Rooster Talons are totally no joke! No wonder Roo always left marks on me, geez!
Needless to say, Roo’s time at the Crab Homestead has come To a close and his son, Prince Roo, has taken over as king:) This was Big Crab’s first run at killing a chicken by swinging him around by his neck! Normally we use the chicken ringer and just pull the head off. Well, he thought Roo was dead, after he was terrorizing our daughter while taking out the garbage the hub went out and said “ok it’s over now”. After a few gallant swings in circles, the rooster was limp and then Crab returned inside for his knife, the cleaner, and a pot. Once he was set up, Roo’s eyes popped open! Lol! So he just stuck him in the ringer and did it the way he knew how! Unfortunately, bc of the stress the meat was tough. I’m sure if I would have frozen it for a while it would have helped..but big crab had Roo all skinned and ready for dinner by the time I returned from the store! So, dinner is served! Lol! This was a couple of months ago, so since then we have been terror free!!
My friend sent me this picture via text the other day and I couldn’t help but laugh. I am pretty sure that feather in her hair is a chicken feather lol…and what made it funnier is that I actually do that if I find I nice one..lol. I also have a vase of pretty Turkey Feathers in my house that I have collected in hopes of making some jewelery out of it. I also have a sign outside that says Caution: Area patrolled by Attack Chicken…haha! Either way, to all of you other Crazy Chicken Ladies out there, enjoy!
These are not my first bruises, cuts, scrapes, etc. from living on the homestead or with animals in general. They are inevitable! Fences have cut me, nails have gone through my boot, chicken/turkey/rabbit feet have scraped me, my head has been bruised from knocking it on fence posts or beams form things we are building, and yes….oh yes…my rooster has attacked me. 🙂 It is quite amusing though watching him flap his wings and get all riled up, sort of floating into the air spurring his sharp “talons” at me (or the girls) in effort to make us go away. Unfortunately, “going away” means inside the house, and that is not satisfactory as there are things to do outside! Another reason for the Chicken Tractors! Anytime Roo fusses (every few weeks), I simply grab him by the feet and let him hang upside down. I have tried kicking him away, but that just makes him way more arrogant. Better to nip it in the bud. I have walked outside to take my girls to school, holding coffee, and this little b****rd jumped me from behind! I spilled my coffee on my shirt and since I had to turn around and go back inside he had the nerve to crow over and over again upon his victory! Ugh! 🙂 So, the other day when we were building some tractors outside, he go me through my jeans, and the bruises came a couple of days later. This pic is of the outside of my right thigh. He got me with both feet at the same time. It honestly didn’t and doesn’t even hurt (unless you poke them like my husband likes to do to torment me and my easily bruised skin!) but I thought I would share some of the adventures of owning a rooster…this was exactly what I warned my husband about when we discussed it a couple of years ago. Now the chickens are all put up in a tractor..except for Roo. His predecessor has taken over the Throne of the Barnyard, and now his time on the Crab Homestead has ended. He will be processed soon, but in the mean time he still looks to terrorize sporadically..probably all the pent up….umm…frustration. And he hangs out by the chicken tractor anyway. I kind of feel bad for him because he was “shut out” but he can still visit with them. Then I look at my leg and think, “No I don’t feel bad.” 🙂
Either way, I still can not be mad at Roo b/c he did a damn good job defending our ladies from skunks and hawks. And he stands up for the little biddies to the hens who like to peck. Overall, he will always have a special place in my heart as all of our animals do. And so for that, We Thank You.
We found our first turkey egg the same day we completed the turkey tractor! Great Timing! Now I can find all of our turkey eggs! Who knows, they may have been laying a while, I just have not found them yet! lol! This one is a little bigger than our large chicken eggs, and speckled:) I will be collecting and incubating them soon to see if we can’t hatch some little Turk Turks!
Here is a chick progress update! The end of January Chicks are growing up well! I had ot move them to my other coop since the shared one was getting a little cramped. The plan is to make a small chicken tractor for the chicks to go into after they leave the brooder box (3-4 wks) and one for the 8 wk mark. This way we can keep the rotation going and still have outside/contained/protection for our biddies!
Update on the Duck Tractor! We added a tarp to give the ducks some more shade and wind break. I widened their door to their little house inside, but did that after I made the video of course! But either way, just wanted to show what it looked like afterwards. We will see how the tarps do the next few months and determine if we will keep them or think of another shade/wind break method.
Finally! The completed Turkey Tractor! This was definitely needed considering our Tom decided to show retaliation towards my English Mastiff, Mila, for when she bullied him when he was much smaller! He didn’t hurt our poor little 130 lb princess;) Just wouldn’t really allow her to play outside without attacking! So the Turkey Tractor became a priority! This one currently houses 6 Turkeys, but we will be processing 3 soon to dwindle the population and give them more room. If you have any questions please ask! We have had them in this thing for 3 days now, and so far so good!
A quick video of the new Muskovy ducks and their home! They have a nice shelter, and we recently added a tarp to this one, will update soon! They have finally gotten use to being here, still getting used to us. Will let you all know how this new adventure is going!
Here is a video tour of the chicken tractor we just built! We recently added a tarp soon after this video, and hung the feed and water. I will update with that video soon! So far with 20 mph winds all day today, they have held up great!
The Current Project on the homestead is the best one yet! NO more chicken and Turkey poop covering my walk ways and deck! I love my free range birds, but their poop is not fun. We decided to open the gates and let all the critters run wild and forage for food. IT cut down on feed costs, but instead of cleaning out my wallet, these guys are making me clean my shoes. And my floors…from this messy predicament. Ok, it probably is not THAT Bad…but I feel it is, and we came up with a solution. After a year of off and on talking about it, different ideas thrown around, we finally decided we were finally going to do it! Also, we want to get ducks, so we need penned up areas for our other poultry. We can also choose where to put our birds and allow them to fertilize a specific area. So they still get to “free range” they just have limits now.
So Sgt Crab tore down our two 40’x40′ chicken/turkey pens we had up so we could re-use our materials. We had plenty of 2×4, chicken fence, and nails left over. Not to mention the posts, but we can’t dig those out until we have some dirt to fill those holes with. Those holes are a broken leg waiting to happen..or a dead chick or turkey.
We started yesterday afternoon with the Chicken Tractor. Framing of the 6’x8′ project was complete.
Bundled up and working outside. This frame project only took a little while. Me left, Sgt Crab right
6’x8′ Frame. Super Crab
Rear view, Next boxes will go on this side.
Then today, we got to the wheels and nest box/shelter area
We ordered the wheels and they were sent to a local farm supply store. You can find them online and tractor supply too. We used 2 wheels on each side of each rear side board for extra stability.
The Wheels
Held on with a bolt, one washer on outside, 2 on inside, and a nut.
The outside of the wheels.
The Next Box is made out of thin plywood and small screws. We decided on a bump out, large nesting area filled with hay. I kept a lip in the front of it so hay won’t spill out. We will hinge the over hang roof into a door. We did not want to cut up another pice of plywood for the roof, so we are going to piece it together. Will have a tarp over it too so water will not get in.
Bottom frame of Nest Box- SIDE VIEW
Rear View- Nest Box Frame. We took off the “V” shaped boards. This was to help support the frame. We also tilted the frame back slightly so the eggs would roll towards the hinged roof side 🙂
Finished Nest Box Product! Front View
From the top
Rear View
Side View..Wow that looks sexy!
I will update as we complete! This is what we have as of today! We will be able to start working tomorrow afternoon!
