Attack Rooster

Christmas day I was shoveling the snow in the chicken run (the chickens seem to dislike ANY accumulation of snow) and Betty was in the run too, eating chicken poop, when I noticed Fancy Pants (rooster) looking at the dog with his head down. I watched as the rooster suddenly got the nerve to do one of the jobs he was programmed to do - protect the flock. He leaped into the air at Betty and with much wing flapping landed on her back. Betty lowered herself to the ground in submission and the rooster leaped off and Betty headed towards the exit. Once more the rooster made his move and attacked the dog with his feet out and ready to rip. I hollered "hey!" and then called Betty to me. Then I got between the two and shooed the rooster away. After seeing that Betty was uninjured, I proceeded to pick the rooster up and carry him around for 5 minutes. He settled down and didn't fuss so I let him go and he gave Betty no more trouble.

Now that the rooster's got his balls, I will have to watch him at all times so I don't end up with torn pants or worse from his leg spurs. But now I know for sure he will do what he needs to do to protect his girls.

On a different note, the Brahmas are laying fairly regularly so we are up to 4 eggs a day IN THE DEAD OF WINTER! The Red Stars are laying large dark brown eggs and the Brahmas are laying light almost pink eggs that are still fairly small. Pretty sweet considering the lack of supplemental light.
Oh how I long for springtime.

EGGS!!

The first eggs are here. Wednesday December 5th, 2007. I suspected it was CindyLou as she was sitting rather low in the nestbox when I checked on the chickens at 9:30ish that morning. She got up and made some unusual squawks and I thought "This is the day. The Guide said the chicken would be laying low in the nest."
When I got home that night, there it was: small, slightly speckled, brown egg. It was cold and I hoped it wasn't frozen. When I took inside, I gave it the spin test* and it proved to be unfrozen. I took pictures (of course) and then put it into one of the bejeweled cartons Bridget has made for the eggs. Another egg the next day another after work. The third day, I got home around noon and found a very warm egg. Three eggs in three days. I blew out the first eggshell, and cooked it with the other two as basted eggs. Mmm-mmm.
By this time I'm sure it is one of the Red Stars, but just not sure which one - Marjorie Sue

or Cindy Lou

. Saturday I watched the clock, and at 11:30 announced "I'm going out to see if I can watch an egg get laid." Bridget jumped up and we bundled up to face the 15 degree weather. Careful not to slip on the ice that covered everything, we walked to the coop, looked through the window into the hen house and there was Cindy Lou sitting in the left nest. She stood up and there was another small light brown egg. We took turns holding it in our cold hands. It was almost hot.

*The spin test is how you tell a boiled egg from an uncooked egg. You spin the egg on it's side like a propeller, stop it and immediately release it. If it is raw, it will start spinning again due to the centrifugal force of the liquid inside the egg spinning when you stop it and then transfering that motion back to the egg when you let go. Boiled (and frozen) eggs just sit there. Try it!

Ouch!

As usual, this event happened after work one day.
My normal routine is to let the dogs out of their crates and put Jenny Basenji on the zippy leash, then run like hell around the yard with Betty running free. Jenny always sprints to the four or five places where she has scared up a rabbit once - in hopes of flushing one out again. When I say once, I mean once in the past year and a half. She never forgets where the chase took place and goes to at least two of those spots before stopping to pee and then runs to the next. The laughable thing is that when Jenny does actually manage to find a rabbit, she gets so hyper focused on where the rabbit was, that she doesn't see it take off with Betty chasing it on the opposite side of the trees (bush, flower patch, lawn mower, etc.). So then Betty gives a half-assed chase before I call her back with a "leave it" and she comes back to see what Jenny is so worked up about.

This time we were rounding the garage to the chicken coop area and I did not see that Blackie O. was out. Before I knew it, Jenny had grabbed her by the upper wing! There was much squawking and Jenny bite down on my thumb as she lunged to grab the chicken after I freed it. I managed to get Blackie O. back over the fence without too much fuss and she has since been out nearly every day, so there must not have been any serious injury. As for my thumb, there was a red spot under the nail for a few days - no serious injury.
One day, my wife said she came out to see that crazy chicken walking towards Jenny who was tied out. I personally doubt she would have actually gotten close enough to be eaten, but Bridget is not convinced we won't be less one chicken if we don't clip some wings.

The Chicken who Flew the Coop

For the last few weeks, Blackie O. (Black Star hybrid) has been escaping. Yes, I know the run should be enclosed, but we don’t want to stoop over when we’re walking around with the chickens. This week, I came home to find Blackie O. outside the run, and three others (the 2 Red Stars and one of the Wyandotte) walking the top of the fence. I haven’t been able to observe them long enough to see an escape, or to see if they are chasing each other around. Blackie could be just going AWOL to get away from Matilda (Light Brahma) who seems to be the current leader of the Order of Pecking. Many times, I will find Marjorie Sue (Red Star) on the fence, but she has yet to visit The Other Side.
Now here’s the kicker. Today, Blackie O. was out but nowhere to be seen. I called “chick-owns!” like I do when I come around. Blackie O. came running from behind our house, and after a few seconds of walking around outside the fence she just flew herself back into the run. The dilemma is I can’t decide whether to clip her wing (and the other 3 who are most likely to be able to fly out) or just add 2 more feet of fencing around the yard. Clipping may not work according to anecdotal reports, and the fencing may not be high enough. And The Momma (that is, my wife) just pointed out that in the winter, there may be drifts of snow leading like a ramp up and out of the run anyway. I hope my research is correct and our chickens won’t much care for walking in snow.

Outside Looking In

Last night, I returned home late from work (late dusk) and went out to see if the hen house was secured. The coop is a former fenced-in dog kennel behind the garage with a 6 foot wide cement slab running along the garage side and inside the gate, I built a fence and another gate to keep the chickens off the cement - or more accurately, to keep their poop off the cement. Tuesday night I found the interior door unlatched and now I'm OCD about it being locked.
Like I said, it was pretty near dark and I could hear some clucking that sounded kind of like it was coming from under the coop where the dust bath is located. It was too dark to actually see much, so I reached under there and swiped my hand around to see if I could feel any chickens or hear them scramble to avoid me. Nothing, so I took down the ramp and latched the pophole (chicken-sized door).
This morning, after a night with temperatures in the mid-thirties, I was surprised to be greeted by a loudly clucking rooster. He danced around and rushed to meet me at the door, and when I let the girls out, he went into the hen house and ate a lot of feed. Poor guy, I have no idea where in the run he slept.
It happens that this morning was also very still and when he crowed a little later (8:45), I could hear it echoing off the buildings towards town. Yikes, we don't want to rile anyone up.
Now a flashlight is added to the "things I need on hand for chicken chores" list.

The chickens meet a dog

The flock is around 14-15 weeks old. I haven't been supplementing their light so they probably won't do much in the way of laying this winter. In case you didn't know, chickens need something around 14 hours of light a day (minimum) to lay efficiently. Efficiently means an egg every 25 hours or so. Amazing really - a perfect protein in a neat little calcium container created from one cell EVERY 25 HOURS.
Being that productive does have it's draw backs. Most profuse producers only do so for 2 years and then decline into an expensive food-to-poop machine that eats a LOT.
Here's a couple of picture of the rooster. Talk about a waste of feed. He serves nearly no purpose other than looking pretty. No, I take that back. He did pace the fence and follow the basenji as she paced outside the fence. I think he would defend the girls, or more likely, die trying. And he would certainly be a babydaddy if given the opportunity.





We let the lab-mix into the chicken run with us. She is no threat to the birds, only their turds. Both dogs LOVE the chicken droppings. I usually have to say "leave it" every few seconds to keep her from eating a third of them. Interestingly, both dogs are also a little afraid of the chickens.
Chickens PECK! usually at the nose.
This photo shows Betty in her most sweet face. She would normally be looking at the camera in attention - ears up, brow wrinkled. In this picture she is actually very concerned about the chickens in the background. "They're not going to peck my tail, are they?"





This is one of the Silver Laced Wyandottes - Cagney. She is very shy with me, but wouldn't hesitate to peck the dogs if they linger too close outside the fence.
Next roll of film will tell more.
Maybe we'll have eggs; they sometimes start laying at around 4 1/2 months and we are over 3 months now.

First post mostly pics

This will be where I keep the world up to date on our chickens and dogs (duh). We have 7 standard sized hens and a rooster (the Murray McMurray Hatchery freebie) - 2 light Brahmas, 2 silverlaced Wayndottes, 2 red star sex-link hybrids, one black star sex-link and the rooster is a buff Cochin. They are currently 9 weeks old, but since my camera is a 35mm reflex camera, you will have to wait until all shots are taken and then developed.

Here the chicks are at 3 to 3 1/2 weeks.
Light brahma

Some of the chicks looking out from the hen house

I'm a chicken hawk!

Matilda - light Brahma

Blackie O.
the black star sex-link

Light Brahmas


Buff Cochin Rooster as an awkward teen.