Rooster rescue
Trio struts New Glasgow streets, until help arrives
Why did three roosters randomly appear on a residential street in New Glasgow?
It’s no joke. It’s a real situation that happened Monday as three adult roosters were found roaming on Birch Street.
Finding out concrete answers about how the birds ended up there seems unlikely, but the abandonment of roosters comes as no shock to chicken experts The News interviewed on Tuesday. While it may seem like a glamorous life, at least in the movies, the role of most roosters leaves little to crow about in reality.
The rooster is portrayed on the big screen as the alarm clock for the farmer, with a flock of adoring hens to follow him around. Alas, the life of a real rooster, particularly those of the laying breeds, is much darker outside the limelight according to News sources. A farm only needs one rooster – if that. But with 50 per cent of birds born male, there’s a good chance only one out of a 100 will find a permanent role.
Rick Weatherbie has chickens and knows many people try to hatch their own laying hens. They expect everything that hatches will one day lay eggs. They’re often disappointed, he said, by the roosters, which are noisy for residential areas and yet deemed too scrawny for the dinner plate.
“A lot of people will try to get rid of them or abandon them,” Weatherbie said.
So perhaps it is no surprise three fine-feathered fellows found themselves strutting down Birch Street.
But residents of New Glasgow weren’t about to let a foul fate befall them.
“My guess is they were abandoned,” Tasha MacDonald said. She saw their lonely pictures posted on East Coast FM’s Facebook page and offered temporary shelter if someone could bring them to her place.
It’s through social media she and Weatherbie connected. Weatherbie said he had been following updates about the abandoned birds’ plight on Facebook, and finally decided to step in.
He unsuccessfully tried at 6:30 p.m. Monday to catch the birds, but went back at night when they were in a sleep-induced stupor in a shed. With the help of the property owner, he was able to catch the birds and moved them temporarily to MacDonald’s home.
On Tuesday, MacDonald had them in a coop by themselves where they wouldn’t fight with her own roosters. (Chickens can be hostile, even cannibalistic to each other).
“They appear to be quiet, but very nervous,” she said. “They look in good health other than some frostbite on their combs and are young.”
With chickens of their own, both Weatherbie and MacDonald said they couldn’t keep the birds. Thanks to social media posts, MacDonald said she had three people interested in taking all three of them.
One person was even willing to come from Windsor if no one locally wanted them.
It appears that for now these three unwanted roosters have found a place to perch.
SUBMITTED COVER PHOTO
Tasha MacDonald’s husband John Campbell and their daughter Madalynn pose for a picture with one of the roosters they helped rescue in New Glasgow.