Great, just great.....now what do I do?

Ok, so I have these chickens. I got them early last summer as young birds, not really knowing much about keeping chickens at all. It turned out I ended up with some Wyandotte's, which are now gone due to not very good "dispositions" to put it mildly. Then I have three easter eggers, Americauna, Aracauna-not sure which. Two hens and a rooster. And I got a pair of Yokohamas. Beautiful birds, fairly quiet and since they were hand raised, much friendlier than the other three.

So I managed to keep them all winter, including a couple stints in the garage when temps fell way too low. crowded into a wire dog crate. This spring, I picked up some used, lightweight dog kennel panels and there they have been since-an unhappy group because they'd much rather be loose as before. But, I couldn't have them in the garden, and finding them at the house a few times was getting to be a bit much. So off they went into chickie jail for the summer.

Everything went pretty well down there, until about two weeks ago. For a couple days I noticed the Yokohama rooster by itself, laying down in what I presumed was the dirt bath spot. Then, when it got real hot, I noticed he was panting a bit-but heck, they were drinking like crazy so I didn't give it much thought until I entered to find the poor Yokohama rooster trying to hide in one of the hen boxes.

I ended up lifting the water pan and he drank and drank, and I saw that his head was very bloody (and there was dried blood all over on the inside of the one box too) and his one eye looked very bad. Ok, he had to come out, period. So I managed that fairly easily with my son's help and back up to the garage and into the wire crate he went. He barely made a sound except for a soft chuckle for at least three days and I wasn't sure he would survive. I have no idea what you do to nurse chickens along, but apparantly he was a bit tougher than I thought, and he has recovered.

This weekend we let him loose at the barn, and I thought for sure we'd loose him for good. He is blind in one eye now-actually the entire eyeball seems to be missing. The feathers around his head and neck are growing back in, and his appetite seems great. But he did manage to make it down the hill to the other chickens which is where we found him last night. I put out some food and water and figured he would be gone this morning, lost and disoriented and off into the thick woods.

But nope, he came running right up to me at the barn this morning, chirping away. Found his way into the crate and began chowing down. When little Jethro trotted by him on his blind side, he did this little stright up leap into the air and gave a little squeak of surprise, then went right back to eating.

What am I going to do with a rooster that's blind in one eye? There is no way I can put him back in the coop with the other rooster. Who is not mean to humans, but I've been told that chickens can be pretty savage to other birds who are weak in anyway. This is a good natured bird you can pick up without a lot of fuss and much quieter too.

Great, just great....now what do I do?

Anybody??