Boys will be boys......

....and Boy are they BOYS!

Last fall, the little red frizzle hatched out two boys, I already have two roosters and I wondered how this would work. I knew I could re-home one right down the road at the neighbors, two years ago I gave Jillian two little hens and a rooster but that winter the rooster died. I promised her another one next time a rooster hatched.

It wasn't easy to sex them, in fact, they were nearly grown and I finally heard the boys crowing, before I was certain.

They were a close family, I waited for their mother to do the right thing and kick them out on their own, but it didn't happen. All four stuffed themselves into a nest box at night which I found pretty kinky.

Then one morning I opened the chicken coop and out came the little black cochin hen....

.....with one rooster.....

....two roosters hot on her heels!

Across the yard in hot pursuit, they caught up with her in the drive way and did their best to sweet talk her into a little romance.

She wasn't in any mood and stuck close to the big hens, they don't take any crap off those two little pipsqueaks. 

The boys had no choice but to hang together, out of reach of tough beaks and claws.

I was outside that evening and watched the little hen try to make it safely into the chicken coop but it was not to be. First one rooster tried for her, I knocked him off and she ran for the coop, as fast as her little feathered feet could go. She nearly made it when the other rooster spied her and jumped on. He didn't even see me coming, I grabbed him, he let out a shriek and kept shrieking as though I was killing him. I let the little hen get inside, on a roost, before I released him, then went in the house to call Jillian to tell her I was bringing her a rooster. 

The next morning I took the chicken catcher into the coop but the boys are fast and flighty. I accidentally caught the frizzle around neck, if he thought he was dying the night before, he really thought he was going to be chicken dinner that day. I was finally able to grab him around the body and carry him to the car. On the way to Jillian's, the rooster bit down on my glove and hung on, showing me he wasn't afraid of me.

I took him out to their coop and opened the door, she has two big Rhode Island Red hens and two Serama girls. I tossed Pee Wee inside, he lit and immediately did the Dance of Seduction. The RIR was not impressed and ran his cheeky butt outside into the pen. He didn't let that stop him, there was another hen out in the pen but she didn't give him the time of day either.

I called Jillian that night to see how things were working out, she said the little hens like him, the big hens, not so much! I told her if the big hens killed him, there is still another one here.

Getting rid of one of the boys did what I hoped, it cooled the competition and the little cochin hen can once again move around the farm in relative peace. Maybe he is afraid he also will disappear, never to be seen again!