I have six cockerels. Four of them (Rogo, Stanley,Scotty and Jesus) are large full size fellows, each with their own group of hens, while the remaining two (Pirrie and Roger) are tiny bantams, that live alongside the heavyweights in sometimes an uneasy kind of existence.Pirrie ( a wyandotte) roosts in a small brooder box with a single hen of his own (Ripley a black rock). Ripley was a single hen out of seven cockerel chicks I hatched last year and after they left the field she was left alone and isolated, unable to join any of the 10 hen coops because of the shirty behaviour of the existing hens. Pirrie soon teamed up with her, after a little manipulation on my part, which helped, while Roger ( above) was set up with some of the bullied hens in their own run.
Now Roger is quite a handsome little cockerel ( he is only 9 inches high) and like most male animals he has no conception of just how small he is. He also has the most aggressive nature of all of my cockerels and will fly and posture against me every time I enter his enclosure.
Now I find all this quite amusing especially as I can usually swat him away with my little finger, but today his bouncy nature did not serve him at all well, as he slipped out of his enclosure and got cornered by a somewhat irate ( and considerably larger ) Jesus.
Jesus is the most junior cockerel and even the guinea fowl give him a good bashing from time to time, so I am sure a sudden contact with a small bantam gave him the opportunity for him to flex his testosterone muscles so to speak, and he well and truly battered Roger before I saw the final pecks of the battle from the bedroom window.
Cockerels when they are beaten, freeze on the ground with head down, almost as if they are waiting for the "coup de grace" to be administered, and I just got there in time, before Jesus went in for the kill. Poor Roger, covered in blood and fairly lifeless on the ground was, I thought , a gonner, but after I ran him under a warm tap to clean him up for a bit, he came round just enough to give me a few weak but painful pecks on my fingers.
The above photo was taken a hour or so after I returned him to his enclosure
The third lesson in my Chicken course takes part tonight.....Chris is away working in London again
What's the third lesson? Don't put your cocks together? LOL
ReplyDelete!!! actually we are doing cockerel behaviour, incubation, chicks, broody hens and the like!!!
ReplyDeleteOh the joys of having more than one cockerel, I have 1 bantam boy(in fact I have 5 including the silkie) who could start a fight alone in an empty room, mind you he is part old english game, he could win a fortune in the pits of shanghi.
ReplyDeletexxx
You & Randy & your cocks!!! LOL
ReplyDeleteThanks for my compliment btw! xxx
we want photo's of you teaching your class.
ReplyDeleteGuess what? I'm considering going to Goat Judging School.
Poor Roger,give him some extra goodies.
He cleaned up good!
ReplyDeleteYou are way braver than I am. I'm too chicken to put up with having roosters around.
I agree! We want photos and class information!
My son Bob bought 2 White Old English bantam cocks a long time ago that were meaner than snot to people. They got along fine with each other and with hens. He had a lot of extra chickens that year, so for convenience he penned the 2 tiny whites with 2 huge Brahma hens. A couple of months later there were chicks from this cross. How the little guys managed that, we didn't know. We still have some of their descendants in our "mutt" pen.
ReplyDeleteCocks, of course, aren't the only ones that fight. We've had white OE hens that killed a cockerel once, and they can be really mean to each other, too.
Aren't chickens fun?
You take such beautiful pictures. We had three banty roosters who thought they were CONDORS, and kept the yard/hens in line. Too bad, they each have gone over the rainbow bridge. I miss their courage.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing,
Mal