Handsome rooster

Handsome rooster
Originally uploaded by Beaver w/ a Toothbrush

We picked up a rooster in town yesterday. We had been talking about getting one to help keep the hens behaved because they pick on each other sometimes.

Lately one of us gets up around 6 to let the chickens out of their coop. If it's a weekend we let them out quick and then go back to bed for a while.

Yesterday morning around 6:30 I let the girls out and one of the leghorns jumped the fence. She's been doing that lately but she normally waits until mid-morning and by the time we go back outside later she wants back in so she's easy to catch. Since she has just gotten out though, she didn't want back in.

I chased her around for about 15 minutes, thinking the whole time about going back to bed. I didn't want to leave her out by herself but I started to think we should just get rid of their fence and let them wander.

I'm still worried about predators though since the leghorns seem oblivious to their surroundings. So I thought to myself, maybe we can get a rooster to look after them and then just let them have free range on the whole property.

Then I finally caught the chicken and went back to bed.

When we got up a few hours later, I told Husband about my plan. He thought it was worth a try and perused Craigs for some free roosters. There were a couple available around town. I gave one lady a call and arranged to go over.

After we finished our town errands we headed over there. This lady had quite a set of chickens and roosters. The one we got was hatched two weeks before Easter. Since he was younger, some of the old roosters were picking on him.

Me and the lady chased him around her chicken yard a few times and then she finally nabbed him. He is strong. And a lot harder to catch then I'm used to.

We put him in a box with air holes and drove him home. He didn't make much noise on the ride. When we got home it was dusk and the girls where already inside snoozing. I lifted him out of the box and put him on a roost near the others. One of the old girls flipped and landed on the floor at the sight of a new rooster sitting next to her but the rest just bocked a bit.

I was a little worried this morning that he might be mean to the girls but so far he's keeping a cautious distance. He seems to be afraid of the dark colored chickens. When I went out a little while ago, one of the leghorns (they're all white) approached him and, um, made friends.

He got pretty excited and did a funny dance. He dropped one wing then hopped lopsided back and forth a bit before jumping on her back. She gave him a friendly peck or two in return.