09/03/2026
Last Sunday, 8/30/2026, was a hard day.
Last Sunday we lost one of our roosters, Thor. He was a Blue Copper Maran. He passed due to infection, but he didn’t seem like he was in any pain when he passed. I knew it was coming because he wasn’t eating or drinking when separate. He was severely injured, so he was separated from his ladies for about a week and a half. I wish I could say that the injury was from a predator attack while they were free ranging, but that would be a lie. What happened was I forgot to tell my father that they were out and he took our bird dog and coonhounds out. If it was just the bird dog he would’ve been fine, she has a gentle mouth and has never severely hurt any bird she catches, she’s even brought quail alive to my father previously. Our bird dog caught him, and that made our coonhounds go into their pack mentality mindset and they attacked him. It was not my dad’s fault. It was not our dogs fault as they were just doing what they were bred to do (sure, they weren’t bred to hunt chickens, but they were bred to hunt). I am never one to blame the animals as most of the time it’s not their fault. This accident was ultimately 100% my fault as I was the one who let the birds out and didn’t tell my father that they were out. Thor was a great rooster. He never tried to attack us. He always let his ladies eat first. He protected his ladies. He was very sweet to everybody. He took the dog attack to protect his ladies. From that moment up until his death, I did everything I could to help him recover. Unfortunately the best I could do was not enough. My brother came in Sunday evening with the news. I went out and picked his body up, held him, and cried. I kept talking to him like he was still alive and could understand me, even though he couldn’t. I kept telling him that I was sorry. I was devastated. I’m crying making this post. I held onto that little sliver of hope all the way until the end. There was never a moment where my mind went away from him since the accident. I have been thinking about him every day since he passed, hoping that I did the right things. Hoping he knew that he was loved until the very end. Hoping he knew how much I cared about him.
I have found a new rooster for the flock and he’s now been here for two days. More information will be posted about him later. This post isn’t about him.
I don’t have any pictures of Thor as he grew up as I rarely take my phone outside to the coop anymore, but I do have pictures from when he was just a small little chick with the rest of his flock. I have one video of him as he was older when they first started free ranging back in January that I’ll post.
