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Roostopher

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Nickname(s):

Roosty, Wooster

Breed:

Sasso Irona

Gender:

Rooster

Bio:

Roostopher is our youngest rooster and the only one who didn’t come from the very first hatch I did. This past summer (2024) I ordered a group of sexed female chicks from the local farm store. This dude was one of those “sexed females”. While he managed to sneak by with the girls at first, within a couple of days we were getting suspicious about his “hen status” and, by the time he was a week so old, it was pretty obvious we had a sneaky little cockerel in the brooder with the girls. He acted like a rooster from such a young age that it was no surprise he started crowing super early too. He sounded like a rubber chicken but he could do a full cock-a-doodle-do when he was only a month or so old. It was ADORABLE. Every time he crowed you had to smile, it was just too cute.

Despite his adorableness, with Roostopher actually being a boy and not the female chick I had purchased, we had a problem. I didn’t need or want another rooster. We already had five when Roosty showed up and the other (actually female) chicks in his group were purchased to help fill empty spaces in the coops of the existing roosters. I didn’t know what I was going to do with him. Eventually I decided that I was going to rehome him along with the three females of the same breed (so he wouldn’t be lonely) to a pet home and then the whole group of chicks contracted a particularly nasty strain of coccidiosis from a group of older pullets I brought home from another farm. They went through WEEKS of medication that ended in two rounds of a strong antibiotic before we managed to kill off the coccidia in their systems. It was touch and go for a while and the vet told me to be prepared to lose them all.

Thankfully they all made it through their illness and have been healthy ever since but, after nursing him back to health all of that time, I had grown too attached to Roostopher to be able to rehome him after all. To make things simple, I decided instead to keep him with the rest of the pullet chicks he was already being raised with and I built them a coop of their own instead of dividing the group amongst the other coops.

He grew up beautifully and is now the head of a flock of ladies that he has known since they were days old. Even though he’s currently in the middle of his hormonal period (rooberty, or rooster puberty) he’s been the sweetest boy to everyone. He’s gentle with his hens and he’s been gentle with me as well.

I’m currently considering breeding him and, next spring (2025), we just may have some of Roostopher’s babies available.

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Krystal(1)

About The Author

I’m Krystal and I’m one of those quirky, super-introverted folks that’s in legit danger of becoming a hermit. You know the type. I generally leave the mountain once a week for provisions, fill the car to the brim with chicken feed, shavings, groceries and any building supplies I need, and then hurry back home where it's quiet and less people-y.

Working to turn our property into micro farm with gardens and chickens has become my passion. On any given day you're pretty much guaranteed to find me outside doing something if you happen to stop by. Whether it's building (yet another) chicken coop or some other project I've dreamed up, cleaning out the coops I've already made, working in the garden or just spending time with the chickens you'll find me outdoors most of the daylight hours, every single day. If you happen to catch me indoors, I'm probably either in the kitchen or in a heap of papers planning my next project.

We are a homeschooling family and I homeschool my 12 year old son. We love the freedom it gives the whole family.

When I'm not doing any of the above, you can find me working on a website design project for a client. Over the spring/summer I take very limited bookings because things are so busy but I get back to it in the fall/winter months when the garden is gone and the chickens go to bed early. If you're curious, you can check out my design work at krystalacker.com.

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