I finally got rid of my rooster

The rooster didn’t really work for me.

When we got our baby chicks there were 6. All lavender orpingtons, my favorite. My mother in law hatched them and let me pick as many as I wanted. I’ve never had chickens before so I thought 6 was enough to handle easily and would produce a good amount of eggs.

Turns out two were roosters, and one didn’t make it. Getting rid of one rooster was an easy decision, it just made sense, you know? They would fight eachother, become territorial and there were only 3 hens. It went to a nice family who have some property outside of town and let them free range.

That leaves me in my current predicament. I raised this rooster, I named him. I go say hi to him every morning. I take care of him because in my mind he’s now my responsibility. It’s like having a dog, or a baby, you don’t just give those away right? But if I’m being honest with myself…. The rooster doesn’t really work for me.

He has developed a habit of charging at my husband when he is let out in the morning. He crows at 5:30 am incessantly.. and even though my neighbors say they don’t mind (bless their hearts), I know it’s a nuisance. I don’t trust him around my baby, and he bullies the younger hens I got to fill out my flock.

I casually asked my husband the other morning how he felt about getting rid of the rooster and he agreed, he had no real opinion on the matter. To him they are just chickens.

Perhaps this another lesson in learning to let go of things that don’t serve me. It’s something I’m working on. The silver lining in this situation is that now the rooster is going to go to a farm, he’s going to free range, he will have more chickens.

My lesson here is accepting that I can nurture things, and let them go when they are ready to be set free. It will work better for them, and it will work better for me. Here’s to my rooster who is teaching me more lessons than I bargained for.