A rooster named Stew.

[Skinny rooster]

:flight attendend:

I call my bantams Easter eggers because they lay green eggs but I actually bought them because they seem to have a lot of OEG or some similar breed, independent, bright and alert, the green eggs were just a bonus that I wasn't expecting. Yesterday I discovered some of that intelligence at work, but unfortunately in a bad way. There are four roosters, the boss who is about nine months now and his three younger brothers who are four months. The older rooster keeps them on their toes, the rule is, no bothering the hens, other than that, he doesn't really touch them. Even though the boss is really gentle with his ladies, I suddenly noticed a lot of damaged feathers and bleeding combs on the hens. Also some eggs being laid on the floor and some being laid after the hens are roosting for the night, causing eggs to smash down onto the floor.

I discovered why, one of the younger roosters figured out if he watched for a hen going to lay, he could jump into the nest and breed her without the dominant rooster knowing what was happening. Clever in one way but unfortunately for him he is one of those roosters that wants to dominate by being aggressive towards the hens. That is the number one rule I have towards a rooster and his chances of staying or not. I watched him for a while and he was obsessive about breeding the hens, constantly attacking them none stop while they were trying to lay. I suddenly realized why their feathers were being damaged, combs bitten up and why some started laying on the floor. He was even stalking them in a way as to frighten them. I will name him Stew, I caught him and put him in a carrier, I guess I will have to butcher him in the basement since it's too cold outside. I don't want to wait since it's so cold, my main goal is to keep the girls happy and they don't need extra stress. The main reason the dominant rooster was kept besides the fact he is pretty like a Welsummer in colour, was that he is a total gentlemen with the ladies, they chose him so I figured the girls knew best. He was kind to the hens but would clobber any rivals and protected the hens from other roosters, so another bonus, not a wimp.

:big chicken:

[Killerbunny]

Yup, my hens picked their boy too!

[KimChick]

Yes, it's good to get rid of those nasty roosters that create havoc.
We had a really good rooster (the one in my picture) that was a Frey's Dual Purpose and was meant to be a meat bird. While we were thinning out the flock of 10 by killing 3 other nasty roosters, the hens started laying. So we kept the remaining 7. He was smart, looked after his hens, and was a gentleman of a rooster; I even wrote an ebook about him - Humphrey, the Rooster. Unfortunately, he was much too big for our little BSL's. After obtaining a BR/Cochin rooster (I call him Barred Rock Bert), we sadly put Humphrey in the freezer. But that's farming. The Frey's DP hens will be next; they haven't laid any eggs in months. We'll have to butcher them in the basement, too.

[TomK]

You put Hmphrey in the freezer?... I guess being a literati can't save ya after all...lol

[KimChick]

You put Hmphrey in the freezer?... I guess being a literati can't save ya after all...lol

Oh stop it, Tom!
It would have been hard to write another story anyway because I didn't have any pics of the event, and there was one. I had used real photos and clipart in the ebook.
The pic that I have on this site was when Humphrey was younger. He did grow some nice long, black tail feathers. I'll find a recent photo and post it.

[Skinny rooster]

You put Hmphrey in the freezer?... I guess being a literati can't save ya after all...lol

Oh stop it, Tom!
It would have been hard to write another story anyway because I didn't have any pics of the event, and there was one. I had used real photos and clipart in the ebook.
The pic that I have on this site was when Humphrey was younger. He did grow some nice long, black tail feathers. I'll find a recent photo and post it.

Or.... you could just do like in all the tv shows and use different roosters. You know like when the story is about a black horse and then in the next scene it suddenly has white on it, then suddenly in the next scene it has some brown in its coat, then white socks, long tail, short tail, then all black again. That horse must be like one of those led lights that constantly changes colours!