Red Bird, My Friend

cain and abel

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cain and abel

Here is another lesson in raising chickens. You do not want to house multiple roosters together. They will kill each other. I learned this lesson the hard way.  

In my first flock, two of my Barred Rocks turned out to be roosters. One was dominant, and one was docile and gentle.  I assumed because they were brothers, raised together, I had nothing to worry about. That is, until one evening I got a call at work from my husband.

"Uh, Marie, your roosters are killing each other.

"What?" I snapped. "Are you sure?" I couldn't believe it. There had been no sign of a problem. Sure, the bigger rooster was protective of the hens, but he didn't seem mean. And the docile rooster actually had had me fooled for a long time. I hadn't realized he was a rooster until a week or two before I got the ominous call. 

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who had noticed that there was more than one rooster in the flock.

"Yeah, I'm sure. The nice rooster is all bloody. I put him in the garden."

"Alright. I'll come home on my dinner break and check him out." I cut out of the office early and rushed home. There he was, my big gentle rooster, listless and bloodied, surrounded by the lush green of my massive squash plants and cucumbers. There wasn't much I could do but wait it out. The weather was warm, I made sure he had food and water. If he was going to make it, we'd find out in the morning.

It didn't even take that long. When I got home from my late-night shift, he was gone. I buried him in the lot behind our house. His brother soon found a new home, most likely a dinner plate. I didn't ask.

Those two roosters were given names that night. Cain and Abel.