On top of having to cull many of our Scots Grey cockerels, we’ve now had one of the remaining roosters stolen overnight.
We had two cockerels living temporarily in the generator room at the end of the steading, while we decided what to do with them.
The room is stone walled, has a closed window, two small air vents and a door with both a latch and drawbolt. We were keeping the cockerels in there because it’s both secure from foxes and dark for much longer than the chicken houses.
But when I went to feed the two cockerels this morning, I could only find one perched in the rafters.
A thorough search failed to reveal any feathers or blood to indicate a predator had got in - and I can’t see there being enough rats on the place to eat an entire chicken, feathers and all, in one sessions.
There were some strange bootprints in the frost outside the door - not my wellies, not my hiking boots and not the Other Half’s wellies - so I’m fairly certain someone took the cockerel last night.
It’s not the first time we’ve had things stolen - we lost vegetables and eggs to thieves - and we also had a close call when a couple of blokes tried to steal the Land Rover. We’ve also chased off a couple of Irish-accented men with a van, who’d come onto the place a year ago and were taking rather a lot of interest in the cockerels.
My suspicion is that the cockerel was stolen for cock fighting as this happens up here, along with other illegal “sports” like hare coursing and badger baiting.
I can’t see the police being greatly interested in the theft of Scots Grey cockerel, so I’ll have to increase our security still further by putting bolts and padlocks on all the doors, hatches and opening roofs around the croft.
That’s not going to be cheap as we’re looking at securing at least a dozen more doors and openings. We’ll also have to look at not only closing the main gates of a night, but also padlocking them and possibly raising the height of the stone dyke that runs along one side of the steading.
It may also be time to look at getting a couple of well-trained dogs or a flock of geese.
Thats terrible :O(
I would be wanting to get some dogs who were trained to protect their surroundings.Its not just the theft of the animal,veg,eggs etc but I wouldnt want lowlifes poking round assuming its all theirs for the taking,grrrrrr s*ddin g*ts.in fact get geese as well!
Words fail. It’s so depressing when you feel you have to nail everything down or it will just vanish. If I lost any of my birds I’d much rather a fox took them than a light-fingered human. For one thing, if I managed to catch the fox I could shoot it.
Geese might be a better option because they’d give you more useful outputs. Are they any use at night, though? You might want to let your insurers know if you’re fitting locks to all the outbuildings, in case they’ll offer you a reduction.
Oh for goodness sake! This is ridiculous. (Did you check the neighbours cooking pot?) Seriously though, I thought that crime was a big city thing.
I’m fairly certain it would have been taken for cock-fighting.
There aren’t many people these days who’d steal a live chicken to kill, pluck and draw for their own dinner. I suspect most thieves who wanted a chicken for dinner would simply nip down to Tesco and employ the old five-finger discount.
If someone had stolen all the poultry, then it might point to someone killing them for sale as free-range chickens - and I have heard of this happening.
And incidentally, do people ever think about what happens to their cockerels when they put them in the classifieds with “free to good home”? A few will be rehoused, a few will be eaten, and the rest? Cock fighting.
It’s much more humane to kill them yourself and, if you’re not prepared to do that, then you shouldn’t be breeding chickens.
I’d get a dog, ours have always warned us if there’s someone lurking about. Maybe a border collie, they’re loyal, protective, intelligent and good with kids especially when welltrained and exercised.
itwillallbefine says “crime is a big city thing”, have you never watched Heartbeat? lol
I agree with you Stoney, cockfighting is most likely.
Geeze, Stoney … you need someone in to exorcise your place - your run of bad luck is becoming beyond a joke.
So sorry mate.
*Feeling very niave (or however it’s spelt)* I had thought they had stopped it all. i guess it just got druven underground instead then.
Just because something is illegal, doesn’t mean that it’s stopped. There are still cock fights, dog fights, badger baiting and the like.
There are plenty of isolated spots in the country, with a variety of access routes and spots for lookouts to watch for the police. Disused buildings or a square of straw bales are popular venues.
Keeping guinea fowl with your hens could help as guinea fowl make great alarm birds as they shout out when they are spooked or frightened.
Just make sure that if they are kept together that there are no male guinea fowl kept with your cockerels as they will fight. Guinea fowl hens and chickens are fine together in my experience.
Sara from farmingfriends in Yorkshire
[...] same people who also snoop around the croft, taking a particular interest in the cockerels, the outbuildings and the house and, when caught, offer to lay bitumen hard standing for [...]