Abandoned Rooster at Local Park - Any Suggestions?

[try2bfrugal]

At the park we go to for walks there is a lone rooster living in some brush. The park staff have called animal control who say they will not come out unless it is injured. The park staff is sympathetic and has tried to get animal control to come out, but on their own the office person told me they do not know how to catch it or what to do with it even if they caught it. I think it is illegal to have roosters (not chickens) within city limits because of the noise. If think it is a rooster because of the sounds it makes but I am hardly a chicken expert so I don't really know. I suspect it either escaped from a back yard or more likely got abandoned there since the surrounding houses are mostly town homes.

Can it live okay on its own there? There are lots of geese and ducks around but they can go in the lake for safety. There are wild turkeys but they usually travel in groups and are big enough that they look like they could take care of themselves. I saw a cat lurking around the area last night, but the rooster was still there today.

[iris lily]

He can't live on his own, a critter will get him.

[awakenedsoul]

Oh that's sad. Roosters (when young,) are usually pretty friendly. Mine used to let me pick him up. Once he got older, he became mean and aggressive. I hope someone adopts him.

[The Storyteller]

The best chicken catching combo is a kid with a long handled fishing net. My technique for catching them with a net is to swing it at them sideways in a scooping motion rather from the top. Their preservation instinct to run from anything coming at them overhead (think hawk) makes them very easily spooked, but something coming at them fast from the side is harder for them to avoid. When the net is on them I flip it on top of them. The best way to catch a chicken, though, is at night. They are night blind and will just sit there as you walk over and pick them up. Don't know you will want to be walking in a park in the middle of the night, but that is the easiest way to catch a chicken.

Then take it home and list it on Craislist under Farm And Garden for sale section. It won't take long to unload it.

Although it would likely be someone's soup.

[try2bfrugal]

Although it would likely be someone's soup.

I appreciate the advice, but even if I had a net and could manage to catch the rooster I wouldn't have any place to keep him. And on Craigslist he would just be free food. There doesn't seem to be a good solution where he doesn't end up being eaten.

I just feel bad for him as they seem to be social animals and he is all alone out there.

[awakenedsoul]

I wonder if an animal rescue would take him? We have one here, and they are very popular. It's called The Gentle Barn. They do wonderful work. I hope a compassionate person helps him.

[Tussiemussies]

I second a no-kill animal rescue, wouldn't want him to wind as soup like another poster mentioned...poor thing...

[try2bfrugal]

I called the Humane Society in a neighboring county that accepts chickens. The person who answered the phone said it was next to impossible to catch a rooster at a place like a park and she didn't know of any organization in our metro area that would even try. She said he could probably live a long time on his own at the park - that roosters knew how to forage.

I am not sure he will live a long time in a place with cats and raccoons but maybe he will do okay. He lives in a little fortress like place in the middle of a cluster of bushes and has a small stream right next to him for a water source. The resident ducks and geese seem to find a lot of food so maybe he will, too.

[awakenedsoul]

As the Storyteller said, they are very easy to catch at night. One time my chicken flew into my neighbor's yard. I chased her for an hour and couldn't catch her. Once the sun went down, her husband just picked her up, and carried her home. It worked like a charm. I rescued another chicken that turned out to be a rooster. Once he started crowing, I knew I couldn't keep it. Plus, he became terribly mean and aggressive. I hope the rescue will take this rooster soon. You could probably pick him up once it gets dark and transport him in a cage. That's what I did with mine. He was very friendly when he was young.

[The Storyteller]

I called the Humane Society in a neighboring county that accepts chickens. The person who answered the phone said it was next to impossible to catch a rooster at a place like a park and she didn't know of any organization in our metro area that would even try. She said he could probably live a long time on his own at the park - that roosters knew how to forage.

I can't decide if this woman is delusional, or just badly informed.

Anyone who runs birds in a pasture operation knows that the best a chicken can do in foraging for its own food is about 20%, even under the best conditions. Everything else must be supplied by the producer or owner, if that bird is to survive long term and thrive. These animals have been domesticated for thousands of years to depend on humans for their food and upkeep. I know people who expect their birds to survive on their own, but even these folks at least feed them scraps.

But it probably doesn't much matter, because either a coon, possum, or stray dog (which was no doubt released based on the same flawed thinking as this lady from the HS) is going to end it's life in a horrible fashion. Cats aren't really a threat to a grown rooster.

But then, raccoons have to eat, too, I suppose.

[bunnys]

I don't know why I keep coming back to read the updates on this thread. I guess I keep hoping it will have a good outcome but it doesn't sound like it will.

Storyteller: A few years ago a chicken escaped from a chicken truck rolling down route 288 (Chicken Slaughterhouse Expressway) in our town and landed in the medium of one of the off ramps. This chicken made the news and its exploits were regular go-to filler on slow news nights for weeks. It had no source of water or food beyond insects. Finally, somebody caught the chicken and it went somewhere else and was no longer in the news. I don't know if the chicken was on its last legs or what but it did live on that medium in the middle of heavy traffic for like 2 months...

[sweetana3]

Storyteller, I agree. Now, is it "better" to be killed and eaten as human dinner or torn apart and eaten as a predator's dinner or starve on your own, or (in our weather) freeze to death?

I would wonder generally the same thing for a stray dog or cat. Is it better to starve, freeze, be killed by a predator, used in a dog fight, etc. or be turned over to an animal pound for potential death?

[The Storyteller]

I wouldn't call 2 months a long time, even in Chicken Years. :)

A lot of people keep chickens as pets, even roosters. You might want to try Backyardchickens.com, go to the Where am I? Where are you! subforum, find the thread for your state, and post a query. You may enlist the assistance of some soft hearted soul from your area who has the ability and desire to assist. Here is a link to it:

http://www.backyardchickens.com/f/26/where-am-i-where-are-you

You have to be a member of BYC to post.

BTW, that forlorn chicken in the medium was likely a Cornish Rock Cross meat bird (the only kind the meat bird industry produces), which have an expiration date. It will be dead of a heart attack in under a year.

[Amaranth]

Know of a few places where chickens have been living wild.

Sonoma had quite a few of many different varieties living in the town square for a few years. The weather is good there for insects year round, though wild grains are mostly available in the fall. Not sure if people supplemented with chicken feed.

Key West also has a feral chicken/rooster population.

[The Storyteller]

But that would definitely a deviation from the norm, which is why it is news. We can just leave the rooster where he is and see how long he lasts. I'm thinking, not long, but I could be wrong.

But I doubt it. :)

People who keep chickens for whatever reason jump through all sorts of hoops to protect them from predators. They build strong coops, use welded hardware cloth for fencing instead of chicken wire, and cover runs with netting to protect them from aerial predators. They lock them up at night and some let them out into their run only when they are around to watch and protect. Others use elaborate electric fencing schemes, and in my case couple that with very large, protective dogs. And even then, people see losses. A friend who is a construction contractor with considerable building skills prided himself in his "Fort Knox" coop that he swore was impenetrable. I saw it and would swear the same. And yet, there was one corner of one section where the screws were just a little loose. A raccoon slipped his little paws under it and ripped it back just enough to fit in and slaughtered half of his $1,000 a trio birds.

So, even with all this protection, our birds are vulnerable to attack from predators. How much more so a bird completely exposed to the elements and to predators? I wouldn't give him a snowball's chance to last more than a few weeks.

[try2bfrugal]

The rooster wasn't around when we went there last night. A friend that lives not too far away with backyard chickens loses some to the raccoons so I suspect that will be this guy's fate as well. The raccoons here use the sewers like little raccoon superhighways. We see them at night in our neighborhood coming out of the drain openings. Other than that there are foxes, turkey vultures, skunks, rattlesnakes, opossums, hawks, and probably even more predators I don't even know about that come out at night in the nature area around the park.

[The Storyteller]

The rooster wasn't around when we went there last night. .

Maybe he has already been rescued. :)