Bye-Bye Hooter

It became abundantly clear that our chicken named Hooter was actually a rooster.  My last post detailed his focused aggression on my son Brian.  He would actually go into a full-fledged sprint for Brian when he came outside.  Then came the crowing.  At first it was just a few pathetic crows during the day, but then it became an all day event. 

I was still in denial that we had to find him a new home.  I kept thinking that his crowing really wasn't that bad.  He had a knack for starting to crow just when I came downstairs first thing every morning.  It didn't matter if I came down at 7:00 or 7:30 - he would start crowing.  It was almost as if he could hear me in the house and take that as his cue to let me know he wanted his coop door opened so he could go out into his pen (and crow some more).  I didn't think that was an unreasonable time to crow - until I received the “phone call.”

My neighbor called me and was trying so hard to put it nicely that my rooster was waking her son up every morning for the past week - at 5:30 in the morning!  Well, it looks like my whole family was sleeping through all this - and I thought the rooster was waking up when I did! Oops!  The hardest part was having my daughter say good-bye since it was her rooster.  It made it even harder that he acted like an angel when she was around!  She could pick him up and hold him.  If anyone else came in the pen it was either a full out attack, or circling and squawking.  Last Friday we brought him to The Aviculture Exchange in Westford.  It's run by a wonderful man named Tom Doherty - he will take anyone's unwanted chicken (or rooster).  This was a much better option than the online chicken blogs that were suggesting '”freezer camp” for roosters!  I have to admit that my flock is quite boring without the rooster - no more clucking - and they all seemed much livelier before he left. 

They also are absolutely unmanageable when I let them out to roam in the yard now.  Before, Hooter would herd them back into the pen when I wanted them back - now they all squawk and run in different directions!  We miss Hooter!