Rudy the Rooster

In the spring we plan to grow our farm significantly; I hope to have 20+ goats, 20+ laying chickens, 50+ meat chickens, and 10 turkeys.  At this point we have 9 chickens, 8 goats, 3 cats, and 2 turkeys.  Relative to our former life, in which our "livestock" consisted of just one indoor cat, it seems like we have a full blown farming operation.  We are however, still small enough that our children have named all of our animals and can actually tell them apart.

All of our current animals are sort of like pets, even the turkeys we plan to eat this Fall!  I thought I would start a little series in which I introduce some of our "pets".

Rudy the Rhode Island Red Rooster:

 

Rudy was part our initial farm expansion; we bought a group of mature Red Island Red hens who came with Rudy as their "leader".   Despite all of the rooster horror stories we have heard from our friends, Rudy has been incredibly docile and proven to be a great asset to the farm.  I cannot image the chaos that might be if the hens did not have him around.  He is our only outdoor animal that  will not "produce" anything for us, but he certainly has an important role in the lives of our hens; they will follow him anywhere.  Additionally, I do have to say that he is a magnificent looking bird.  Dare I say that he is beautiful?