarms within their little world. But then one afternoon, Maggie comes in the house all a flutter and she’s got Silver in her arms and he’s bloody. Apparently, she was feeding everyone and Rooben took it upon himself to take control of the coop and presided in beating the fluffing out of poor Silver!

It’s a sad thing really, but most farms are very feminine in nature. We want ewes and does and hens but only need one stallion or buck in our midst. And since nature sees fit to give us about 50/50 with it’s births, there are always too many male animals in the yards. Some are fine with castration, and then say, like sheep who produce wool as well as lambs, those fixed males can still hang with the flock and provide a valuable commodity to the farm assets. But extra roosters? Well, you just quickly end up with too many!

I remember thinking that in the whole scheme of things, I just wanted one or two roosters. And only Marans. I wanted everything that was hatched to be pure Marans or at least half breed. Now I have two full Marans (Bucka and Rooben) and two nice half breeds (Copper and Silver) and we have 6 banty roosters and possibly one more son of Bucka that hatched around Christmas!! (Still waiting to see if we get more comb and spurs outta that little black Marans baby!) Almost a dozen roosters!! Part of the reason that I wanted only Marans for my flock sires is that the breed is considered to have wonderfully calm roosters around people. And yes, not a single rooster has ever threatened or attacked us here at the homestead. In fact, Copper and Silver like to be picked up and petted! Maggie carries Copper all over the place if she fancies. He doesn’t care. (And don’t get me started on Lucky! Haha… her parrot-roo!) It really helps that we are very calm and respectful of our roosters. We give them treats before the hens and never act loud or harsh around them.

Alas, Silver will live, and after a little doctoring and of course, a little photo session, he was returned to the little coop and he and Rooben are great pals now that the pecking order has been adjusted. Rooben is the head honcho there and Silver is his flunky boy. Silver doesn’t seem to mind at all, he’s a lover, not a fighter. He would much rather lay low and just help out with the ladies. It’s funny to watch the two boys stroll the yard together, looking for chicks! haha…

Now, the last of my rooster tale for the evening is our banty problems! Now, when I was learning about mail order eggs, I was fascinated with these mille fluer banty chickens and I ordered 18 eggs. And only two hatched and of course, they were roosters. At first we were hopeful and we named them Petunia and Daffodil. They are fluffy and very full feathered chickens. Beautiful for sure. But one day we heard Petunia crowing! So we changed his name to Pete. A week later, Daffodil started to crow, so we renamed him Repete. SO now we have Pete and Repete. When I couldn’t resist a box of 7 little BB Red English Game Banty chicks… we ended up with 4 roosters and 3 hens! Oh my… and then when 3 of the little roos decided to beat up on one of them, nearly killing their flock mate, we got Lucky, our little parrot roo. Maggie nursed him back to health, but he could not go back with the other roos or they would attack him. SO Lucky lived inside for awhile, in a big aquarium, getting so tame that he would hop out when it was time for him to get out and wander about, hopping from arm to arm and visiting. Maggie would watch tv with him sitting with her, watching away. He was awesome, that is, until he started to crow. Like every 5 minutes. All day and night.

Needless to say, we had to do something because he was driving us nuts! So when we had a batch of hatched chicks that were feathered and ready to go out to the big brooder, we hatched a plan. Pete and Repete and their 3 little BB Red roos would be moved out to the big barn, into our isolation coop. Since they all got along nicely, they would get a slightly bigger run, and be able to hang out with the big flock eventually. Lucky would get the three hens, and the 5 regular chicks, in the screen porch brooder. Eventually, we would take the extra roosters to the livestock auction in the spring. They are beautiful little roos, and perhaps someone would like them.

The five banties were fine with the move and have settled in nicely. The large free range flock treats them as an amuzing zoo exhibit and they gather around the isolation coop, watching and pecking through the wire at them if given a chance. The banty roos have a lot more to watch and enjoy as they watch Chicken TV all day long with Bucka and his gang coming and going in the big barn. I would let them out, but I think it would really mess up the delicate roo balance of Bucka and Copper, plus I’m worried that our friend the hawk might get the little BB Red roos… as they are still very young and small.

Mr. Lucky, though, decided he was going to be a real SOB and began treating the little banty hens badly, and then was picking on the 5 hatchlings and generally just being mean! We knew that they had to mesh and establish their pecking order, so we watched and waited, giving them treats to break up any harsh fighting and feed to keep things interesting. Food is a great equalizer with livestock. They tend to forget about their differences when you introduce treats or feed to the mix. Now, they might go right back to fighting after their lunch, but often breaking bread together makes for a flock or herd of contentment.

Lucky was a super meanie for about an hour and I was thinking that he was going to get the ax if he didn’t chill out and FINALLY, one of the five hatchlings, nearly the same size as Lucky, got a backbone and went over and gave him a good thrashing. I believe it was a pullet, and she had had enough. (Pullets are young hens) She cleaned his clock and set him in his place. There was no bloodshed, just a lot of ninja kicking and squawking. And then peace was achieved. Thank goodness, because I just didn’t know what we would do with Lucky… he was not house chicken material and if he couldn’t join a flock peaceably, then there was not many other options for him. Thankfully, he has his three little hens now and he leave the bigger pullets alone. He and his girls are going to be able for the spring chicken sale, if anyone is interested, and if not, he might be going to the auction with his little gaggle of girls. He’s very pretty, and so are the hens. I just don’t think we’re going to be raising banties anymore… they are feisty little fighters and we like mellow lover birds! Sometimes you just have to try things and learn the hard way that they don’t really suit your plans.

All said and done, I sure wish all my roosters could live happily together, because I like them all… but I just guess that is not the way of the farm! In the end, I like the idea of having rooster pairs for flocks over 8 or 10 girls, they are a good asset to raising happy hens. And since we might be adding one more flock/coop in the poultry barn, I guess we have room for two more! Marans of course! I’d love to get another black copper Maran and perhaps a Splash Marans rooster. That would be lovely!

In the meanwhile…. does anyone want a handful of banty roosters??? haha….

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