Rescue Cocks for Christmas!

[RichmondHens]

I thought you might like to hear of my Christmas rescue story.

Some of you may have read on my thread "Think Before You Hatch" of the cocks dumped in the woods near me back in the autumn. We have been keeping an eye on them as we drive through but never been near enough to take a proper look. The number went down from about 6 to 4 and those have been hanging around near the road or scratching around on the stubble. No 4 recently was seen to be very lame and not doing too well.

Well, we all went for a snowy walk this morning, through the woods, and one little cock trotted out of the bushes and stood in the road in front of us! I picked him up with no problem - he was very very light and had obviously not been finding too much food. A quick look around and we found two more hiding under a bush in deep snow, looking very miserable. I walked up and picked up the more pathetic of the two, but the other one ran off, but not far. After a short while we captured No 3. Have brought them all home, installed them in a coop in a stable and they are eating for England!

I would like to think they all make it - I don't think two would had survived another night - and I have given them a new home just in time for Christmas.

[janeyo]

That's lovely - good on you. They will surely be much happier now.

[SarzWix]

Aww, bless 'em! That's just how we found our 2 kittens last year, except they were on a frozen moor rather than woodland.
Good on ya Richmond, hope they make it, but if they don't at least they will have been warm & fed.
Merry Christmas
xxx

[Bramble-Poultry]

fingers crossed for them - sure they will be glad of the food, water and warm straw/shavings.

[RichmondHens]

Thanks guys. They actually are not in too bad shape. Some scaley leg, and underweight, but otherwise reasonable. Strangely they have been roaming not too far from where there are pheasant feeders, but I don't think have found them. I suspect they perhaps came from a small coop and had not been used to roaming free and therefore never strayed far from the patch where they were dumped.

[elizajay]

Well done on the rescue, I am sure you are relieved and they are much more so. oor little things!

[Flummery]

What a lovely story. Not many of us would have suitable accommodation for cocks ( neighbours too close, for one thing) so it's great to hear that you managed to rescue them. I look forward to hearing that they are making a good recovery - a decent feed always helps.

[its hilly]

Aww, poor little beggers. Well done Richmond. They've been very lucky boys to be dumped near you. What sort are they out of curiosity? And will we get a pic?

[Eco-Chic]

Nice one Richmond.

Am furious that the previous owners were so cheap that they would rather abandon them to starvation than fork out to have them PTS. On the other hand, a rough few weeks and they now have a good home with you.

[Snadger]

Good for you Richmondhens............I would probably have done the same.

Its actually got a bit of a Christmassy ring to it...............cast out........... and finish up in a strawy barn?

Your own personal little nativity play methinks!

PS You haven't got a manger in there have you?

[RichmondHens]

No manger Snadge, but dry and out of the snow. They are in their own coop within the stable as I have some other cocks roosting in there too, so want to keep them separate till they have been wormed etc. Also we will have to see what their true nature is once they have their normal energy levels back. They may turn out to be feisty little b*****s!

Hilly, they are all cross breeds, the two older ones (about a year or so I reckon) are large bantams, and the third is probably LF, but younger, I would say 5 months going from spur stumps and comb development. He looks like he has some Buff Orpington in him, and is quite orange in colour. We have named him Carrot. The other two have been called Parsnip and Sprout!

We did take some pics and I'll try and get them on here soon.

Eco, I totally agree with you, and it's what prompted my original thread about thinking before you hatch. These boys are just an example of what can happen when people are not responsible about their hatching.

Sorry, I'll now get off my soap box .............

[Eco-Chic]

Is it likely they were all dumped from the same coop Richmond, or have they found each other and formed a little Band of Roosters?

[RichmondHens]

I'm certain they were all from the same place Eco. It would be quite difficult out here for one group of chickens to find another. They have been out there for at least two months and have not made it across the fields to our place, and you can hear our cocks crowing from quite a distance in the daytime. The two bantams are of the same age and similar enough in colouring to probably be brothers.

The road doesn't take much traffic as it's single track, but there are passing places and footpaths/bridleways crossing it in several places - plenty of places/opportunity for someone to pull over and empty a box of chickens out.

[MaureenHall]

Good on you for rescuing them Richmond, and shame on the miserable low-life who dumped them in the first place! I hope they all turn out to be good boys, not too noisy, and settle in well. give them all a cuddle from Auntie Mo

[Suechooks]

Well done Richmond thats a lovely Christmas story. It defeats me how folk can just dump creatures they're responsible for.