Sunday, March 27, 2011

Update on the Roosters

I wanted to give you a quick update on the roosters one day after their spurs were removed...

But first, I just read Knatolee's World blog, and about died laughing when I saw her post of a wrinkly egg!!!
This is the craziest egg I've ever seen - you should check it out for a quick laugh!
I love to be entertained by our chickens!

Ok, back to the rooster saga here at Razzberry Corner...

After we removed the roosters' spurs yesterday afternoon, the boys went back into the chicken pen and appeared to not mind the procedure. They walked around and crowed like nothing happened. We fed then some veggie treats, they bragged to the hens and ate just like normal.

The only thing is, their spurs bled more than was mentioned online. It worried me. The blood ran down onto their feet. We put sugar and styptic powder on the wounds after the procedure. The sugar worked better than the styptic powder to control the bleeding. Several times we brought each of them back into the house, washed their legs, and reapplied sugar. Eventually, after a couple hours they stopped bleeding. I did not mean to cause pain or issues for my roosters, by any means. I am just trying to help my hens who are getting beat up by the roosters.

None of the other birds pecked the boys' bloody legs, and the boys really didn't seem to act any differently during this time. In fact, because I was constantly monitoring the chickens every half hour yesterday afternoon, at one time I saw a pullet named Genny (after my friend Genny at the Downeast blog) who had blood on each side of her back on her wings. I bought Genny inside and bathed her back and looked at her wings, and then realized, she wasn't bleeding, it came from one of the roosters. The roosters were still having sex with the hens, even after their spur-removal procedure! As the afternoon passed I noticed quite a few hens and pullets had the tell-tale blood on their backs, so alot of chickens got baths yesterday. We tried to lock up the roosters in the coop, but they started flying around and insisted they go back outside. Maybe we should have done the procedure at nighttime when everyone was calm and no sex was happening.

The roosters appear to be doing ok today. Their new short spurs are healing, although Muffin appears to be healing faster than Leggy.

Hopefully the hens' backs can start healing now.

Lucy with rooster damage

10 comments:

chook said...

thank you for sharing your experience. it's very interesting that sugar works so well to stem bleeding. i haven't had to deal with roosters yet, but may have to someday.

Anonymous said...

Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts

Chai Chai said...

"...at night time when no sex was happening." Seems the chickens have a different life style than us humans....

I didn't think about blood on the hens and then the hens getting pecked at. I am curious about what ends up covering the spur insides.

Terry said...

I'm glad they are doing fine.

Farm Girl said...

I see your hens backs and it makes me rethink roosters. I would like to get a Silkie rooster again but I do get tired of the bare backs on the favorite hens. I am glad you got the bleeding to stop.

Gail said...

Not many injuries keep the male mind of any species off sex for long!

Knatolee said...

Which reminds me. I washed chicken saddles yesterday. Time to put them back on!

Our boys seem to be firing up even more now that spring is here!

Carla said...

Thanks for the update. Obviously, the boys were in no pain whatsoever. :)

Toni aka irishlas said...

Glad to see they are healing fine. Hope the girls get a chance now to heal, too.

Razzberry Corner said...

chook - I learned about the sugar trick just recently. Pretty neat to know!

Anon - Thank you! Thanks for visiting!

Chai Chai - Right now the spurs are MUCH smaller and have a covering similar to a scab. It's not bleeding or anything like that (as of 29Mar).

Terry - thanks!! :)

Kim - I agree, I dont like to see the hens looking like that!

Gail - LOL, too funny!!

Nat - The springtime rooster hormones will soon be kicking in... Not looking forward to that!

CeeCee - I hope not!! I really didn't want to hurt them!

Toni - I will be so happy when Lucy's feathers are pretty again.

~Lynn