My rooster can beat your rooster any day

Bantam rooster, La Ceiba, Honduras

In our batch of chicks we had three roosters and three hens − which, incidentally, I predicted based on the egg shape. I'll have to test my theory again next time by taking away all the pointy rooster eggs.

We recently gave away two of the roosters. It takes a little time to tell which ones are hens and which are roosters. Then I wanted to wait to pick out the best looking rooster to keep. All three were similar, but the one that we kept has brighter feathers on his shoulders.

Roosters are feisty guys. It's good to have one, because everyone feels better with the natural order of things. The roosters protect the hens, decide the pecking order, and announce the start of the day (over and over again). With more than one rooster for a small number of hens, though, jealousy and machismo set in and they tend to fight.

We gave one rooster to my sister-in-law. I'm not sure why she wanted a rooster instead of a hen but the kids were so excited to get him. Hopefully we'll have another hatch of chicks before long and can give her a hen or two as well.

The other rooster we gave to our water delivery man. I didn't know that he already had a full size rooster (ours are bantams, kind of miniature chickens). He told us today that our little guy has beaten the heck out of his big rooster, doing some real bloody damage. He wanted to get a bantam to breed with the one bantam hen that he has. The bantam hen has other ideas, however, and is sticking with her turkey buddy. That must be a sight to see.

Our rooster has other ideas, too. According to the water guy, his full-sized hens always ran away from the big rooster. He said that our little guy jumps on their backs, grabs them by the neck and has his way with them. The hens are as nonchalant about it as if there is a garrapata (tick) on their backs and go about their business as normal. So little rooster is in hen-heaven and not getting any flack from the big guy anymore either.

Here is a video of our cocky little rooster:



He is a good-looking guy, isn't he?