Chicken Hazards
Posted on Nov 10 in Gardening, Humble Gardenby NikaPrint
Raising your own chickens in your own backyard means having VERY fresh eggs and, should you so choose, fresh meat on occasion.
If you have roosters (which are not necessary unless you want to eat fertile eggs, love roosters, or want baby chickens) you will also be assured some drama.
Barley, that big orange chicken you see, decided that it was really offensive to him that I walked out my back door. Being so offended, it was his roosterly duty to round me up like a girl chicken and when I didn’t comply, he proceeded to attack me 5 times. I had to ward him off and now he and I, well, we are not on talking terms.
He will be lucky if he doesn’t become one with my stock pot.
While it might have amused some to see video of my experience, I am very thankful none exists!
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Ha! I was hoping that was video of rooster shenanigans.
Beautiful birds. But that last chicken looks like an unmade bed.
Kitt: LOL hey now, Bruiser the silkie rooster – of unmade bed fame – is my daughter’s favorite chicken!
He has a personality 3 stories high even though he is a tiny guy. Silkies are a funky breed.
My 5 year old is scared to death of Barley the guard rooster.
I think such a video of me being repeatedly mauled and dragged through the mud by Barley the Menace would shoot to the top of YouTube and I would hide in my closet for months. Not a good thing!
Nice pictures of healthy apparently healthy birds. I also enjoyed your wittiness.
Kelly: heh, I guess roosters bring out the wit tho they do it in way I would prefer to avoid! Barred rocks are definitely easy on the eye. Our least attractive are the ones that were manhandled by some roosters (which we ate) so the poor girls are missing feathers.
I don’t know what breed the rooster was, but I have found that a large breed rooster some of the more calmer varieties, can and generally will not be nasty, although no rooster can ever be trusted.
I made sure I talk to my rooster, drop him some scratch to give is girls. It seems to help. A lot depends on how much you work with them. Most people put too much rooster with too few hens. A rooster for 8 or 10 hens is plenty, I had a young rooster and he kept the eggs for 35 hens fertile.
I have also heard that if you have too many hens, they can’t keep up and it breaks their spirit. Either way, they seem to rip the feathers off.l
The most destructive rooster was a mid-size minorca but he is gone now. We have too many roosters right now. (One is too many in my mind but I may be biased toward quiet)
My daughter gives all of the chickens abundant love (they are loved pets to her except for when the roosters get too aggressive and then she helps me cull them)
The boys definitely let the girls eat first and watch over them.