The parents of little girls know that one difficult day their babies will become young women and the inevitable will happen: gentleman callers will sudden appear on your doorstep. This is not a conversation I anticipated having about chickens.
As many who enjoy a rural lifestyle do, I awoke to the sound of a rooster crowing this morning. At 3 AM. And I don’t have any roosters. Apparently the temptation of a yard full of food and a harem of hens was too much for two stray roosters that have decided to call my yard home. Make that my yard, my porch, and the roof of my new car. Little known fact: two bantam roosters can poop three times their own body weight a day! Or maybe it just seems that way when you’re washing it off your windshield and out of your shoes.
Poop disaster aside, the little buggers are insufferably arrogant. Strutting and crowing all day long is part of the job description, but they’re bullying one of my barred rock girls and have forced her out of her little flock. She now sulks on the back porch instead of happily eating bugs with her sisters. So how do you get rid of them? Nobody claims them, and the neighbors are complaining about the noise. Plan A is to coop the girls and keep their food and water away from their new beaux. Plan B is chicken soup.
That said, any advice about feral roosters would be greatly appreciated!
