As much as I love my roosters, and as much as they love the ladies, it was time to move Reuben and Ramon into their own bachelor pad. This is our second bachelor pad since Lil’ Red Rooster already has a small coop of his own. Lil’ Red’s coop is not big enough to share with Reuben and Ramon, and they would very likely fight if we put them all together, so we built a new coop for Reuben and Ramon. The boys can be a bit rough on the ladies, as I wrote about in the Rooster Love post. Back then we had three roosters in with 25 ladies which seemed to be one rooster too many. I rehomed Grayson in the hopes that having one less rooster would give the ladies enough of a respite to grow back some feathers. It’s been a couple of months since Grayson left, and still several of the ladies are looking quite feather-bare. I wasn’t sure what else to do other than separate the boys from the ladies. We’ve talked for quite a while about how useful it would be to have a second coop and fenced pasture. It could be used to separate one rooster with a few select ladies when we want to hatch eggs from a controlled breeding, and it could also be used for raising up batches of chicks until they’re large enough to join the big girls. Although we’re not quite ready to start breeding and raising large batches of chicks yet, we did need a place to move the roosters, and that was reason enough to set up the second coop and run.
This weekend we moved the boys into their new home. Their accommodations aren’t quite as luxurious as those of the rest of the flock, but I bet they’re a heck of a lot better than the conditions many roosters live in. The boys don’t have an overhead net to protect them from hawks and eagles, but since their main job is to protect the flock from predators they should be able to take care of themselves. They have a 40 by 40 foot pasture complete with an electric fence to protect them from 4-legged predators, a spacious coop, and a shade shelter, so they should be very comfortable. The boys seemed to get settled in quite well on their first day, and I don’t think the ladies missed the boys one bit. Ramona came over to me this morning as she often does when I let the girls out of the coop. Usually she appears to be seeking protection from Ramon who is eager to show her some affection first thing in the morning. Today when she came over and began clucking softly to me, I imagined she was asking about Ramon’s whereabouts. I told her she didn’t have to worry about him anymore, and she went happily about the rest of her day, foraging in the pasture, dust bathing, and pecking her subordinates. Not once did I see her hiding in the coop during the day, as she often did when she was trying to avoid Ramon’s affections. Today was a happy day indeed for Ramona and all the ladies of 5R Farm!