A Girl and Her Rooster

All of my Granddaughters were packing around chickens the other day when I got this picture. My youngest Granddaughter chose a banty rooster instead of a hen. She has always hated chickens and has been afraid of them so we were all surprised when she felt the need to keep up with her sisters.

I'm Back

I have finally caught up on most all of my rope halter orders. I currently only have two small orders to fill. This spring has been horribly busy for us and I hope things will slow down enough for us to catch our breath.

My fingers are really sore from working on the halters and the pinky on my left hand and the middle, ring and pinky on my right hand are all starting to curl under with arthritis. Keyboarding is getting difficult for me. I can't imagine not being able to blog anymore. Getting old just stinks and I would advise you younger folks out there not to try it.

Out of 18 eggs my hen managed to hatch nine chicks. All of the hatchlings were banties, most of them have feathered feet. When we broke open the unhatched eggs, the three other banty eggs had dead chicks in them but the six standard eggs were still yolks. None of the standards had been fertilized as I had suspected. I am going to have to get a different rooster if I ever hope to raise some standard chickens.

One of the chicks got smashed by its oversized Mother. The other eight are doing well. Mom steps on their little feet sometimes and they cry and pull but can't get away until she takes another step then the poor things go tumbling. They are great fun to watch, my DH says that in her exuberance to scratch up a meal that she inadvertently buries a few of them but they always manage to dig their way out.

I was tempted to take them away from their Mother, put them in a safe place and raise them myself. But after all of the work that she did and with her knowing how to take better care of chicks than I could ever know, I decided to let her do it herself. Even with these chicks being half the size of what her biological children would be, I still think she knows best.

I am going to do my best to get back to work and blog every day. This is the best way that I have found to keep a daily journal that I can refer back to when I fail to write important dates on my calendar.

Hatchlings

I don't think that I have posted about my Rhode Island Red hen going broody. I know that I have complained about none of my hens feeling motherly this year, well one finally did. She is a big, old RIR and she decided to start a family around 21 days ago. Dingy me forgot to write down the date that she started setting. So I have been checking her nest everyday to see if there are any chicks. I thought that her time should be about up.

I set 6 large eggs and 12 banty eggs under her. I know that my banty eggs are fertilized but am not sure about the standard eggs. Rocky still isn't doing his job. Last night I checked and had one banty chick that was all hatched out, fluffy and cute. I haven't checked her today yet.

I am going to have to move her and the nest to a safer location because the nest is so high and the chicklets can fall out.

Elvis Has Left The Building

After having Elvis and the Mutt in cages for a few days right outside our bedroom, I decided it was time to get rid of them. Their crowing was about to drive us crazy. So I listed them on Hoosier Topics, Bedford Connect and Craigslist. Within an hour I had someone claim these two free roosters.

Now I am looking at the eggs that I am using and none of them are fertilized. So if I have a hen go broody, none of the eggs will be fertile except for my Bantams. Rudy, my Mille Fleur D'uccle is busy fertilizing the banty eggs and trying to do the same with the big hens when Rocky isn't looking. Rudy is just a little rooster and scared to death of Rocky. It's a big job but someone has to do it.

I don't know why Rocky isn't doing his job but he isn't. Maybe he is too big or too old. I am in the market for a new rooster, a young, standard breed. I love Rocky because I can trust him with my Grandkids and this disappoints me. I really don't need baby chicks right now other than it is just fun but as my hens grow older I will need to replace them and would like to grow my own.

Roosters, Angus and a Jailbreak

Meanwhile back at the ranch, life has settled down somewhat and returning to normal. I had been keeping my D'uccles in a large dog taxi for the cold winter months. They don't do cold weather very well.

During those months the mutt red banty rooster continued to harass and otherwise torment Rudy my D'uccle rooster. He was always challenging him at the door of the taxi. There was nothing Rudy could do about it but tell him that though he was caged he still had the prettiest hens caged with him.

The worm has turned, I have finally released Rudy and his two D'uccle hens. I put the mutt and Elvis in cages, so there is no chance of them fertilizing any eggs that any of my hens might go broody over. It is now Rudy's turn to challenge and otherwise torment the mutt and he has been doing just that all morning.

Angus is doing very well and growing, he stays in our foaling stall at night and in the goat lot on sunny days. Sometimes we just turn him loose and he goes where he wants to go, which is usually around Cooter's dog kennel.
Speaking of Cooter's dog kennel, I never knew what a billy goat could do with his bare teeth. For those who don't know, goats only have bottom teeth in the front like cattle, with no teeth in the front top gums. So when they bite you it doesn't hurt that bad unless they are like Calico who has learned to scrape with those bottom teeth. Her mother always did the same thing, if she bit you she meant it to hurt.

Cooter has been planning a jail break for quite a while but he was waiting for just the right time. He wanted us to be away from home when he took off. He got his chance last night, he knew that we would be away for several hours so he put his evil plan into action.

There were signs that something was in the works...But he looked so innocent, like it was all just an accident.
When I caught him in the act, he started chewing on something else to make me think he was only chewing because he was bored.
When the work got hard he thought about trying to jump but his big, muscular body just couldn't get off of the ground. The awful truth was staring me right in the eye but I refused to believe it.
Then when we came home last night something just didn't look right.
You are probably thinking that he got out just to visit his girlfriends but you would be wrong. He was partying with the horses at the hay ring again.

Calico Update

Do you think that she might be pregnant? Since her due date was not March 9th, I am guessing that her little rendezvous with Cooter on November 11th has paid off for her. So her official due date is now April 10th.

Paris looks somewhat pregnant but I am still not sure with her. It will still be wait and see. I have never had a single, so I don't know what a doe looks like when pregnant with a single.

My hens are blessing us everyday with 12 to 14 eggs. My little Fleur banty hen has started crowing. She is laying eggs and crowing, I don't know what is up with that. If anyone has any information about why a laying hen crows, I would love to hear it.

Recent Events

Where to begin? Yesterday my DH had the day off because it was New Year's Day. He made good use of the day by working outside. I made good use of the day by staying inside. I kept hearing this annoying sound and so I finally gave some thought to what I was hearing, it was Paris outside my door, in the stall, screaming her head off. I asked myself this question, "Why is Paris screaming her head off?" Then I answered myself, "It could be that she is in heat, dummy."

I ran to the calendar and looked at the date that I last suspected that she was in heat, low and behold it was twenty days ago. So, I opened the gate and let her out, she did not pass Go or collect $200. She ran straight as an arrow to Cooter's pen and didn't wait for me to catch up to open the gate, she just squeezed through it.

He was pleased to see her again and they spent the rest of the afternoon together, when she got tired of him, she squeezed back through the gate and came back to the barn and that was that. So now I have a firm date on when Paris was bred, it was on New Year's Day, easy to remember.

Bootstrap seems to be improving everyday and he wants out of his cage but I tried letting him loose again today and I later found him hiding in a corner with a tiny banty rooster, half his size, plucking all of his feathers out. There were feathers everywhere, he just doesn't have any fight in him.

We have had another chicken problem that I hope to have fixed today. The house part of our barn was made with Foam Forms, they are styrofoam forms filled with concrete and in a few places around the outside and the entire interior wall still has some foam forms exposed.

The problem is, chickens love styrofoam. It is like one of their favorite foods in the winter time. During the summer they never touch it but right now, I cannot keep them away from it. They are literally eating us out of house and home. It isn't that they are hungry because they leave their corn, sunflower seeds and chicken feed to feast upon our walls.

We had some cans of red spray paint, so since I can't keep continually chasing them with a broom. I started spraying this evening, they stood back and watched, so far, so good, they looked at the new color and cocked their heads from side to side, but no one tired it. I am anxious for tomorrow to get here, to see if this has solved the problem.

Now on to my New Year's Resolution. I only made one resolution last year and almost kept it, however, I did falter from time to time. That resolution was to blog everyday, well, I never said that I was perfect.

In keeping with the tradition that I set forth last New Year's, I have again resolved only one resolution this year and that is to quit griping at my DH and be kinder and gentler to him. He does not deserve my criticism most of the time. He has looked at me several times today and said something about it not even lasting 24 hours, but these things do take time and patience. Old habits die hard, I can't just flip a switch and be sweet.

A One Egg Day

There have been colder days than today, there have been nastier days than today. We have consistently received at least five eggs everyday since the cold weather has arrived. Something changed today, only one lonely egg.

The good news is that the shortest day of the year, Sunday, December 21st is about to arrive and then the days will start getting longer. I always love to get on the other side of that short day. I love cold weather and snow but I don't care for the long nights.

Angel and I both saw an unusual sight today. I was walking back to the barn from feeding Cooter. I had already fed the Chickens in a couple of different places, there was a group pecking at their feed right in front of our horse trailer as we passed.

All of the sudden from up on the hill above the barn, something came swooping down upon us heading right for that group of chickens. I stopped and at first glance thought it was a hawk, it had the same coloring. Angel was a few yards behind me and she froze in place, looking up, high over her head. I was stunned and relieved when I realized what it was, it was one of my little banty hens in a hurry to get to the feed before it was all gone.

I have never seen a chicken fly that high, she had her wings stretched out and glided in for a perfect landing, right in the middle of the feeding frenzied large hens who make her life pretty difficult. Those hens scattered in all directions, they thought the sky was falling. I am almost certain that she was playing big, bad, bird of prey. It was very affective but the moment of panic didn't last long and the big hens ran her off again.

Right On Time

My little brown banty hen hatched out 7 chicks this morning. She is done and has left the nest with the new babies. Only one egg didn't hatch, that is a pretty good percentage. They are tiny little things, smaller than mice, all different colors. They are already fighting amongst themselves and running around looking for food.

It is always amazing to me how they hatch out right on the 21st day. If all animals were this precise then I would get so much more sleep during foaling and kidding season.

One Down

It has been a busy week for us, we have had several things going on, I haven't had much time to blog. Biscuit, our yearling leopard filly did go to live at her new home in Texas on Tuesday.

Sometime on Wednesday, one of my Barred Rock Chicks disappeared. I saw her early in the day but later in the afternoon she was gone. I think that several of my banty chicks are roosters and whoever is taking these chickens must just prefer hens. Here is a picture of some of my banty chicks challenging each other, they are probably roosters, I can't tell yet. But we knew that both of my Barred Rock chicks were hens.

Yesterday morning while I was outside, I noticed something was off. I couldn't put my finger on it at first but then it dawned on me that I could hear nothing but silence. All of my chickens were hiding and not making a sound. Usually they are a pretty noisy bunch, so I started looking around.

There were two small hawks flying around overhead. Normally I know when there are hawks about because the crows are constantly calling them names and trying to run them out of their air space. The crows were away from the post for some reason, leaving my chickens unprotected. I got my camera and took a picture of one of them. They finally gave up the hunt and flew away.

Later in the day, I noticed that the chickens were still quiet, so I looked around again and didn't see anything, but it gave me a strange feeling every time I went outside.

I had taken my glasses off to fix my hair, I went into the bedroom for something and passed by the window. I saw what I thought was one of my Rhode Island Reds on the far side of the goat lot. With my glasses off I couldn't tell what it was for sure but I have never seen my chickens in that area. I got my glasses and looked again, it was a fox, he was just relaxing, scratching and rolling in the new mowed grass.

I grabbed up my rifle and slipped out the door. It was a long shot for a rifle but I embarrassed myself again anyhow. He jumped away from the spot where the bullet hit the ground beyond him. The sound of the rifle didn't scare him because I have desensitized him to gunfire because I have shot at him so many times and missed. He walked away a few feet then stopped in the driveway and looked back at the place he had been, he was closer to me now and a much better shot. I missed again and he went into the high weeds.

I knew that he would circle around the barn/house and all I had to do was wait on him, so I went into the house and got a different rifle. Maybe it was the rifle and not me, right? I watched the goats who were watching him, so I knew right where he was. I stood inside the back door of the barn and waited for another perfect shot. But something went wrong, while I was waiting with a clear view of where he would have to come down the hill, he was already there. I was a bit confused but I had a good shot, so I took it. I missed again and again he jumped away from the spot I hit and came towards me. I had another perfect shot and of course I missed again.

Four missed shots in one day. How could I live with myself? The shame of it all. I went to Camp Meeting last night and when I returned home, he was sitting on top of a row of big round bales of hay that are sitting beside our driveway. He looked at me and laughed. I drove down the hill to get my gun and try again but he was gone when I got back.

I wouldn't have minded him so bad if he would have taken roosters instead of my hens. But this morning when I went to get Cooter out of his pen to stake him out. Angel started barking at something at the top of the hill. I looked up there and saw two foxes chasing each other and playing. I yelled for my DH and gave him a chance to deal with the problem. Though it is hard for me to admit, he got one of them with his first shot. I will never live this down.

I did find out why I was confused about the fox's location the day before, there were two of them. I am sure that we will have to deal with the other one at some point. They seem to love this place. Since we got Angel we hardly ever see or hear Coyotes but we always have skunks and foxes. They know now that she can't get out of the goat lot, so they are safe from her. They also know that I can't hit the broad side of a barn, so they are also safe from me.

There are two wild turkey hens with chicks staying here also. I don't know why the foxes prefer my chickens to the turkey chicks, maybe they are harder to catch or the turkey hens are meaner than my roosters.

No Loses

I didn't lose any chickens yesterday, this is an improvement. We are making progress. I did sell Copper yesterday evening, he went to a good home. He will be used as a buck. Angel didn't like it, she is still looking for him this morning. That is the sad part of selling my kids, it upsets Angel but his mother didn't seem to mind at all. I think she was ready to let him go.

We had storms all through the night and I have water in my living room this morning. I don't understand why sometimes the rain comes in and sometimes it doesn't. I wish some philanthropist would give me about $100,000, I could really put it to good use. I need a house.

Or better yet, it would be nice if a couple of people would retire from the Post Office and my Husband would get a regular postal route and become a full time employee instead of a substitute or RCA, no one wants to retire anymore. Another possibility is that we could sell all of our 30+ horses at reasonable prices. That would really help out, think of the money that we would save on feed alone.

We did sell a yearling filly, Biscuit is moving to Texas on Monday to become a broodmare. She will be raising spotted mule foals. We will really miss her, she has the sweetest disposition. You can sweet talk her into anything and once she learns something she retains it.

My orphan chicks are all doing well so far. The two barred rock chicks have taken up with another barred rock hen and they are roosting in the goat/chicken shed at night on the highest perch, next to the biggest rooster.

My three little banty chicks have tried to join the other banty chicks but the hen won't allow it. So they are on their own, they roost in the same nest that their mother always took them to at night, they have no protection at all. At least one of them is a rooster and he is trying to protect his little family but it is a big responsibility for such a young chick.

I was tempted to put them in a cage but the barred rock chicks were so unhappy in the cage that I hate to do it to the banties after they have been free all of their lives.

Well, that is the news for now, nothing very exciting, which is a good thing. If you are a philanthropist and have some money that you would like to put to good use contact me but please not from Nigeria.

Pecking Order

My chicks are getting so big and they are all different, very colorful. Only two have feathered feet and only one looks like it might be a pure bred Mille Fleur D'Uccle. It will probably turn out to be a rooster.

They are starting to get aggressive. When I turned them out this morning they where all running around my feet chasing each other and pecking each other. I guess they are trying to establish a pecking order.

These are some pictures that I took some time ago of the chicks, they are much bigger and have more feathers now.

Falcon?

I think that I discovered this morning what got away with my little red hen. I had just come in from feeding the chickens early this morning and sat down in front of the computer, when I heard a commotion outside the door in the drive through part of the barn. All of the chickens were squawking and scattering. I ran out the door but only saw all of the chickens running toward the goat/chicken house, except for the two Mille Fleur D'Uccles with their chicks.

I looked around and found that one of the D'Uccle hens was missing. Her three chicks were chirping loudly and looking for her. I wasn't sure what had happened but summoned my dear Husband from his slumber to assist. He went one way and I went another. I noticed that several crows were pitching a fit and were attacking something out in the pasture. It was too small for a hawk, unless it was a young one. It flew away and my little D'Uccle hen was staggering around in the pasture on her way back to the yard, disoriented. I picked her up and brought her back to her chicks. She was not injured that I could tell.

It could have been a falcon, we had one here once before that stayed around all day then moved on. It landed on my Husband's head, which kind of took him by surprise. It acted pretty tame, so we assumed it was someone's pet or had escaped from captivity. But we could never catch it, although we could get close to it. We didn't have chickens at the time.

Whatever this was this morning, it is a small bird of prey and flew right in the back door of the barn, grabbed the hen and flew out the front door. I told my DH that I wouldn't take a thousand dollars apiece for my Livestock Guardian Crows. I think he though might since we have so many.

Little Red

I lost another chicken yesterday evening. This was one of the very first chickens that we got. We called her the Little Red Hen. She was special, all of the roosters fought over her and she was the bossiest of the hens. She would fight anything that got in her way. Little Red was just a red banty hen that wasn't very pretty but she had a lot of personality. She laid a medium sized egg, she was the only hen that we had that did that.

I saw her throughout the day yesterday and even saw her during the evening hours. But late in the evening after it cooled down some, I got in the swimming pool. I know that you are suppose to swim when it is hot but my pool water gets pretty warm after several days of hot weather and who wants to swim in hot water on a hot day? While I was in the pool I did see a hawk. That was just about the time that the chickens were going to roost. My DH asked me where she was, after he went to gather the eggs.

Since we had just shot at the fox the day before, my guess is that the hawk got her. I didn't hear a struggle and she just disappeared so suddenly. I haven't even found any feathers. I was hoping that she would come into the barn/house with the rooster this morning, just like every morning, but he came in alone.

Chick Update

I lost count of how many chicks that my first little Mille Fleur D'Uccle hatched out, but with some drowning and some just dying for unknown reasons, she ended up with five chicks. Then two more died the other day, so now she has only three live chicks. The rest of her eggs we put under the other little Banty hen and she has hatched out five more and hasn't lost any so far.

My broody Rhode Island Red hen was sitting on seven eggs originally but one egg disappeared and we think that a skunk got it. The goat/chicken house smelled strongly of skunk on the day that it went missing. My LGD (livestock guardian dog) isn't much of a defense when it comes to skunks, I'm afraid.

The Rhodie's eggs started hatching today. I don't know how many have hatched but I did see a yellow head and a black head peeking out from under her wing at me this morning.

Results are in

My Mille Fleur D'Uccle hen has left the nest, she offically hatched out 11 chicks. 2 drown, 4 were killed by the big Rhode Island Red broody hen, who got confused because she heard the chicks and thought they were hers and run the little Millie off to set on her nest instead of her own. We took the nest to the barn/house to protect it from the Rhodie and the Millie stopped setting on the remaining eggs and at this point has 5 live chicks, probably all roosters with my luck.

Several of the Millie eggs that were left are at different stages of development because my other two banty hens continued to lay eggs in her nest after I set the original eggs under her, plus one big hen slipped an egg in there also. We took the remaining unhatched eggs and put them under the Rhodie and are watching them closely, if any of them hatch we will put them with the other chicks. When moving the remaining eggs my DH broke one of them and it had a live chick in it but it did not survive.

My Husband brought home four new banties that someone gave him, two roosters and two hens. One pair appear to be the same breed, they are very pretty. As soon as I get some time I will try to do some research and identify them.

No Phone

I don't know if our phone was down because of thieves again or if it was something else but we didn't have phone service when we got up yesterday. If we don't have phone service then we don't have internet service, because we live out here in this third world country with no modern conveniences like city water or high speed internet options.

Someone is stealing our old phone lines for their copper content. This is fine with me because if they continue to steal it then we will eventually get all new phone lines and maybe better service and maybe even DSL. It is pretty annoying because it is happening so often and we are without service for the whole day. They told the people who called it in that we wouldn't have service back until Monday but they did have it fixed yesterday evening. I hate not having a phone or internet but I can live with it if it is for the greater good.

When I took feed out to my Mille Fleur D'uccle setting hen, she got off the nest and I counted six babies and two more that were in the process of hatching. The problem is that the little tiny chicks are jumping out of the nest and they can't get back in. I had to rescue them several times yesterday by putting them back in.

Eggs for Sale

Spring has sure made a difference in egg production, my bantams are still not laying but everything else sure is. I just went out to gather eggs and every nest in the shed has a hen sitting in it. I have a refrigerator full of eggs and need to sell some. I have been selling some to a neighbor and giving them to my kids, but they just keep coming.

My chickens are doing wonderful and I really enjoy them. When I go outside in the mornings they are waiting for me. I slide open the big barn door and they follow me everywhere I go until I feed them. I feel like the Pied Piper with my little flock clucking along behind me.

Spring is Here

Spring has arrived and we have survived the winter. The rain cleared out of here and the sun is shining just for the occasion.

My little orange Mille Fleur D'Uccle hen went missing last night and this morning. I hunted for her today and found her under the goat/chicken house all covered in mud and acting puny. I had to get down on my knees in the mud and take my handy dandy chicken catcher to get her out, it is a long metal wire with a crook in the end that will snag a chicken by the foot. I caught her on the first try and drug her out. I cradled her in my arms and looked her over but could find no injuries. She must have just had a hard night out in the cold being wet and muddy.

I put her out in the dog kennel with the other banties and they all attacked her viciously. I must admit that I don't understand chicken psychology, they don't have any compassion. They are pecking at her and plucking out her feathers and chasing her. With friends like that, who needs enemies?

Mille Fleur d'uccle

Here it is, the moment that you all have been waiting for, the introduction of my new Rooster. I haven't named him yet, as a matter of fact, I haven't even named my other rooster yet. The new rooster needs a French name. The other rooster is a Booted Bantam, so I guess he needs a Pirate, Cowboy or Harley Rider name. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

He spent the night with Maude and Ethel, they are my big cornish hens, he has never had his freedom, so he didn't know that he just needed to fly up and out of the pen. Maude and Ethel are too heavy to fly, so that is where they live full time. All of my other Chickens are free rangers, but they do get in and out of Maude and Ethel's pen occasionally.

Maude and Ethel