The King is Dead

Reluctantly this morning I despatched our old cockerel Rocky. He was a moving-in present to us when we first moved here and had reached the ripe old age of 4 years old, fathering many chickens some of which went on to breed with my friends flocks, so his genes live on. He is a Galician meat bird so they are usually eaten quite young and being heavy he was struggling to walk around and get up steps. I also have his daughters and grand daughters in the flock so it was time for new blood. He was a very gently bird an excellent carer of his ladies and chicks and would feed from our hands. He will be sadly missed but his ending was quick and clean.

Looking forward his replacement was bought from a local market on Sunday. He is still very young, around four month old but already quite a big bird and his name is Barry (White). He will have a difficult job walking in Rocky's footsteps and keeping the ladies in line. Good luck to him.