chickens

I came home on Tuesday after a horrific weekend (more on that later) to two, tiny, bite-sized pullet eggs sitting in the corner of the babies’ coop. They are laying!!!!!!

The babies’ eggs compared to Rosemary’s eggs.

Albeit the eggs are miniature, but I’m so happy at least one of my girls, maybe two, are entering maturity. No matter how long you have had chickens, it’s always a thrill when one of your young pullets lays her first egg. These are some recent snapshots of the babies, which have grown incredibly since I last posted about them:

This little girl is super sweet, and she has already been letting Reggie have his way with her.

these two were purchased from a different breeder, and because their mama hen raised them they are pretty afraid of us (except when treats are involved!) and do no like being handled.

This little girl likes to continually be under or near my feet. I think she is getting pretty attached 🙂

I completely forgot to post about their ugly, in-between teenage stage of chicken life. Maybe that’s for the best 🙂  I will say that this bunch raised by hand are especially friendly with us, and don’t mind being picked up and petted at all. They run up to me when I come outside and like to jump in my lap when I sit down on their level. Awwwww.

We have decided to continue our herb and spice naming tradition and these girls will be given the names of:

Lavender,
Sage,
Parsley,
Peppermint (“Pepper” for short),
Pennyroyal (“Penny” for short), 
Sassafras

I think I will only need to band a few of them because several are already easy to distinguish from the others. One has a single-comb (recessive gene), one of them has a crooked toe, and one is much darker than the others with grey/black legs instead of yellow legs. All of these traits are defects that will make them unable to be shown. But that’s okay, I still have three others that could make decent show birds if I ever decide to venture into that the world of showing chickens.

hunting for bugs….

I am looking forward to seeing how much larger the eggs get as the girls grow up. When the other pullets start laying, we will be overrun with eggs. Perhaps around 35 a week!!! We plan to eat a lot, bake a lot, and give away a lot. We also have a local food pantry that our church is helping to get up and running to which we will be able to donate our extra fresh eggs.

We had a tragic Clove accident a few weeks ago……..*sniff sniff*

My post about how to handle aggressive roosters was rather timely, because almost right after that Clove and Coriander (“Cori”) began fighting. And this was not just a peck-you-on-the-head kind of fight. This was a feather-plucking, comb-and wattle-tearing, spurs-flying-everywhere, bloody-faces-and-feathers, I’m-going-to-kill-you ALL OUT BATTLE.

We went out one morning and found Cori and Clove dueling it out in the forest….spurring each other, jumping on top of one another, panting extremely hard, and covered in blood. They would not stop for anything so I had to pick them up in the middle of their fight and separate Cori into the pen with Rosemary and Reggie. Clove had always been dominant over Cori, pushing him around, occasionally attacking him, and I think Cori finally decided he had had enough and wasn’t going to take that behavior from Clove anymore.

this is the treatment clove usually gets after he has shown aggression: excessive cuddling, LOL.

Well, Clove continued to fight with Cori through the netting of the pen (he would run up to him and puff his neck feathers all out). One day we must have had the electric fence netting turned on and when we came home that night Clove had gotten his foot caught in the electric fence trying to fight with Cori! Poor baby…..he was lying on the ground crying in pain. We immediately freed him of it and he was so weak from all that shock through his body he couldn’t stand. We put him in the “sick crate” and tried to get him to eat and drink but he was unable to. We thought it would be best to let him rest, and by the next morning he had died.

Poor Clove……even though he was troublesome he was such a beautiful roo……and we will miss him.

Clove is especially uncomfortable and embarrassed in this position, being held like a baby. Just another way to reinforce to him who is boss.

Remember this post when I talked about getting rid of Clove? Well, I lied. Sort of.

Clove posing for the picture….he is beautiful and he knows it!

Clove went to live with a friend of mine but she could not keep him, so, he is back. He has been for some time. Poor guy. We actually had some other offers and places lined up for him to go, but in the end we feel bad giving him away because our neighbors have become so attached to him. Almost every day, Clove books it over to the neighbors house once we are gone. He stands at their back door and crows until they come out and feed him treats. Yes, they are spoiling Clove rotten and they think he is HILARIOUS. The other day I went over to their house with Clove in my arms with hopes they would just keep him. I put him down and our neighbor said to him, “Clove, you want a biscuit?” and proceeded to feed him. Oh, dear…..

looking for bugs

Well, Clove (a Partridge Rock) is proving to be a trouble-maker and he is super smart. He has some aggressive tendencies which we have NEVER experienced before with any of our Dominiques. He is rough on the hens, not nice to Coriander (his “BFF”), and is mean to the babies. He will occassionally come running at me and BJ to attack, and we have to stand up to him and put our foot out in front of us so that he stops. A few times he has actually pecked at my shoe or spurred me out of aggression. My response is usually to pick him up immediately, carry him around for a while, pet him excessively and scold him, push his head down, etc. I make sure all the other chickens get to see him getting held so that he is throughouly embarrassed.

Had we not named him and grown attached, he surely would be going into “freezer camp” by now. I think the best I could do at this point would be to give him away, or perhaps enter him in the state fair with the intention to sell him.

Clove and Coriander…..always together 🙂

Poor Rosemary is scared to death of Clove, and Reggie is nearly always protecting her from him and Cori both. They have a tendency to try to gang rape Rosemary and she just freaks out. Thankfully, since Reggie is the dominant roo, he chases them off so that Rosemary can forage in peace. Reggie is a very sweet, respectful rooster. He does NOT like being held, but he would never try to hurt us and does a fantastic job of protecting the flock and keeping everyone in line. I even spied him over in front of the little pullets pen already courting them with his “I found food” noises. It was so cute.

So, readers, what are your tips for dealing with troublesome or aggressive roosters?

Remember this post when I talked about getting rid of Clove? Well, I lied. Sort of.

Clove posing for the picture….he is beautiful and he knows it!

Clove went to live with a friend of mine but she could not keep him, so, he is back. He has been for some time. Poor guy. We actually had some other offers and places lined up for him to go, but in the end we feel bad giving him away because our neighbors have become so attached to him. Almost every day, Clove books it over to the neighbors house once we are gone. He stands at their back door and crows until they come out and feed him treats. Yes, they are spoiling Clove rotten and they think he is HILARIOUS. The other day I went over to their house with Clove in my arms with hopes they would just keep him. I put him down and our neighbor said to him, “Clove, you want a biscuit?” and proceeded to feed him. Oh, dear…..

looking for bugs

Well, Clove (a Partridge Rock) is proving to be a trouble-maker and he is super smart. He has some aggressive tendencies which we have NEVER experienced before with any of our Dominiques. He is rough on the hens, not nice to Coriander (his “BFF”), and is mean to the babies. He will occassionally come running at me and BJ to attack, and we have to stand up to him and put our foot out in front of us so that he stops. A few times he has actually pecked at my shoe or spurred me out of aggression. My response is usually to pick him up immediately, carry him around for a while, pet him excessively and scold him, push his head down, etc. I make sure all the other chickens get to see him getting held so that he is throughouly embarrassed.

Had we not named him and grown attached, he surely would be going into “freezer camp” by now. I think the best I could do at this point would be to give him away, or perhaps enter him in the state fair with the intention to sell him.

Clove and Coriander…..always together 🙂

Poor Rosemary is scared to death of Clove, and Reggie is nearly always protecting her from him and Cori both. They have a tendency to try to gang rape Rosemary and she just freaks out. Thankfully, since Reggie is the dominant roo, he chases them off so that Rosemary can forage in peace. Reggie is a very sweet, respectful rooster. He does NOT like being held, but he would never try to hurt us and does a fantastic job of protecting the flock and keeping everyone in line. I even spied him over in front of the little pullets pen already courting them with his “I found food” noises. It was so cute.

So, readers, what are your tips for dealing with troublesome or aggressive roosters?

If you raise chickens and ever plan on hatching your own or letting a broody hatch for you, it is handy to have a second coop. We found this to be true after our hen, Rosemary, went broody and we needed a separate space in which for her to raise her chicks. It is also nice when you purchase new chicks and need to keep them separated for a while until they are big enough to join the rest of the flock.

My handy hubby, BJ, worked very hard in building us a brooder’s coop! It is built of solid wood with a gabled, shingled roof with the rafter ends exposed. This leaves some space in between the walls and roofline for air circulation. We chose to put chicken wire in the gabled ends and we will close these up once winter temperatures set in.

Here are some photos of the coop construction in progress. (I meant to get some when the coop was just beginning to take shape with the studs, but forgot).

I’m thankful for a such a handy husband who likes to build things!

finishing the roof…

the brooder’s coop already in use but unpainted

The coolest thing is that the back door swings completely open and shuts flush with the floor, so that shavings and droppings can be easily be sweeped out and replaced! We currently have a light in the top for extra warmth at night, although now I don’t think we need it!

Underneath the coop we built a chicken wire enclosure and penned in the rest with netting and electric fencing. We may need a more permanent soluation to a chicken run later on but for now it works just fine. It won’t be long until these pullets are allowed outside to free range on their own!

the raised coop makes it a bit more predator-proof and also provides a space underneath for shelter for their food and water

After the coop construction was finished, we painted the coop a similar color to our house, leaving the trim white.

The chicks and pullets are LOVING their new home! Our littlest babies, though, are getting a bit picked on by the older pullets and they are SCARED TO DEATH of us. It’s strange because the older pullets run up to us immediately whenever we come out and love to fly up on our shoulders and perch on our arms. But not these new babies. They scream bloody murder when we catch them. Hopefully they will learn that we won’t hurt them and become a little more friendly.

It is such a relief having a second coop and pen to use for broody hens, sick chickens, new chicks just getting acclimated, or troublesome roosters that need to be separated from the rest of the flock.