Master of the Flock

Are you my Daddy?

I do love this guy....sigh. He's nearly a year old now. It's a pleasure to watch him being such a good protective roo. He's forever watchful, fearless and brave. I've seen him stand tall against a dog in the yard, giving the hens time to scurry for cover, and I have no doubt he'd lay down his life to defend his girls. When the hens went broody he spent his nights on the floor, sleeping in front of the nest boxes instead of the roosts. Only recently, after all five of his flock were reunited, has he returned to the roost.

These same instincts for protecting and perpetuating his family have made him a little wacko though. He's begun to run at and attempt to flog other family members and visitors. He still is respectful to me, and lets me pick him up, carry him around, and smootch on him,....but we can't have him attacking the propane man!

I'm in the proccess of separating all my chickens by breed in the new breeding pens, and by the time I'm done, Rudy and the girls will be moved out of their tractor into one of the huge new chicken suites. They'll only be freeranging ocasionally when no one else is expected or around.

Also, I need to keep them out of the garden. They didn't do much damage in the garden in the spring and summer when there was greenery everwhere to forage, but after the freeze they consider the garden one big "all you can eat" buffet.

The poor guy seems to be stressed by all his responsibilities the last few months, anyway. Since all the babies were hatched, even though they've been in pens, he's considered all of them part of his flock. He'll be freeranging with his girls, and if he hears a squawk from the pens, he's off and running to check it out. We had a bully roo in the back forty garden for a while, and Rudy had to check on him several times a day as well. All the other birds love his visits, and crowd the fence to see the "rock god", but the poor guy has so much territory to cover.

He'll miss his day long expeditions, but hopefully giving him his own space with his original family will take some of the weight off of his little golden shoulders.