Post by Mitra on Mar 17, 2009 16:42:33 GMT -5
I do the same kind of interfering. Left to their own devices things would certainly work out differently in the chicken soap opera of our farm. The biggest and baddest would always rule the roost and the kinder gentlemen would meet bad ends at their hands. We have to step in and change the script!
We recently had two of our favorite roosters go at it. They live in separate coops and each have their own 16-20 girls. Every morning when coop number 2 was opened up, Commander Cody would dash over to Coop number one to duke it out with Dandy (our oldest and best rooster). There was blood everywhere, especially on them. We REALLY like Cody though. He's very gentle, can be picked up and carried without freaking out and in general is a nice guy but he had it in for Dandy. So we decided to try something that Claire had written about ages ago - humiliating the offending rooster. For three days in a row, we tethered Cody to the second coop. In the morning we would tie baling twine around his leg and attach him to the layer boxes in Coop No. 2. In the evening we'd release him so he could get up on the roost. By day three his whole appearance had changed. He was cowering and diminuitive. He was humiliated. On the fourth day when we opened up coop number 2 we didn't tie his leg and he promptly came out of the coop and instead of heading left towards coop no. 1, he turned right and went to coop no. 3. That was two weeks ago and he never comes down to nos 1 or 2! Coop no. 3 is his original coop and it also has another one of our favorite roosters King George. They've always been great buds and now he defers to George too. His favorite thing to do now is to hang out with/on Helen. He's also blind in one eye from a rooster fight two years ago. His foe was turned into "Annoying Rooster Pot Pie".
We recently had two of our favorite roosters go at it. They live in separate coops and each have their own 16-20 girls. Every morning when coop number 2 was opened up, Commander Cody would dash over to Coop number one to duke it out with Dandy (our oldest and best rooster). There was blood everywhere, especially on them. We REALLY like Cody though. He's very gentle, can be picked up and carried without freaking out and in general is a nice guy but he had it in for Dandy. So we decided to try something that Claire had written about ages ago - humiliating the offending rooster. For three days in a row, we tethered Cody to the second coop. In the morning we would tie baling twine around his leg and attach him to the layer boxes in Coop No. 2. In the evening we'd release him so he could get up on the roost. By day three his whole appearance had changed. He was cowering and diminuitive. He was humiliated. On the fourth day when we opened up coop number 2 we didn't tie his leg and he promptly came out of the coop and instead of heading left towards coop no. 1, he turned right and went to coop no. 3. That was two weeks ago and he never comes down to nos 1 or 2! Coop no. 3 is his original coop and it also has another one of our favorite roosters King George. They've always been great buds and now he defers to George too. His favorite thing to do now is to hang out with/on Helen. He's also blind in one eye from a rooster fight two years ago. His foe was turned into "Annoying Rooster Pot Pie".