An obituary for a rooster who’s antics will be remembered for a very long time. Donald was his name. Donald was a Silver Laced Wyandotte bantam (smaller than your average wyandotte bantam). This little guy had no sense of scale at all. We have on numerous occasions had to rescue him from fights. He chose his opponents rather badly, very often they were much bigger and quite capable of killing him outright. No worries for dear old Donald, he took on allcomers, regardless of size, breed or equipment.
Donald - a Silver Laced Wyandotte bantam
In his younger days he was always changing coops. He no sooner got settled with a new flock, than a fight would break out between Donald and one of the roosters in the new flock. Time to move him on again. He must have gone through around 4 flocks without settling down. Finally, he was housed successfully in the bantam coop, the one he started out in. The cockerel he had a fight with the last time had moved on, so the coast was relatively clear.
As you can see from his tatty wattles, he bears the scars of his numerous battles. In his later years he opted for the quite life, thank goodness! He was quite happy to tag along with the rest of the bantam flock, but kept clear of Robert. Robert was a new addition last year to this flock, he dominated all the other males of which there were quite a few. Robert was a Silver/Buff Laced Wyandotte bantam cross. He was much beefier than the other males and had no problem rising to the top. Unfortunately, the then leader of the flock prior to Robert was a little guy, a Japanese bantam called Ronald. He very reluctantly accepted the change and thankfully they didn’t fight about it. At the other end of the flock is poor old Jack. Jack is also a Silver Laced Wyandotte bantam, but his very small size determined his place at the bottom, poor lad. The dynamics within a flock of chickens is quite complex, which slowly becomes clear to anyone who takes the time and trouble to watch carefully.
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