The question is very valid in light of many cities now have new laws allowing the raising of hens for eggs, but those eggs are less tasty and nutritious than fertilized eggs. I do not see the harm in having one quiet rooster live a nice long spoiled life impregnating hens. As soon as Houston gets this law passed I will have a few backyard hens of my own and wanted to know about roosters surgically being de-crowed so I can have fertile eggs to EAT or sell. Seeing that most roosters are killed anyway and many people kill the rooster babies just to avoid dealing with them... I don't see how in the world making a wonderful life in my backyard for a spoiled silenced rooster is a bad thing since it saves his life. Better than you eating him! Frankly I'd not need a rooster at all but I feel like I should be prepared in case there comes a time we are impoverished for one reason or another and our backyard "farm" supplements our food resources. Hens would eventually die off and stop laying. We need a perpetual stock that we can raise and barter with if it comes to that. Call it prepping and treat me with hatred for it, but my granny lived through the great depression and taught me how she managed to get her family through it. I honor her advice to me to "not put all my eggs in one basket". This post was edited by chelseacraft on Thu, Mar 28, 13 at 20:51

Is the dog still around where your roo can see him? Being attacked by a dog is pretty darned terrifying for a chicken, and if he is still worried about the dog, it can stress him out quite a bit. How is he acting now? Does he seem normal, healthy & perky? Has he lost any weight (feel his breastbone or keel)? Open his mouth and look in his mouth & throat for signs of injury, growths, fungus, etc. Listen to his breathing for sounds of rasping or gurgling, and check his eyes & nares (nostrils) for watery discharge. There's nothing saying he can't have something ailing him besides the dog attack, so make sure he isn't just plain sick. If he isn't sick, and cannot see or hear the dog anymore, perhaps he just needs time to recover mentally as well as physically. Strange as it seems, it may help to stroke his ego a bit. Talk to him and tell him what a pretty boy he is, and give him lots of affection to reinforce how safe he is. When you take the chickens goodies, offer him the first bites from your hand for HIM to pass out--that shows that you respect his place as head of the flock and are deferring to him to pass out goodies and call his girls. At our house we call this 'tithing the roo', and it goes a long way towards building & maintaining the flock dynamic, even though it seems a bit weird! More on how roos work & think is here on my chicken info site: http://jackshenhouse.com/VSChickRoosters.htm Velvet ~:>

"I always see crows chasing owls around" OK, well that actually shows that they worry about owls. That would tell me it would work. I have seen jays chase hawks, and I have seen hawks catching jays. Maybe the behavior is to lure away from nests, females or young birds? I actually never seen a hawk not being chased. Well occasionally sitting somewhere, and when high in the air, but when they come down low, they are chased. The owls too! We have great horned owls around here. Some are huge! Rarely out when you can see them, but I have seen them enough times. Scarily large birds that look headless when dark out. Their neck is as thick as their body, so they kinda look headless.

that is a nice site. Plenty of crafts for kids and those of us who are still kids at heart. I like that straw hat bird feeder for the back yard.