Friday, March 14, 2008

The Defective Rooster

I guess that should be the rooster who defected, but really the defective rooster has more appeal. We have 5 chickens 3 hens, Grace, Guinney, and Rachel and 2 roosters, Spot and Zeke. Zeke is the dominant roo.  The roo's aren't necessary to get eggs, the hens lay without a roo. We only have 2 because you had to buy 5 chicks and they only had 3 female chicks left. Roos are kind of a pain, they feel the "need to breed" constantly. They are annoying to the hens, and if they perceive you as a chicken, then they feel the need to challenge you as another roo. This entails grabbing your leg with theirs and flogging you with their head. And at our house the attempt to do this is met with a kick in the bum or head. (plus some choice names said at the roo.)

 I'll grant you they are protective of the girls and they will get between them and a hawk or a possum, I have seen both things happen. But that is where their endearing qualities end.

After being locked up together in the chicken house for most of the winter, it is finally nice enough for the chickens to free range the yard, Spot, whom already had an inferiority complex, has decided to go live with the ducks down the hill. We rent a bit of our pasture to a man who has ducks and a few hens. Spot has decided to claim these girls as his harem and live with them. He's gone to visit before but has always been home at lock down time, no more. He has not come home all week, since Monday. And I have decided not to go chasing after him. I'm a bad chicken keeper aren't I? Oh well.

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10 comments:

  1. CHICKENS! Awesome! Umm, do you keep the guys separate from the girls to keep the eggs from becoming chicks? How does that work? Also, what are "fertile eggs?" I heard someone say they're better for you, but I don't know what they are.
    RYC, Thanks for being honest about your symptoms- I think it's important to let people know that not all of us feel "goddess-like" and wonderfully maternal during the first few months- mostly just sick!

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  2. I'll worry about it if the guy decided to move the ducks and his chickens I guess. It nice to not have him attacking me, but I don't know if we can re introduce him later.

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  3. A fertile egg has been fertilized by the roo, as opposed to a hen with not access to a roo who will lay anyway. I dont know if they are better for you or not, I know if you put the eggs in the fridge nothing grows, fertile or not. And to hatch eggs you need a broody hen, which means she will sit on the eggs to incubate then, if they get cold the growth stops not matter far along they are.As for pregnancy I spent a lot of time feeling like a truck hit me, especially when my allergies where acting up. My sinuses hurt so bad I could hardly lie with my face on a pillow. Thank God that wasn't alll the time but it was bad for some of it. I have a friend with a 4 month old, and she had morning sickness for 2 1/2 trimesters, all day everyday. Thankfully the birth experience was fabulous for her, since pregnancy was less than exciting.

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  4. Oh yeh I had a friend who was so up set about that myth she
    spent almost all of her pregnancy with morning, afternoon & evening
    sickness at sometime during it! I remember her sobbing at about 5 months at our
    house on my shoulder after having to throw up in our toilet about how she
    really had wanted to have babies & now it was all ruined & how she must
    be an awful mother before she’d even begun because she couldn’t stop throwing
    up! It wasn’t like massive volumes or anything I checked just a little &
    not all the time she just felt that way! Thank god for my mum she managed to
    comfort her as all my friends know I’ve never been pregnant (well apart from
    that miscarriage) eventually the sickness calmed down in the 3rd trimester
    & although the birth wasn’t too fantastic she had a healthy girl & then
    8 month later she was pregnant again!!!! By choice and went through it all
    again for a boy! Seeya hugya *G*

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  5. I think in the presence of the baby you forget how bad pregnancy or birth was because if you didn't no one would ever have more than one. LOL.

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  6. Yep well you all scared me out of having any LOL! Only
    kiddin we can't & don't want any of our own I have substitutes that
    are all grown up & my friends kids to spoil rotten I get all the fun with
    none of the late nights (actually some times I spell them so I get some of the
    late nights but that’s by choice) I think we have to forget how bad the pregnancy
    & birth is or as you say we’d never have any more babies But I think it’s
    good to let people know it’s not always so perfect so they don’t feel like
    failures Seeya hugya *G*

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  7. You write about them like characters in a farm story - I love it. I'm taking it that Grace, Guinney, Rachel, Spot and Zeke are not destined to be Sunday lunch...

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  8. I really don't think I can eat anything I've named, naming makes them pets. Not to mention for me taking care of them makes them pets also. although I'm not above throwing things at the roosters if they get nasty with me.

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  9. Go Spot Go! That was a real cute chicken story.

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