#about chickens

[celestialbitch-art]

Did I ever mention I have chickens, I feel like I left that out of my lore book lol

[autisticarmadillo]

The Truth About Roosters

Content warning for animal (chicken) violence and injury mentions (but don't worry, everyone's fine now)

It's a common misconception that you can't have 2 (or maybe just too many? I'm not sure of the specifics of this rumor) roosters in the same flock of chickens.

That might be sort of true for roosters who are introduced to each other later in life. After all, in all species, there's a hierachy (I don't know how to spell that) that needs to be enforced and sometimes reworked whenever a new creature is introduced.

I have 18 chickens. Of those 18, I have...(please hold while I count -- Copper, Vegas, Biter, Rebel, Cinna, Scip, Dancer, Vulture) 8 roosters. Copper and Vegas were two of my original 5 chickens (the other three, hens, are sadly gone from this world). They grew up together as brothers. So over the two years over their lives, there has been plenty of bickering, of course, but there was never any true violence. The one time Vegas did start to get overly aggressive towards Copper, he was removed from the chicken flock and put in with our two guineahens. When we moved him, we did briefly consider keeping this arrangement permanent, but that quickly proved both impossible and unnecessary. While our intention was to simply separate Vegas from the other chickens (while still keeping him nearby, the chickens and the guineas live next to each other), the guineas took it upon themselves to put Vegas in his place. After 1 afternoon with the guineas, Vegas was returned to the chicken coop with a much better attitude. He's still king of the flock and nips all the other roosters into place sometimes, but he's never been violent or overly aggressive ever again.

Cinna, Rebel and Scip were all hatched from the same nest of 9 eggs. Also growing up together, we don't have issues with their behavior towards each other. Dancer and Biter hatched from a smaller nest of 5 a few months later, and again, we don't have behavior or aggression issues.

There has only ever been 1 other instance of violence in the flock (well, technically 2, but it was the same rooster responsible, so I count it as 1). Vulture had attacked Rebel first, but we didn't know it right away. All we was was an injured Rebel (he's okay, don't worry). And it was only Rebel. Rebel gets his name because he's then one that'll wander off by himself and too far for comfort and safety, so we thought he simply got into something or got attacked by a weasel or mink. It was only a few weeks later that my mom caught Vulture attacking Biter and we realized that had to be what happened to Rebel too. So Biter was checked for injuries (he had none) and Vulture was isolated from the flock. After 3 days in solitary on the back porch, he was returned to the flock. This was months ago now and we haven't had any issues since.

So the short version of all that is: Roosters, like all creatures, will fight for dominance and order. It's the natural way of things. But raise them together and/or teach them right, and, like all creatures, the violence can be discouraged and corrected.

Okay, making this post made me realize...I have 8 roosters, which means I have 10 hens, BUT SOMEHOW I GOT 11 EGGS IN ONE DAY?! Now I'm suspicious one of my roosters is actually a hen and I'm just a dunce....

[ladybuvelle]

A hen was roosting in the gazebo, and was surprised by Sona's visit. "Cluck!"

“..............”

Illegal.

[thisblogismostlyfiller]

I've posted so much about chickens that now the word chicken looks strange to me. But I can't stop now.

[thisblogismostlyfiller]

Did you know that chickens are 75% water?

[elevatordancing]

I shouldn't have started playing Fable 3. I can't believe i just started crying over a chicken.