As Polish crested roosters, Rebel is not the type of chicken you’ll find on today’s factory farm he is what we call a “fancy” chicken. . At some point, Rebels owner realized he could not keep him, most backyard hobbyists only able to house hens due to zoning laws, so the males—who are either mistaken for females or included as “packing material” to keep the girls safe during hatchery shipping–are often destroyed when their new owners cannot keep them. Even in municipalities that do permit roosters, “owners” frequently abandon their birds after receiving noise complaints from neighbors.
When we saw this rockstar of a chicken, we knew he was exactly where he needed to be, here with us at FarmHouse Rescue. His over-the-top personality did not go over so well with the other chickens, he is a bit of a bully and might we even say has a rather large ego problem. Since Rebel cannot play nicely with the others we decided to see if he liked just being out roaming, and greeting new people. That quickly backfired and he began attacking the volunteers whenever he would make eye contact.
So now Rebel lives in his own palace where he feels safe. He spends his days flaunting that beautiful updo and crowing at all hours of the day…….and night. We are currently working with a bird specialist to see if she can work with him and become more friendly.
Many people ask us why we have him if all he wants to do is attack everyone. The simple answer is this, in life, there are always going to be people that knock you down and attack you but that person may be hurting inside and we shouldn’t give up on them or discard their friendship. We all need a little more love, a little more kindness, and a lot of patience, and maybe one day we can all get along. We have hope for Rebel and we hope you do too.
