A friend has a rooster that she is suspecting of killing off 2 hens, and mutilating her goose (pecked out an eye? Possible?). Also, it’s ticking off the neighbors with its untimely crowing.
In order to not fall into a primitive way of thinking, she would prefer to find a new home for this guy. So, being chicken-ignorant, would anyone know if there are rooster rescues, or would another chicken owner be interested knowing its crimes, or ??
Thanks for any suggestions.
Suggest to her that she may want to try Craigslist. Although, to be fair, it is unlikely the rooster is going to end up living his days out in the comfort of some rescue.
Uh, he’s going on someone’s dinner table if she advertises him anywhere like Craigslist, regardless of how nice the people seem.
She can try getting him castrated & see if that improves his behavior. Testicles on chickens are weird - tucked up near the kidneys.
A rooster with that temperament needs to be in the stew pot. There are plenty of nice roosters around, and no reason to keep one so vicious that it has killed a hen (or two).
A vicious/overly aggressive rooster is better off heading to freezer camp. One of my friends (who I farm sit for regularly) has several super friendly roosters, and if an aggressive one pops up she sends it to freezer camp. They make pretty darn good soup, and her flocks (and young kids!) are safer without evil roosters around.
Her current roosters are so friendly that her 5 year old son can walk up to them and pet them, and one of them likes to be carried around! haha!
Why on earth would she want him to stay alive? “Re-home?” NEUTER him? What the what? He’s a mean little noise maker-the best he deserves is a quick, humane death, not an alternative home.
I’ll speak for the primitive thinking folks and say if she doesn’t have the sense or guts to wring his neck or get someone to do it for her she should put it on craigslist-free rooster, no questions asked. I’d like to say no offense but I’m sure this is coming across as offensive. She needs to toughen up a bit if she’s going to have farm animals; by keeping this nasty rooster she’s incurring pain and suffering on the other animals. Not to mention aggravating the neighbors.
OK, so she wants to ‘rehome’ the rooster version of Hannibal Lector? Not happening unless she accepts that the next ‘adopter’ will have rooster in pot by sundown. This rooster needs to go before he attacks a person, or kills more livestock.
[QUOTE=cowboymom;7734729]
Why on earth would she want him to stay alive? “Re-home?” NEUTER him? What the what? He’s a mean little noise maker-the best he deserves is a quick, humane death, not an alternative home.
I’ll speak for the primitive thinking folks and say if she doesn’t have the sense or guts to wring his neck or get someone to do it for her she should put it on craigslist-free rooster, no questions asked. I’d like to say no offense but I’m sure this is coming across as offensive. She needs to toughen up a bit if she’s going to have farm animals; by keeping this nasty rooster she’s incurring pain and suffering on the other animals. Not to mention aggravating the neighbors.[/QUOTE]
This, exactly. x2. At least the bird could feed some people if it isn’t otherwise useful or wanted.
[QUOTE=cowboymom;7734729]
Why on earth would she want him to stay alive? “Re-home?” NEUTER him? What the what? He’s a mean little noise maker-the best he deserves is a quick, humane death, not an alternative home.
I’ll speak for the primitive thinking folks and say if she doesn’t have the sense or guts to wring his neck or get someone to do it for her she should put it on craigslist-free rooster, no questions asked. I’d like to say no offense but I’m sure this is coming across as offensive. She needs to toughen up a bit if she’s going to have farm animals; by keeping this nasty rooster she’s incurring pain and suffering on the other animals. Not to mention aggravating the neighbors.[/QUOTE]
This, exactly. x2. At least the bird could feed some people if it isn’t otherwise useful or wanted.
LOL. I’ve heard of some whacky animal rights things, but this takes the cake. I can’t imagine keeping an animal like that alive when it torments and tortures her other animals. She should at least keep it segregated if she’s still has it on her property. It should be her problem, not any other person’s or animal’s, if she’s not capable of ending its miserable life.
Are there still milkmen:confused:? Ours used to re home "pet farm animals, though. this fellow hardly seems a pet:no:
coq-au-vin…
Seems she neglected to punt his butt when it was time…
Hmm, it’s cooling off, in time for the first football game…I am thinking chicken soup!
Oh, ‘castrating’ a rooster is major surgery…it is/was done often, to fatten the surplus cocks up for the table, many of the birds die…Capons are a delicacy though…
Another vote for “if she wants to keep chickens, she needs to think a bit more primitively about this one.” It is the responsible thing to do. Would you keep a horse that killed two horses and maimed another?
Speaking as one who owned the poultry version of Chuckie (mean as they come even though I raised him from a 2-day old chick), the only way she can be assured he won’t become food is to keep him herself.
Make him a separate pen and he can live in solitary, noisy splendor and no one gets hurt.
[QUOTE=Alagirl;7735180]
Oh, ‘castrating’ a rooster is major surgery…it is/was done often, to fatten the surplus cocks up for the table, many of the birds die…Capons are a delicacy though…[/QUOTE]
Hardly major surgery! I watched a video from backyardchickens.com where a guy was doing the complete surgery in about 10 seconds… one after another after another.
It seems most people do it themselves; I find it incredibly inhumane 
ruffled
Thank you, 2DogFarm for your sane and calm response with a view to the broader picture. I, for sure, will pass on your thoughtful suggestion of segregation.
I am surprised at the heat this topic brought up. I am posting on my friend’s behalf… I don’t have ALL the details, and I’m not a chicken person, so I don’t have the experience to read between the lines of what she recounted to me, and, therefore, phrase this thread in a way that gives the entire picture here. So, please, don’t attack her approach. You surely don’t have enough facts to do so, 'cause I don’t!!
My friend just asked for some suggestions, so I offered to post here on her behalf. She is doing exactly what so many of you just screamed about: she is NOT dumping the bird, she is trying to find a humane next step for him, given his current unsuitable behavior.
My friend did not witness any actual chicken murder, but is just inferring that as a possibility by what has been occurring on her property. Also, the goose now may be a victim of an eye condition common to geese, and not an attack from this rooster you all are so quick to condemn … (on an Internet-provided set of ‘facts’ from a stranger (me)). Yeesh.
Ambitious Kate:
Did ya have to be insulting? Again, you don’t have all the facts. Because, to repeat, I don’t!! I notice you did offer a way to keep the rooster humanely alive (segregation). A pretty soft-hearted suggestion that seems at odds with, what did you call it? … oh, yes… “whacky animal rights.” But, thank you anyway for offering something useful in the midst of your obfuscating insult.
Fordtractor:
Re: hypothetical vicious horse: No, my first step would not to kill him. He wouldn’t get to have the chance to kill a 2nd horse, also, as he would be in humane lockdown instantly. But, I would FIRST determine that there is nothing physiologically/in the environment causing such behavior. Then, second, I’d start weighing all the options, one of which would NEVER to let that horse get in the hands of anyone else, given his instability. I hope that you would be responsible enough to do a thorough review of the ‘why is this happening?’ Thanks for the opportunity to show you another way toward understanding.
Thanks, everyone.
ruffled feathers
Thank you, 2DogFarm for your sane and calm response with a view to the broader picture. I, for sure, will pass on your thoughtful suggestion of segregation.
I am surprised at the heat this topic brought up. Hey, I am posting on my friend’s behalf… I don’t have ALL the details, and I’m not a chicken person, so I don’t have the experience to read between the lines of what she recounted to me, and, therefore, phrase this thread in a way that gives the entire picture here. So, please, don’t attack her approach. You surely don’t have enough facts to do so, 'cause I don’t!!
My friend just asked for some suggestions, so I offered to post here on her behalf. She is doing exactly what so many of you just screamed about: she is NOT dumping the bird, she is trying to find a humane next step for him, given his current unsuitable behavior.
My friend did not witness any actual chicken murder, but is just inferring that as a possibility by what has been occurring on her property. Also, the goose now may be a victim of an eye condition common to geese, and not an attack from this rooster you all are so quick to condemn … (on an Internet-provided set of ‘facts’ from a stranger (me)). Yeesh.
Ambitious Kate:
Did ya have to be insulting? Again, you don’t have all the facts. Because, to repeat, I don’t!! I notice you did offer a way to keep the rooster humanely alive (segregation). A pretty soft-hearted suggestion that seems at odds with, what did you call it? … oh, yes… “whacky animal rights.” But, thank you anyway for offering something useful in the midst of your obfuscating insult.
Fordtractor:
Re: hypothetical vicious horse: No, my first step would not to kill him. He wouldn’t get to have the chance to kill a 2nd horse, also, as he would be in humane lockdown instantly. But, I would FIRST determine that there is nothing physiologically/in the environment causing such behavior. Then, second, I’d start weighing all the options, one of which would NEVER to let that horse get in the hands of anyone else, given his instability. I hope that you would be responsible enough to do a thorough review of the ‘why is this happening?’ Thanks for the opportunity to show you another way toward understanding.
Thanks, everyone.
[QUOTE=cyberbay;7735770]
…My friend did not witness any actual chicken murder, but is just inferring that as a possibility by what has been occurring on her property. Also, the goose now may be a victim of an eye condition common to geese, and not an attack from this rooster you all are so quick to condemn … (on an Internet-provided set of ‘facts’ from a stranger (me)). Yeesh…[/QUOTE]
It seems like I read two themes about chickens on this forum. The first theme, which puts me in an acquisitive fog, is that chickens are infinitely amusing, full of personality, and a delight.
The second theme is that chickens die at the drop of a hat, leaving an uninitiated chicken-owning wannabe like me with the impression that if I were to actually acquire a flock, I would find chicken carcasses mysteriously littering the premises every morning, after which I would be among you on CoTH posting befuddled theories about the cause of death. Since your friend did not witness the rooster killing the hens, I would be skeptical about him being the culprit, seeing as how there seem to be a million ways for a chicken to die mysteriously.
So CoTH chicken experts, have any of you ever seen a rooster killing one of his hens?
If your friend acquired her hens as chicks, is it possible that the dead ones were actually young roosters?
Someone recently posted that a chicken killed by a dog may have very few marks on its body, leaving the owner mystified as to the cause of death.
Yes, I had a rooster that killed my hens. He was a young rooster, and had just figured out that he was a rooster and he chased/raped the hens incessantly. He was vicious, too - every encounter with a hen resulted in a pile of feathers. I had 3 “special needs” hens that had hobbled around my property for 2 years, blissfully enjoying what free-ranging they could do. He beat the sh*t out of them because they could not get away, and he cornered them and pecked their heads until it they were bloody and swollen. I had thought I had those hens sufficiently separated from him, but I was wrong.
My kids loved the rooster - he was hatched here under our broody hen, so I could not kill him myself. I kinda have a rule that I won’t eat any of the kids “pets”. I put up a Craigslist ad, was brutally honest, and he went home with the 1st person who showed up. I don’t really care what happened to him…
Most of my hens that have died have shown signs of illness prior to their death. There just isn’t much you can do to save a $15 hen when it gets really sick… But for the most part, my free range flock is spectacularly healthy. I might loose a bird or 2 per year out of two dozen+.
The only time I have had spontaneous chicken deaths was when we lived in OK during a record-breaking heat wave. I had 6 hens die of heatstroke in the nest boxes on a 115* day. It was apparently too hot in the boxes, even with a fan blowing in the coop…
I’ve had hundreds of chickens over the last 20 years. I probably have around 40 right now and about 15 of them are roosters. (2Dogs?)
We’ve had roosters in the past kill other roosters and hurt the hens badly enough that they could have died. But we killed the rooster instead. They grab the hens behind the head and can twist them around pretty violently, or rake them with their spurs.
I’ve NEVER had a chicken just spontaneously die. Egg bound, worms, or infection, yes but not just hey presto, dead. IME a chicken killed by a dog or coyote leaves behind lots of feathers.
Look, a mean rooster is like trying to give away a rattlesnake. Nobody wants him unless he’s food or feathers.
But now in your follow up post it appears that maybe he’s not the primary suspect? What does he ACT like, does he chase people, fight with the other chickens? So far all he’s confirmed of doing is crowing, in which case he might be perfectly suited for “re-homing”.
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