Here's The Thing About Roosters...

When we started taking in abandoned and unwanted farm animals, we quickly realized that roosters were farm animals in desperate need of help. Often due to city ordinances not allowing roosters, families were desperate to find their roosters a safe forever home. Most of the families we encountered had purchased the roosters as chicks believing they were hens, until they started to crow, and then their neighbors complained. Anyway, you get the picture. We held our rooster campaign in an effort to help these beautiful birds, and took in as many as we could handle. We had so many people reaching out to us. We wish we could take them all but sadly the requests were endless.

We decided to make a ‘Roosters Only’ coop so we could take in as many roosters as possible. The thinking behind it was that if we didn’t put hens in with them, then they would have nothing to protect and fight over, and they would all get along. Hooray! Well…sort of. It all went swimmingly for a while, but eventually something began to happen with our large flock of roosters. They broke off into cliques, forming friendships and bonds with certain roosters and grudges against others. It began to resemble a high school cafeteria around here! There was the popular crowd, the wall flowers, and of course the bullies! To this day we are constantly moving them around, if we notice one of them not getting along with the others. It’s a carefully orchestrated dance with our roosters!

These birds are very social creatures and they form their own little hierarchy. It’s really interesting to watch them interact with one another. During the day, they share the pastures with other farm animals, even forming bonds with the goats and the pigs. The best part? They can sing to their hearts content!