Chickens became part of the Wild Things menagerie back in 2009. The flock started with 6 Red Stars that were supposed to be all pullets. I bought them from a backyard chicken momma and she was “sexing” them by their color–now I realize that was a waste of time. I ended up with 3 pullets and 3 roosters. Fast forward, ended up with one rooster, and I named him “Mr. Rooster Sir”. He was a beautiful, polite, rooster, who really watched out for the girls. A rooster isn’t required for a flock of hens to lay eggs, but I personally think they are more content with a rooster around. Sure, some of the eggs are fertilized, but that doesn’t hurt a thing.
A month or so ago I had let the girls out to roam around the yard since there isn’t anything growing in the gardens right now, and that evening, Mr. Rooster Sir didn’t come back. I never found a feather or any sign of what happened–
Back in September I got 25 Barred Rock pullets and 5 Amerecauna pullets. They’ve been growing like crazy and have all survived so far. Note: a pullet is an immature hen—back to the regularly scheduled program:
The morning after I discovered Mr. Rooster Sir was gone I was at the chicken house feeding and watering and I heard a strange garbledy noise coming from inside the house–could it be? One of the pullets was crowing? (lol)
A few weeks later and it is confirmed–one of the pullets can crow! Oh, I guess that means “she” won’t be laying eggs. That’s okay because I really like hearing a rooster crow in the morning, although right now he sounds more like a tire squealing on pavement. The worst thing is that it’s one of the Amerecaunas; they lay green/blue eggs. I like to keep enough of them to be able to put one green/blue egg in each carton. Now that means that there are only 4 Amerecauna pullets to fulfill that duty.
He’s a handsome thing–he has awful big shoes to fill though. Now for a name–Firestone, Michelin, Cooper (oh no, I had a dog named Cooper)
Wild Things Farm 