New kid on the block!

Remember poor Red,  our rooster that never really amounted to being much of a rooster? Red was our special needs chicken that just was never right. He had a good life with us until he ended up getting ill. As quirky as he was, we loved that rooster and he was very entertaining! Well, the girls have been without a rooster now for about 6 months and haven't seemed to mind not having a man around one bit!

The other day, Wayne went to the feed store and saw some roosters in there and felt sorry for them being all pent up in a cage. I can't say I blame him. So, he comes home with this handsome fellow!!

Meet Red Jr.!  :) We had a few fights going on when he first got here because the girls were really picking on him. If you know anything about chickens, you know that there really is a very strict "pecking order" and if anyone new is introduced they have to re-establish the order. Unfortunately, they do this by fighting each other and this is why you generally can't have more than one rooster at a time because the roosters will REALLY fight each other - usually until one of them kills the other one. This is no good. However, with roosters and hens it is not that serious, just more of an establishment routine.

We took all the necessary precautions (again, no hate mail about chicken fighting please) and eased the rooster into the group. We kept him in a comfortable size cage inside the pen until the girls got used to him and then we let him out with them the next day. There was a little bit of squabbling and Wayne and I were there to supervise, but they got things worked out rather quickly. Once Red Jr. realized "Hey wait a minute - I'm the rooster here!" all things fell into place. Now they are all one big happy family free ranging around the yard together!

He will look better in a few weeks once he has had good food and exercise and a happy life for a while, but isn't he pretty?? He is a Red Lace Wing Wyandotte. Our black and white chickens are White Lace Wing Wyandottes. I didn't know there was any such thing as a red lace wing but here he is! See how the feathers on his chest have that back edging around the red on the feathers? That's the "lace wing" pattern that gives them their name.

Welcome to the family Red! He is GREAT with the dog and the cats too so we really lucked out! I think he is going to be very happy here. I'm glad we can give him a great home!