Leroy The Rooster

   This past summer we ordered six buff orpingtons along with our meat birds. They also threw in one extra bird of their choice. As the birds grew up we noticed that one of the buffs started to look a little bit different. It started to grow taller than the rest and have different types of feathers. After about six months of growing we came to the conclusion that the hatchery had given us a buff orpington rooster by mistake, something that does happen from time to time. Also, our free chick turned out to be an araucana rooster as well. Knowing that two roosters in a hen house is not a good thing, I quickly found a new home for him. He's with some other araucana hens and is very happy.
   Leroy seems very happy with his flock too and watches out for everyone. He hasn't shown any aggression toward me, or the rest of the family, and is now just starting to practice crowing. We'll see how that goes... We're hoping that he will help in guarding the flock against any predators this summer.
   We chose the buff orpingtons because they are easy going, have the ability to hold up to Maine's winter weather, and are good egg layers. Now that we have a rooster their other characteristics are going to help us out as well. The orpingtons also tend to be broody, which means they will hatch their own eggs and take care of their young. They also are big enough birds to eat if we have to cull out the roosters.
   The new plan is to try and hatch only the buffs' eggs and eventually cull out all of the other chickens as they get too old. Miss E can't wait to start hatching chickens this year and have a bunch of new chicks to take care of.