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.
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!
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!
Our babies are growing growing growing! They are now on chicken feed for adults, pellets and cracked corn (dumor brand). Finally started walking outside after leaving their coop door open for a week! I am hoping in four more weeks we will be able to start processing them! They have eaten one and a half 50 pound bags of chick crumble so far..about $15…we want to keep feed costs down, so the sooner they start eating scraps the better! I will try to give them some juice pulp to add vitamins to their diet as well. They just were not digging the tortillas I threw out to them!
