Rooster Update

[KimChick]

As it turns out, we did not keep the young rooster that I called Morley as mentioned in @TomK's thread about his super cute Welsummers.
Morley was stressing out the older hens our current rooster, Ernie (my latest avatar). So we kept the young rooster that is most like Ernie. I'm calling him Elmo. The only way I can tell them apart is by the size of their wattles.
And, so far, the young barred hens seem to have better dispositions than the older barred ones. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't an older barred rock that scalped the young hen I call Harriet.

[KimChick]

Elmo and Ernie seem to be getting along just fine. They stay out of each other's way. I have never seen an altercation between them. Whew!
The young hen that was scalped - Harriet - is a strange bird. However, she comes right up to me when I'm getting their food, but also still very skiddish. She is quite large and tall for a hen, but has no evidence of spur nubs and no large comb or wattles. She even has the look of some long tail feathers growing. I may venture to say that Harriet is a hermaphrodite. Time will tell.

[KimChick]

Harriet is a cockerel. For now, I call him Herman because I don't like the name Harry. The only explanation would be that getting scalped really slowed down development. He's flapping his wings and trying, quite unsuccessfully, to crow.
Head feathers are still working their way to grow in the bare skin on his head, slowly filling the gap. But it's a whole lot better than it was.
We still have him in the barn with our Cochin that is very tolerant.
The problem is - we have 2 roosters; we don't need a third.

[WLLady]

so many roosters......LOL.
we just let ours grow up until there's issues with the whole rooster and testosterone thing, and then freezer camp the extras....always keep the nicest most tolerant ones so hopefully they become roosters with less jerk-like qualities (all roosters get a bit jerk like at some point LOL).....i'm glad herman is healing-scalping can be nasty. i have a hen that was scalped by a jerk like rooster and she's never gotten the feathering back completely, but she did finally heal up and grow a decent comb.

[KimChick]

@WLLady - That is exactly what we do. We have saved Elmo, Ernie's offspring, that is a spitting image in appearance and disposition. Herman has already had a few reminders with who is boss between him and our old, docile, Cochin, Anna. Herman will have to go to freezer camp before he gets too aggressive with Anna. Had Herman not been scalped, he would also have been a mirror image of Ernie.

[Killerbunny]

Wel Franks 2 kids went to freezer camp because the ameraucana/jerk side started to show! Pity.

[kenya]

My full size ameraucanas were always gentlemen the bantam ameraucanas not so much. One used to fly at me to try and scratch my eyes out. Went to a new home, full disclosure, they loved him because every egg was fertile and their rooster before was not doing the deed.