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We were not supposed to be taking any more roosters because of space restrictions. But a neighbor and I got to talking a while back about a little bantam rooster she had named Angel. He was named this in declaration of his gentle temperament. He and two other chicks had turned out to be roosters and they already had a few roosters in with their hens so they let him and his fowl mates run loose around their property. The birds had a few safe places to nest and hide but as time went on and coyotes carried off his two friends, they made the choice to put him in the pen with the flock. 

The problem was that not only the roosters but the hens had decided he didn't fit in. They bullied the little guy, plucking all of his curly feathers and terrorizing him day and night.

Mark and I discussed it and although we would like to take in every needy animal, we knew that we weren't equipped for another rooster. 

A few months later, I was talking to my neighbor again and she said that Angel was doing badly, that he was almost bald and had been cowering in the corner of the pen. That night I told Mark that we could put this new bird in with Ginger and her kids (both roosters) and I felt like he deserved a chance. We made arrangements and a few days later he arrived. 

Angel was molting and, with the other birds plucking him, he was almost bald. He was extremely thin and his skin was discolored. The other birds had probably kept him from getting enough nourishment.

We brought him inside to a large rabbit cage and for a few weeks gave him extra protein and time alone to grow in some feathers. When I went in to feed him, he would freak out, slamming his body against the cage and screaming at the top of his lungs. It was frightening to see the panic in his face. I finally got up the nerve to hold him and he trembled and buried his head under my arm. We renamed him Ozu since his personality had changed so much and he was starting a new life.

After six weeks, we sectioned off the isolation pen and now Ozu, Ginger, Seeger and Curtis all enjoy a life outside. Ozu's is the first crow I hear in the morning and he is the first one to bed at night. He is still terrified of us but it's getting better every day. Winning the trust from an animal who has been terrorized by his own kind is harder than you might think.

— Dianne