A good stag is, IMO, the best insurance against aerial predators. Coyotes and raccoons will still tear them up, but Moxiecollies had one of my birds in her pullet pen when two mink broke in. They had killed 17 hens in the main pen where no gamecock was there to defend them. He killed one mink in the pullet pen. The second had a broken jaw when we trapped it.
And he only had one arm.
His name was Lefty.
One thing I notice about them is the good ones keep any eye out for hawks and eagles. They'll sound their little alarm cry and the hens learn to get their butts under cover ASAP. My favorite guy (Mr. T) used to kick the crap out of the peacocks when they didn't listen to his alarms, until they got under something too. Then he'd keep an eye out until the danger was gone and give the all clear. He was a china game mixed with grey and green junglefowl.
Mr. T's grandson. I think we lost all our pictures of him when the computer crashed
. This guy is about 1/8 American stag, 1/8 phoenix from Daniel Boone's lines (a lot of leghorn blood), 1/4 grey and green junglefowl, and 1/2 china game. He had the china game coming from both parents though. I really liked his temperament.
Mr. T also came around to the glass door and got us when the neighbor's huge fat cat had one of his hens cornered and he couldn't fight it off on his own. So yeah, he was definitely a smart dude. A bunch of my birds went to a lady in Yakima where they are going on 8 years of feral free ranging with no shelter. They're doing great, having babies and the old ones are still alive. Even the white ones. I've got pictures of them somewhere that were taken this past summer, have to dig them up.
