Goldie passed away yesterday after a fight with Sophie. He died a few hours after I saw him being chased and repeatedly pecked at by Sophie. This happened early in the morning when I went outside to give them their morning treats and I noticed Leydi running where the two roosters were. She knew something wasn't right. The roosters where in a pen by themselves to protect the hens from the constant harrassment of the roosters, some of them have quite a few feathers missing. Goldie's comb which had been bruised a few weeks ago was all healed up and I had not seen the two of them fighting at all or found any feathers that would have indicated that they had been fighting, actually it looked like things had been settled with Sophie being in charge and Goldie staying out of his way. I had planned that I would change the setup this weekend but unfortunately it is too late. I think he must have suffered a head injury even when there were no visible injuries, he started stumbling and walking in circles and then laid down and was unable to coordinate his movements and then passed away soon after. I learned a lot about roosters from him. I remember his first crow, strutting around full of himself, I didn't expect to lose him like that, who knows what happened, maybe he ran into something, he could have flown out of the pen if he wanted to, he had done it several times without difficulty. I miss him.
