Transgender Chicken
I want to say about 6 weeks in, we were just getting up from bed and we heard a weird noise. We were both still in a daze and not sure of what we heard. A few days went by and I was cooking when I heard the same noise again. I went outside to look for a bird or hawk or something to explain the noise. The following morning, my husband and I woke up to a ROOSTER crow. OOOOOOOMMMMMMGGGGGG!
I was pissed for many reasons:
What the hell am I gonna do with a Rooster
We can't have Roosters where we live
They're mean
The noise
I paid for 3 hens
My family came over and my great grandmother convinced me not to get rid of the Rooster. They grew up with chickens in Ecuador so I took their advice. They said the eggs taste much better and lay more frequent. They also offer protection from predators and alert the flock when danger is around. Other than that they are cool to have around. Just recently we heard a loud honking noise coming from the coop. I wasn't sure what I was hearing, thinking it was one of the hens getting beat up my husband went outside to look. As soon as he went out he notice a huge Red Tail Hawk fly from a perch from an overhanging tree. That was the first time we saw our Jay protecting the girls..
Once we were 100% certain that we had a rooster we did our due diligence with the town. We found out that a Rooster has the same ordinance as that of a dog barking. Basically it can't go on for more than 15min at a time in an hour. We were in the clear. Phew! Since Beyonce turned out to be a male we figured it'd be right to rename him to Jay-Z. Roosters are typically aggressive and territorial so I made sure they all knew I was mother hen. I handled him every morning he was in the house.
Once the coop was done and the run was built they were about 10weeks. It was warm and they were old enough to stay outside. I remember going out one day and seeing Jay had a growth spurt. HE WAS HUGE!
They are now 9 months old and really great to have around. Just recently we heard a loud honking noise coming from the coop. I wasn't sure what I was hearing, thinking it was one of the hens getting beat up my husband went outside to look. As soon as he went out he notice a huge Red Tail Hawk fly from a perch from an overhanging tree. That was the first time we saw our Jay protecting the girls. We love him even more.
