Leopold is the rooster in charge of the coop area and he has his hands full trying to keep order. Look at the picture above. In it you will see; a Rhode Island Red, Lavender male and female guineas, a Dark and Light Royal guinea, a few Golden Laced Red Wyandottes, and Leopold. A few of the guineas think they are chickens, one of the chickens thinks it is a guinea.....chaos, its pure chaos.
Little chicken squabbles break out on occasion and Leopold rushes in to break things up, but what is he supposed to do when several guineas are chasing chickens...except for the chicken that thinks its a guinea? Or how does he handle the chicken that the guineas think is their mama? Did I mention that all the guinea males follow Leopold around like he is their king?
Last year Leopold suffered a bit of frost bite, by looking at him you can see why. As it gets colder Leopold spends more and more time inside the coop and at times you can hear the sounds of wrestling going on in there. I can only assume he is trying to keep or establish some kind of order, I'm not holding my breath.
I am surprised the guineas let a rooster be boss. Funny about the wrestling in the coop. He sure has a lot of responsibility!
ReplyDeletePoor Leopold. It can't be easy to be king of such a flock. It's truly a melting (stock) pot.
ReplyDeleteHe is gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteLana
Poor Leopold! It's a tough life for a rooster LoL But what a great looking flock! Love this post!
ReplyDeletesounds just about right. craziness. um. so ... you know about er.. um.. greasing your rooster, right? *snort* allegedly it helps with the frostbite. i am way too immature for that kind of thing. so we just go with roosters with small combs.
ReplyDeleteMichaele - One of the guineas tried to challenge Leopold for control of the flock last year and they would fight for hours. The guinea would grab onto Leopolds neck while Leopold tried to pin him to the ground. Ultimately the guinea didn't have a chance because the guinea boy followers would jump in to help their "King".
ReplyDeleteTeresa - It is a strange melting pot but he seems to have things under control....for now.
Lana - He is handsome, but I think he is too hard on the hens.
Jenn - It is a lot more funny and stranger than I described it. Words don't/can't do justice to the craziness.
OFG - For some strange reason Leopold doesn't want anything to do with a bit of bacon grease or olive oil. If I ever get another rooster I will keep the comb thing in mind.
It's interesting how the roosters work out the pecking order. We have Leggy, who's HUGE, and Muffin, who's small. But Muffin rules the flock, and Leg makes a good #2 rooster. Muffin is smarter and faster and meaner than Leg. They both work together very well when there's a threat to the flock, and they both take care of the hens (call them for food, tell them when to go into the coop and when to leave, etc). When we notice Leg's monster comb starting to freeze we put a little Vasiline on it at nighttime. We put it on their legs sometimes too, if they have very dry legs.
ReplyDelete~Lynn
Lynn - Leopolds comb was frostbit and bleeding yesterday, I feel terrible for him. I never thought about getting a 2nd rooster, don't they fight each other?
ReplyDelete