The Squire

Squire Roger Hamley

Three weeks ago our latest resident moved to the farm. We want to try hatching our own chicks this year so we got a rooster. He is French Black Copper Marans with beautiful, iridescent, glossy feathers.

The Squire has quite a strut!

We named him Squire Roger Hamley after a character from Elizabeth Gaskell’s “Wives and Daughters.” I read the book last month and then, the week before we brought the Squire home, I roped my guys into watching the BBC miniseries. They liked it! The Squire was our favorite character. (By the way, I highly recommend both the book and the series).

Michael Gambon as Squire Hamley in the BBC miniseries “Wives and Daughters”

For a rooster the Squire is docile. When we went to bring him home, he calmly rested in his owner’s arms for the half hour that we chatted. The owner recommended we put him in with the hens at night after they were roosting. The idea is that they’d wake up the next morning and accept him as part of the flock. This is pretty much what happened. After a few initial squabbles the next morning, they were fine.

The Squire and some of his hens

We’ve been told by other chicken owners that adding a rooster to a flock isn’t always easy. Sometimes roosters will establish dominance by killing the lead hen. Or the hens might gang up and attack the rooster. Thankfully combining them went smoothly.

As they say, “The seed is always tastier on the other side of the fence”

As we’d hoped (since we want chicks), the Squire is a ladies’ man. When we open the coop in the morning, he leads the chickens, usually single-file, into the yard. Then at dusk, he leads them single-file back to the coop. Last week they discovered our song bird feeders, so that is usually the destination on their morning hike. This is funny since they have an abundance of more expensive feed/scratch grains and water in their coop where it’s much warmer. The songbird seed we bought was the cheap stuff. Maybe it’s like junk food to the chickens?

Chickaletta and the Squire

One hen in particular, Chickaletta, seems to have a crush on the Squire. She’s always by his side. Even when I check on the chickens after dark, she is always roosting closest to the Squire.

I’m excited about this development because, of all our hens, I’d like to hatch some chicks from eggs laid by Chickaletta. We were told by the Squire’s previous owner that any chicks from a combo of the Squire and a white hen would be blue! And they would lay olive colored eggs!

French Black Copper Marans Eggs

All of our hens currently lay light bluish or greenish eggs. French Black Copper Marans hens lay dark brown eggs. At some point, I’d like to get a French Black Copper Marans hen for added color in the egg basket.

We ordered an incubator that should arrive within the next two weeks. But we plan to wait until it’s warmer outside to try hatching any eggs. I’ll keep you posted!