Down one rooster

Rooster (really, that's his name) has been getting more aggressive.  Based on everything I've read and been told, you simply can't have an aggressive rooster.  And by aggressive I mean that he is going after people.  Roosters can claw out eyes, rip open skin, and do some serious damage.

He went after me once a few weeks ago and I used the old-school method of chasing him right back until he backed down, and then chased him for a few minutes to embarass him in front of his girls.  He's left me alone ever since.

He's gone after Jeremiah but Jeremiah was too scared to chase him down and put Rooster in his place.

And then, this last week, Rooster went after me again.  He would not back down.  For a good 60 seconds I was swinging a stick at him and even kicking out at him trying to get him to just back away and stop trying to attack me, but he would not back down.  I finally got him to stop going after me and I chased him a bit to make my point.

Five minutes later, he was after me again.  I actually made contact kicking him (not hard, but enough to scare him and to try to protect myself) and he still wasn't backing down.  He actually went through my shoe and hit my foot with his beak at one point.

Rooster has to go.  :(

I'm looking for someone to take him and I'm not sure if he will become a member of a flock or a piece in a chicken soup, but I don't want to know.  Roosters aren't usually wanted for anything more than meat unless they are pure bred roosters so I have a feeling that's where he will end up.  That is a part of life, I do eat meat, I just feel bad that I knew him and named him and that's where he might end up.  :(

Most people just won't understand

Anytime the chickens see me come home or come outside they come running towards me.  No, they aren't interested in me touching them, they're only coming because they think I have treats, but it is still a great sight.  Most people just won't understand how peaceful it is to watch these girls (and the guys) peck away at the bugs, the grass, or the treats I'm sharing with them.

If I could just get myself to sit down and relax for awhile I could watch them for at least an hour and still be entertained.

What'd she toss in the compost this time?!

Pumpkin Pie!!!  Thanksgiving was good to us!

Buffy is getting some great pumpkin bread

Clyde and Silkie Sue are going for the bread rolls

I cook too

A couple years ago I went on a cooking binge... I made a blog then but didn't share it with anyone.  The point wasn't really to blog and have people "follow" me, I did it simply so that I could look back at the pictures and recipes later and re-cook the things I liked.

In any case, I am trying to add more recipes to it and decided to share it....
Leanne is Cooking

We lost three guinea

Saturday night Johnathon was told to put the guinea and chickens in.  He went out for a minute or two and came back saying he "couldn't get them".  The guinea have been on top of the chicken run and on a high tree branch many times and he's always been able to get them in.

The next morning when I went out to let the birds out and feed everyone I saw a pile of feathers in the middle of the yard and only four guinea in the chicken run.  I searched everywhere for the three missing birds but only found three big piles of feathers and a piece of a wing.

The evidence points to a fox getting them sometime in the very early morning.  They must have come down from the tree or the chicken run and come out of the goat pen where the fox attacked.  I kept wondering why they didn't run or fly back into the goat pen where the predators won't go.  I kept wondering why I didn't go out the night before to make sure the birds were put in properly.  I kept wondering if Johnathon would finally learn a lesson about doing something correctly and completely.

I know this is part of living this life.  Death to our outdoor animals from wild animals is inevitable at some point, but it's still a cruddy feeling.

The things a crazy chicken lady will do

Crazy thing I did #1:  We have a big metal rooster next to our mailbox to help people identify our driveway.  Idea came from this blog about a big metal rooster. http://thebloggess.com/2011/06/and-thats-why-you-should-learn-to-pick-your-battles/

Yes, people pull their cars over and take pictures of him.

A little kiss the day we brought him home :)

Crazy thing I did #2: I decided, after a year of him being out there, that he needed something more.... and so he will be decorated for various holidays starting with Christmas 2012.

Getting into the Christmas spirit 

You're late

On a Sunday morning if you get outside late to let the birds out, this is what will be waiting for you...

"Late" is 6:45AM

Cooking for Chickens

I found a recipe for a treat block for chickens and of course I had to try it out...

A lovely mix of household ingredients AND chicken feed and treats

Baked for two hours (made three of these blocks)

They may look apprehensive, but that sucker was gone when I went out a few hours later.

Our first predator

The neighbors had a dog on their property for a few days and it didn't take long for it to find it's way onto our property.  Johnathon saw it chasing our chickens a few times and every time he would take the dog back to the neighbor's barn, it would come back to our house.

I finally tied the dog up so it couldn't go after the birds and text the neighbor to tell him to come get the dog and to keep it off our property.  He apologized and said he would keep it locked up.  It wasn't his dog, but it had already attacked his puppy.

The next evening when we got home it was later than usual and I was going to park the car at the top of the driveway aiming my headlights at the chicken coop so I could go close it up for the night.  I got about 10 feet from where I was going to park when I slammed on the breaks - there on the ground was a pile of feathers.

I jumped out of the car with the boys and we found saw two other huge piles of feathers in the yard.  The feathers were all white in two areas (our Leghorn rooster) and long black and white speckled feathers in the initial pile we found (Clyde, the rooster that Johnathon has taught to eat from his hand.)

We raced into the goat pen and looked into the coop.  The birds were huddled inside and we couldn't count them because they were all crammed in one corner.  We saw the two roosters, and we saw blood, but my first priority was to see who was missing since those we could see were alive.  It took several minutes and several attempts at counting the birds before they were all accounted for.

We got a flashlight and did our best to be gentle while inspecting the birds.  Both boys had ALL of their tail feathers ripped out.  Rooster (that's what I call him still) has the worst injuries.  I can't tell exactly how bad things were because he was in too much pain but he is missing a LOT of feathers and there was blood in several areas.

What we pieced together was that the boys were protecting the girls from the dog and they were running from the attacking dog.

I went over to yell at the neighbors, the owner of the dog was actually there but suddenly said he "gave the dog away" as soon as he knew his dog has hurt my birds.  One of the guys at the barn promised to keep the dog locked up, but the next day it was on our property again.  I tied it up and called animal control, they picked it up a few hours later.

After the attack - his entire rear is nearly bald

Before the attack (and before he fattened up)

And I thought goats were dumb...

Sand for the chickens

I came across a blog written by a "chicken chick" in which she talked about using sand in chicken coops instead of pine shavings.  She went through the pros and the cons of both and then also talked about how chickens need to eat parts of the sand for grit, which is necessary in their digestive systems.

Cleaning a coop with sand sounded like cleaning a kitty litter box, which was far easier and cleaner than what I'd been doing to clean the pine shavings.  I decided to make the switch.

It was bad timing on my part because sand bags are sold out at every store I went to or called because of Hurricane Sandy.  I posted on Craigslist that I was looking for some once people were done with them from the storm.  A few days went by and I found someone who was giving them away on Craigslist and luckily he waited until I was able to get off work to get them.

It was a long drive home with about 700 pounds of sand weighing the back of my SUV down and it was a heavy load hauling them up the little hill to the chicken coop and chicken run... But things looked better immediately and the guinea ran over and started rolling in the sand as soon as I walked away.

Birds need "dust baths" to clean themselves.  They roll in the dirt or sand and then shake it off and any bugs that might be on them will come off too.  That's exactly what they were doing.  Several of the chickens also ran over and started picking at the sand and eating the parts they wanted.

She actually wanted IN the coop with the guinea!

It just LOOKS cleaner already.

Odd angle, the best I could do - those eggs are from the last 24 hours :)

And now we just wait for her to lay our first egg in the sand :)