We Got A 'Roo

Our boy, strutting his stuff!!! 

I know this is coming a little late, but a while back (as in about 8 weeks ago) my husband and I added to our flock of chickens and got five new chickens. This became necessary when one of our chickens hurt it's leg and we had to...eh-hem...put it down. Then the next week, my husband's aunt was visiting on a bird watching trip and accidentally ran over one of our chickens, killing it dead. (The irony of the whole bird watching thing was pretty palpable.)

Anyway, it seemed like our little flock of original chickens was really dwindling...and our Amrocks that we got over the summer to supplement our flock all got eaten (presumably by a fox?) over the fall and winter months, so we were really needing some new bitties. I called my farmer who had some pullets for us and so this spring we integrated them into the flock. There was only one catch: they weren't sexed, so we weren't sure if we got all females or not.

We were in the wait and see game about the hens when one day I was walking outside. All of a sudden I heard a commotion with the chickens and what do I see? I see some of the new chickens running out from the brush and behind them comes what we thought was our "fancy" chicken. Next thing I know, the "fancy" chicken jumps on the other chicken's back and starts going to town...and by going to town I mean he was humping the crap out of the poor thing.

I was a little caught off guard by what appeared to be nature, but honestly felt more like chicken rape. So I threw a stick at the rooster and started yelling for my husband, adding, "Babe! We have a 'roo!!!!"  That was how we found out that our fancy chicken was indeed not a hen at all, but a rooster. We stared at the thing for a few minutes, googled what to do, and considered trading the rooster in for another hen (which my farmer said he would be more than happy to do if we had one by mistake.)

As it turns out, though, we're kind of attached to the fella. Sure, he's assaulting all of our hens, but it adds a lot of flavor to our flock and somehow makes it more interesting. So, we have a 'roo. My husband calls him "Sir Humps A Lot." He hasn't quite begun crowing yet, but he sure is a pretty thing. Since his presence doesn't affect our ability to eat the eggs, we figure we'll give it a shot and see how it works out having a male in the hen house. So far, so good.

And that's the update on our chickens. Oh yea, and check out some of our new hens who like to take their shade in the trees--literally!