Top Knot is our rooster. He shares the coop and run with our eight hens.
He’s a White-Crested Polish, and he’s always been an amusing fellow. Lately, however, he’s become obnoxious as well. He has taken to attacking us, his benefactors, whenever the mood strikes him. It gets a little close inside the coop when he decides he doesn’t like your presence. When his spurs develop fully, and if the attackee was wearing shorts, I think he could draw blood. And I’m a little worried about him scratching my kids’ faces.
Not to mention that he eats food and doesn’t lay eggs.
On the positive side of the ledger, my neighbor (who has many years’ experience with chickens) says that hens lay better if there’s a rooster around. And I suppose he provides some minimal defense capacity for the flock when they’re roaming the back yard.
So what to do? We could continue to put up with him, we could exile him to my neighbor’s flock, or we could eat him.
Every time he attacks me, we get a little closer to eating him. I don’t enjoy killing anything, but enough is enough.
However, the boys like him and have talked about trying to hatch out some eggs next Spring. So maybe we’ll put up with him until we hatch some chicks, then eat him. Although hatching eggs comes with its own problems: If the chicks are hens, will crosses with a White-Crested Polish be good layers? If the chicks are roosters, we’re back to square one.
Ending and Beginning 