We received Crazy Eight on 2-14-15 and he arrived a frightened bird in a strange new place, spending a few days in a little plastic dog kennel, then I scrounged up some chicken wire and made him an outdoor run. Soon, I built him a nice big wood split-level chicken coop. Now he's got three sweethearts and a deluxe shaded chicken run: the first nine-foot segment of four to dust bathe and scratch for bugs with his girls.
In the months of his loneliness, he groused and complained increasingly till he spent whole days in bed, depressed. Every time I walked by he'd moan: "How can you make me live this way? I needs girls!" He was the 'Chicken of Unfathomable Misery'
I brought the three new hens back in the evening of 8-1-15 and left them in the little plastic dog kennel till morning then let them out in the chicken run with 8ie locked in the roosting room so they could make introductions through the fence for an hour or so. Buffy, the Buff Orpington was especially interested in 8ie and spent time up close through the fence.
When I opened the door to let them mix, he just took a few seconds to mount Buffy. He spent the rest of the day seducing the other two - working hard at it. He was a new man: so happy to have a job guarding his flock from predators and working his wiles on them day in and day out.
[He spent the rest of the day seducing the other two - again, Heather in this clip]
The most surprising behavior has been his nesting instincts. He goes into the plastic kennel and purrs/coos, attracting the curious hens who cuddle under him, over him, between his legs in both directions, under his belly sideways, over and over, sometimes all four of them together cuddling. He has trained them to lay their eggs in the nest boxes and the other day I saw he spent lots of time with Phoenix, the middle sister, cuddling her extensively as she laid an egg and I saw her peer out of the box from between his legs panting for air.
[Here we have Buffy getting smothered in the nestbox by the cock, with Heather watching]
The actual act of mounting tends to be accomplished on the sly. He grabs them by the neck and forces them to squat. It doesn't last more than a few seconds, then she shakes off like a wet dog: 'Eww, cooties!" The second day, he mounted Buffy three times and she was upset about that so much that she aborted the day's egg from the roost before the shell hardened up: dropped like a poop with a papery thin shell.
But he is an astoundingly endearing, protective husband all day long. The rooster's job is to protect the flock and keep an eye out for predators. He stands erect on the watch most of the day while the ladies forage and dust bathe safely. When he finds some good food, he makes excited purring sounds and offers the best treats to his ladies. They need to give birth to a small baby almost every day - he doesn't need to eat much at all, and is glad to share for a favor.
Roosters will fake the "I've got a treat for you" routine with a pebble, then mount the unsuspecting hen... the hens will learn that trick though. In a large flock of 300 with plenty of acres and a dozen roosters, the hens choose their rooster and cock fights are rare and brief.
Chickens were originally domesticated in Southeast Asia for cock fighting.
These four chickens have been experiencing pretty much total domestic bliss for the last few days.
8ie used to crow all day and all night, now just a few rounds in the morning. Apparently the crowing is a mating call... I had thought it was a territorial warning but apparently not for him, anyways.
He used to hate all children and about half of adults would set him into growling like a tyrannosaurus,. Now he has no problem with children. Any visitor is fine as long as it's not a cat, bird-dog or hawk. If you sneak up quickly from around the corner he will "buck buckaw!" to alert the ladies of danger, or if a cat or crow passes by. He is very cautious.
The neighbors, who have about 80 goats and several chickens, recently got a small herd of 4 feral cats to control the wharf rats. Their free range chickens pay no attention to the teenage kittens but 8ie is very cautious. He used to free-range in the evenings after the store's gates are closed but refuses now, for his safety. I'll let the ladies take him out for free ranging after a week of getting settled. He did no damage to our plants because he mostly focused on flirting with the neighbor hens and he doesn't have much of an appetite. The hens will likely require protecting certain areas around the nursery like seedlings and veggies.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete