Battle of the Boys

Roosters are tricky. All chickens have different personalities, but roosters come with strong personalities mixed with beauty and Danger, Danger, Will Robinson!

A rooster has three jobs: Protect, Provide, Multiply (PPM). That's it. If I ever need to question why my rooster is behaving a certain way, I know his behavior comes from the PPM.

In the Squawk's post, "He Was Mean, So We Ate Him", my first rooster, Hulk, met his demise because he took his job as PROTECTOR too seriously and found my family as a threat around his ladies. Roosters act as ferocious bodyguards to their flock as the hens wander aimlessly around the yard without a concern in the world. Their eyes constantly search the sky or look towards the trees watching for predators. Once a threat is discovered, a rooster will make a special sound to alert the girls to hide quickly. I've seen this happen so many times when a large bird flies over the coop. The rooster's alert isn't a loud "Cockadoodle Doo", like you would think they would use to get attention. The alert is a quiet, deep growl that chickens can feel vibrate through the ground. A sound quiet enough not to get the attention of the predator, but a sound that the chickens do not question. Once the rooster alert is sounded, Chickens hide as fast as they can, normally into the woods or inside the coop.

Roosters are excellent PROVIDERS to their hens, especially the girls they have their heart set on wooing and courting. When they find a grubby worm, a juicy tomato, or some sunflower seeds...something yummy, they make a gentle clucking sound at the girls, allowing them to eat first before they will even touch the food. They are quite romantic that way.

Let's talk about the roosters' instinct to MULTIPLY.

One question I constantly get asked

You have to look closely, but there is a bullseye in the yolk. A rooster fertilized this egg prior to the hen laying it.

about chickens....Do you need a rooster to have chicken eggs? Nope. Hens will lay an egg no matter if there is a baby daddy around or not. Roosters mate with hens to fertilize the eggs before they are laid. The fertilized eggs, once warmed for 21 days, will become a chick. People can eat both fertilized and unfertilized eggs. You can tell if an egg is fertilized if there is a bullseye in the middle of the yolk. As long as the fertilized egg isn't being warmed in an incubator or being sat on by a hen, it will not produce a chick and can be eaten.

Roosters become quite possessive over the hens, especially with their job to MULTIPLY. They will start having "favorites" within their harem and will fight other roosters to the death if those roosters touch the "favorite hen". It can be very complicated to have more than one rooster in a flock due to this behavior. Battling roosters is one reason why cock fighting exists. Roosters are easily angered by each other.

Maui

I haven't been able to find two roosters that can tolerate each other...until this year when I got Sunflower and Maui.

Maui, named after the big guy with tattoos from the movie Moana, is a Macho Man with red and green tail feathers. He is a wonderful rooster. He takes care of his girls, and I do believe he would lay down his life to protect them from harm. A majority of the hens follow Maui around. He is the alpha of my flock.

Sunflower

In last week's Squawk post called "A Gift From The Amish", I wrote about my special miniature hen named Blonde. Last May, Blonde hatched my other rooster who I named Sunflower because of his yellow, green, black, and white colors. Since he was one of Blonde's first babies, he is also very special to me.

Maui vs. Sunflower

Maui can't stand Sunflower. He proudly has "claimed" all 50 hens in the flock for himself. Hands Off, Sunflower!

I have to give these roosters their daily treats in two separate areas, because Maui will not let Sunflower touch the treats. If he catches Sunflower eating or trying to flirt with the hens, Maui runs and jumps on him pecking the top of his head and then chases him as far from the coop as he can. Sunflower will do anything not to make Maui mad.

But, in the kindness of his own heart, Maui has also given Sunflower an ultimatum. He has made use of Sunflower by forcing him to be the outside watchdog. Sunflower watches for predators outside the coop while Maui watches for predators inside the coop.

The system has worked out pretty peacefully. Sunflower is "allowed" to be near the girls as long as he does not step foot inside the coop during daylight hours. If Sunflower has done his day shift correctly, Maui will allow him entrance inside the coop, but just for the night. Once the sun reappears in the sky, Maui chases Sunflower back outside again. This has been the daily routine for my boys several months now.

Sunflower keeping his feet warmed up in the straw.

This winter, we've had very chilly weather in Michigan, and at times, the weather has been below zero degrees and the windchill has been brutal. During his daily watch, Sunflower has to spend hours standing one foot at a time in the snow shivering. I felt really bad for him! I reopened my old coop (normally reserved for chicks, broody mamas, and sick birds) and threw a ton of straw inside. Sunflower immediately walked inside with a group of girls for company. They have been rearranging the straw inside and outside the old coop making themselves quite comfortable despite the blustery cold temps.

Maui, The King of the Castle

Maui, on the other hand, feels quite warm and comfortable in the new coop with the rest of the ladies surrounding him. He is quite the king of the castle.

Next week's blog will be so exciting! I'm candling 22 eggs inside my incubator to find out how many fertilized eggs are growing baby chicks. This is my first year to incubate my own babies, and I can't wait to share the whole hatching process up close!

Thanks for reading my Country Squawk,

Kelly

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