As promised, this is a multiple part segment on chickens. Because it’s been quite the summer as far as chickens go.
You see, in the spring, I got it in my head that we needed 3 more chickens. The two breeds the boys had picked out last year had turned out to be roosters and they were kind of disappointed. So clearly I needed to get one of each of those breeds in order to get a hen version. Probability says I am more likely to get a hen this time, right? Or not. I was never very good in my probability class. Sorry Mr. Friday. But it made sense at the time.
But I also felt like I needed a 3rd chicken. 3 felt like a good flock number so that they had their own little group to grow with. I know there was a good possibility that with 3 chickens, I would get another rooster, but I was feeling lucky. And I had promised Tyler that they would all be hens so clearly, so in order to protect my pride, the universe had to be on my side.
Well, after much perusing of the farm’s chickens, I decided on a Salmon Favorelle. It was big and fluffy like the kids wanted. It was known for being a gentle, playful chicken that was high in demand because of what a fun chicken it was. It sounded like a good choice in all ways.
So we came home with a Pavlovskaya, an Ayam Cerami, and a Salmon Favorelle. And the chicken guru even picked ones she got good hen vibes from. We were set!
As the chicken grew, they had a different dynamic than the other flocks we had brought home. For one, the Salmon Favorelle was incredibly energetic. It was jumping out of the box from day one. In fact, it just didn’t ever stop jumping. The other two did their thing while this bird was in constant jumping motion. I read up on it and it said, this gentle, playful breed loved getting to higher places, and was often adored for its comical antics.
“How fun!” I thought. “This is going to be such a delightful bird!”
Not long after that, the Salmon Favorelle took on a different demeanor. We moved them out to the big coop during the day, putting them in a “playpen” type area so the big chickens could get used to them without hurting them.
But this gentle, loving Salmon Favorelle took the larger space and the fresh air to be its cue to exercise its abilities. More jumps and flaps. But this playful little fowl was also taking this time to constantly jump on its flock mates. Suddenly deciding this was playtime and the other chicks were going to play whether they wanted to or not.
I read more on this subject and found many sources that said “your chicks may appear to get rough with eachother. This is natural as they are deciding their pecking order and will quickly settle.” And I thought to myself “apparently this is an natural process. Everyone will be fine and they will figure it out,” Although it seemed to me that the others were quite certain of who was the leader as the Salmon Favorelle chased them in circles around the cage, jumped on them, grabbed them by the neck and dragged them around.
“It’s fine. They are just playing. Very roughly.”
It was about this time that the Salmon Favorelle crowed.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Yep, he crowed. And there was no denying we had ourselves a third rooster.
Due to the fact that his breed has an extra finger, and he was kind of a buttmunch, we named him Count Rugen after the 6 fingered man on the Princess Bride.
The Ayam Cerama, we named Morgan Le Fowl inspired by the Aurthurian Legends.
And the Pavlovskaya we named Henevere, also Aurthurian Legends.
As they grew, Henevere began running in circles because her head feathers were so intense, she can’t see, Morgan Le Fowl just ran away from everyone, probably due to trauma of growing up with Count Rugan, and Count Rugan continued his cruel ways on the chicks and now on the older chickens.
It was clear no one was a big fan of Count Rugan.
And once he got bored of tormenting his feathered fowl, he decided to aspire to even bigger goals.
Now, let me take a break from this story to say I’ve dealt with feisty roosters before. Our other Ayam Cemani started attacking me this Spring out of the blue. But we have come to an understanding. If I feed him, he distracts himself enough with food for me to gather eggs. On the occasion, he isn’t happy with the food I bring and gets worked up. In these cases, I have found that I can grab him and turn him on his back and he settles. And before anyone goes into this being humane and inhumane, just know that I tried all the supposedly “humaner” techniques on the humane richter scale and they didn’t work. And to be honest, the rooster isn’t think about how humanely it attacks me and my actions are purely in self defense and there are far worse techniques to training a rooster than flipping it on its back for a minute.
But then there was Count Rugan.
Who had decided I was his main focus and death was the only punishment for me waltzing in there and stealing eggs.
And not only did he have focus, he had a PLAN. A dastardly one at that.
As soon as he saw me, he would run as fast as he could to the door and guard it. His two beady eyes staring straight at me, daring me to enter his domain.
And if I dared have the audacity to open that door, it was all over. It was chicken vs. woman and chicken was determined to be the victor.
He would jump at me. Claws raised, feathers fluffed, in a ninja like karate chop action. And do so continuously until victory.
I tried a couple times to do the upside down method. And it calmed him for a minute until the next day. It was lather rinse repeat with him, no matter the cost.
But this was war. And I knew better than to show weakness. He could smell fear and he thrived on it.
I soon learned that if I put my foot in the air with my boots on, he would jump and hit my boot every time. Did this stop him from jumping at me? No it did not. So I began hopping around the chicken coop, balancing on whatever I could find, leg raised in the air, rotating my body so that my raised foot was pointed at the chicken at all times while I quickly gathered eggs (which were scattered around the coop in all corners because my chickens hate their laying boxes) as this chicken repeatedly slammed its body into my boot.
Now, I like to consider myself a strong woman. I can take sacrifices. I can accept things as they are and work around problems so that I can learn to live with them. And I was willing to continue with this dynamic with the chickens, even if I didn’t exactly like it.
But I’m also a mom. And when you come after my kids, my kids are coming first no matter what.
This summer one of the boys’ chores was to feed the chickens. This seemed fine. Chickens liked to eat. Chickens get distracted by food. Food makes chickens happy.
Not Count Rugan.
I should say, first, that Count Rugan had no issue with Tyler or Calvin. Maybe it was their size. How they walked with authority. Who knows.
But when Donny started entering that coop, Count Rugan was having none of it.
But guarding the door was not the correct strategy for this lanky, energetic kid. Count Rugan needed a new tactic. Something less obvious.
As Donny entered the cage, excited, all the chickens would gather around the food. The littles particularly liked to jump up on the shelves nearby, awaiting their turn to eat.
And that’s when Count Rugan chose his moment.
If he got up on the shelves, he could jump at Donny from a higher take off point. Directly in line with his head.
It was a glorious attack.
Donny was having none of it.
At first he would only go out there with Tyler so Tyler could hold off the attack. But he couldn’t always get there fast enough. And it didn’t take long for Donny to refuse to do the chicken feeding chore. And I didn’t blame him. I, too, did my chore with the excitement of someone undergoing daily root canals.
It was finally official.
Count Rugan had to go.
We aren’t one to kill our animals. We have absolutely nothing against it and even completely understand in the case of other farmers and homesteaders. We just aren’t there on homesteading journey yet. And we were really hoping somebody else could take him and make better use of him than we could.
We talked to the Chicken guru, the chicken farm we purchase our chickens from, and she said she often takes Salmon Favorelles back because they are so easy to sell, being such a “friendly”, sought after bird. But she didn’t want to sell someone a chicken she knew was mean and clearly we got the black demon unicorn of the Salmon Favorelle breed. So, her thoughts were understandable..
So we advertised him on our local town facebook page. Letting them know our struggles with him and that he needed to find a good home. It didn’t take long before someone said they wanted him. They were trying to teach their son about egg hatching and needed a rooster to “complete step one” of the fertilized egg process. Welp, he’s certainly good for that.
So that is how we defeated Count Rugan. He went away and our chicken dynamic is far more relaxed and everyone is happy again….
…Until Morgan Le Fowl crowed 2 days later.
