Cock fight

We had an unexpected addition - for one day only - to our flock of chickens yesterday. I arrived on the allotment to find the cream leghorn cockerel from the neighbouring allotment (see photo above) had done a chicken run and escaped. The birds on that allotment are kept in runs rather than free range like mine. The cockerel is a beautiful animal and I personally feel a sense of pride in him as he was one of a number of birds I hatched in March last year. When they were 3 months old, I swapped him and two of the hens that hatched with him for some fencing material for the goat paddock. Since then I have watched him grow into the lovely bird that he has become. Unfortunately, the cockerel I kept died at the start of the autumn last year. His replacement is a light sussex/silkie cross we swapped with a friend a couple of months ago (for some homemade jam).

After spotting the visiting cockerel, I found ours crowing away and strutting about as usual but saw that he was a bit bloodied. It seems the two males had had a confrontation. I took another look at the cream legbar and saw he had a bit of blood on him. Other than that, both seemed okay. Last night, the lone ranging bird was recaptured and put back in his run. Today I saw Rockie (our cockerel) was limping a bit so I brought him back tonight in a cat box and have just checked him out. I found no wounds on his claws or legs. No blood, no injury. That's the good news. The bad news is that we are keeping him in the house overnight in the cat box and I have visions of being woken in the early hours by his morning call!