The chicks that hatched in mid-January are now over five weeks old. When we went to gather them for their outside time today, we heard a weird noise. Not cheeping or squawking…we had to listen again to figure out what we were actually hearing.
One of the teens was crowing! We knew we’d have some roosters, and this confirms we have at least one. It’s an Australorp mix, and already has a pretty sizeable comb and wattles coming in. Precocious fellow!
Our Australorp hens (when we had two, before the hawk got one) are good layers and great foragers – those girls will eat almost anything. When they were youngsters, we brought earthworms we found under some plywood to the chickens. Most didn’t seem to know what to do with them, but the Australorps snapped them right up.
Who will crow next? We’ll find out soon enough. Roosters often sound like they need throat lubricant when they first start – early crowing usually sounds creaky, raspy, or slightly strangled. As with most musicians, they sound better with practice. Flock roo LaRue has a loud and impressive crow, and he gets plenty of practice. We expect that we’ll soon have a chorus of crowing roosters, and it might just be a discordant symphony in the beginning. Good thing we live in the country!