When Jen was giving me the run-down on how to look after the
laying hens for the month of May, one of the topics covered was keeping a
lookout for injured birds. She explained that as they had bred their own birds
over the winter, there were still a lot of young roosters in the bunch that
hadn’t been culled yet. (When laying hens are bought from a hatchery, you
usually receive only females. The ratio of roosters to hens should be quite low
to keep egg production at its best and two or three roosters can keep a medium
size group happy for several years. Unfortunately, this usually means that male
chicks are dispatched at the hatchery shortly after they hatch from the egg.)
The higher number of males in the group meant that there could be some
increased fighting and hostility, with younger roosters getting beat up by the
older boys. She advised that I keep a look out for fresh wounds on the feet or
the combs of the birds, and that if I see any fighting, to separate the birds
if I could. Sounded pretty straight forward.
During my first week of looking after the birds, I did
observe some of the birds had had their tail feathers pulled out or bald scabby
patches on their lower backs. I checked with Jen on this, she said to continue to
keep an eye out but not to worry unless I was seeing fresh wounds. In my first
two weeks, there seemed to be two kinds of fighting going on amongst the birds:
1) where one cock charges another and the other bird either retreats or defends
his spot or 2) one rooster pins another bird while it’s on the ground and pulls
at its comb with its beak. Interactions of the first kind were often over
before I could do anything about them and seemed harmless, usually the younger
rooster just ran away, avoiding injury. Interactions of the second kind seemed
to last longer and occur more frequently, with the older rooster tugging
roughly on the comb of the bird on the bottom and the bottom bird making a few
noises but no real effort to defend itself. These interactions I would often
break up by yelling and swiping my foot toward the large rooster so that he
would jump off and leave the poor guy alone.
Yesterday, we had a farm meeting where items of planning,
scheduling and logistics were discussed.
Afterwards, Jen opened the floor to questions and comments from the
apprentices. So I piped up,
“I’ve been breaking up the roosters when the older ones get
on top and start pulling on the younger roosters comb. Is that okay or am I
messing with the hierarchical pecking order of the group or something?”
Jen and Mike (Jen’s father and owner of the farm) immediately
burst into laughter.
“You’re not messing with any pecking order, but you are
breaking up the honeymoon!” Mike responded, still laughing.
Jen, also still chuckling, added “Yep, chicken sex is not
pretty.”
I was pretty embarrassed but couldn’t help laughing too.
Especially when Derek added, “Gives a whole new meaning to the term
‘cock-blocking’!”
