Are these cockerels?

[gardenergirl]

I've just found these chickens wandering around just along the road from me. They're quite far from any houses, and I don't think anyone around here keeps chooks anymore apart from me. If they're cockerels I wonder if they've been abandoned here (wouldn't be the first time someone's ditched animals on the farm). I've had 2 dog attacks in the last few months with my chooks, and they're right next to the wood where there are often foxes, so not quite safe where they are. Just from googling I thought they might be Dorkings? But I'm no breeds expert!





Thanks xx

[gardenergirl]

PS, if you click on the images you can zoom in

[KarenE]

Can't really tell with the one on the left but the middle and right hand ones do look like boys. I wonder if you're right and someone has dumped them.

I can't help you with the breed I'm afraid.

Poor boys, I hope the foxes don't get them. They look quite scared, huddled close together like that. Are they still there?

[gardenergirl]

Yes, they've gone to roost in a tree! They're about 7 feet up, so out of my reach for tonight. I asked around and knocked on some doors and apparently they've been there since Sunday! They don't seem to belong to anyone round here, so I'm thinking they've been left to fend for themselves :(. I'm not working tomorrow so I'll take some food over and see if I can get anywhere near them. I'll need to listen out in the morning to see if I can hear any crowing.

[gardenergirl]

Someone suggested they might be light Sussex, which is closer to the mark I think.

I wonder if I could keep one alongside my 3 chooks? I don't want chicks, but you can still eat fertilised eggs if they haven't started being incubated, can't you? They seem happy together though, snuggled up in the tree together. Maybe they'd be better off staying together?

How could anyone just dump them?!!

[KarenE]

Maybe try them with some corn or mealworms, that might entice them to come with you!

You could certainly keep one with your girls, if your neighbours don't object. I don't have a boy, so I don't know whether your 3 boys could live together peacefully, especially if they have girls to fight over. You need advice from a boy keeper - bikesandbirds Bob has more than 1 boy but he has lots of girls to go round them

How cruel to dump them. I bet someone has hatched them and dumped them when they got big & started crowing. It's great that you're keeping an eye on them.

[bikesandbirdsbob]

Hi , they do fight this time of year . I have 40 girls for 3 boys and they still fight over them .
Worse this tiime of year .
Eggs are ok to eat , do not leave under the girls for two long.Choice of which one of the boys you keep , never easy that one. .
There are rescue places for cockerals but not sure how close to you .RSPCA took the bots left in playing fields.
Surprised they have not found your girls .
Let us know how you get on .

[gardenergirl]

Went along with some food a little while ago and, while one of them seemed slightly tamer than the others and took some of the food, it was only when thrown from a great distance! The other two ran off and wouldn't come over at all. I tried walking behind them to drive them towards my side of the field but they just scattered and went back to their own corner (they seem attached to that corner). Though when I drove past this morning they were in the 'fox wood' .

So I really don't know how I'm going to catch them, other than maybe to go over at dusk and try to get them out of the tree. I have a fishing net I could use, but would they even let me walk up to the tree without scattering? And I'm guessing I couldn't catch them all in one go that way.

Totally open to suggestions at this point!

[bikesandbirdsbob]

Hi , girl in a cat box , put her best clothes on , perfume , make up and waggy her tail feathers . Works for me , so cockerals will come running....
Bob

[gardenergirl]

My girls would so not thank me for that!

[gardenergirl]

Here they are in tonight's choice of roost - a very branchy hawthorn tree, but closer to the ground this time. I'm wondering whether to just try lifting them down? I wonder if they'd be drowsy enough at dusk to let me do that to all three of them? My girls would be, but they're good and they know me!



I had a lady from one of the houses I knocked at last night (I spoke to her husband) at the door earlier saying they might be able to help catch them one day, though after today's efforts I'm not convinced it'll be so easy to corner them! She has a spare coop and is willing to house them until we can find homes for them. In a way I kind of do want to keep one myself now, but must be sensible...

[scbk]

Poor things, I think it would've been kinder to put them down than release them into the wild

[bikesandbirdsbob]

Hi ,interesting thought.
Chickens are jungle fowl .
If they were wild starlings you would not be over concerned .
If they can find food and looks pretty safe roasting area ,healthy wouldthis be better than dead.
Sure they would be better looked after by someone ,but if they were in a wooded area away from civilisation they would live a happy maybe a shorter life and feed the wild animals that live off birds .
They are thinking of bringing wolves back etc , surely wild chickens would add to the natural environment as well.
Rambling , but will spend some time on this thought I think .
Hope you catch them and they get good homes .
Keep up dating .
Sure catching them will be a good read as well.
Bob

[sandy]

I have no idea how you will be able to catch them but hope they have a happy ending

[gardenergirl]

Ok, one of the neighbours I spoke to has spoken to one of her other neighbours who's a vet, and he said another 3 were also dumped near another village in the area. The SSPCA were able to catch them, so they're hopefully going to come out and round these guys up too. A couple of nights ago I went over just as it was getting really dark and tried to retrieve them from their branchy roost. They saw me coming, and as soon as I nearly had a hand on the first one they all went mental. Honestly, what a racket! I got out of there as quick as possible to try and avoid waking the whole farm.

So lesson learned - plucking sleeping cockerels from trees is not as easy as you might think!