Chicken News

Our Dominique hens are now residing in Dan's chicken tractor. You may recall we initially moved them in as chicks. We had twelve chicks, however, so they quickly outgrew the chicken tractor and were moved into the chicken coop. Turned out nine of those twelve were roosters. We kept one and thought all was well until a hawk or owl got the rooster. Then a neighboring allowed-to-roam dog killed one of our three hens, so we're down to two. 

Our ideal number of chickens is six hens plus a rooster, so I looked around for more chicks. I finally found a breed we liked at our family-owned feedstore. 

These little gals are Speckled Sussex, one of Dan's favorite breeds. I was hoping for another batch of straight run (unsexed), but all that was offered was pullets. These come with a 90% guarantee of correct sexing, so I'm hoping we got at least one cockerel in the bunch! We need a rooster! I've got them in the house for now, and will move them to a brooder box in the chicken coop when they get a little bigger.

The other chicken news involves our neighbor. The other night I went out onto the kitchen porch and heard loud crackling and popping. I looked outside toward the noise and saw a humongous ball of fire next door. One of our neighbor's chicken coops was on fire. 

Dan and I ran over as fast as we could to help. The little building was made of plywood and pallets, and had created a ferocious blaze. My neighbor was hysterical and crying "They're in there! They're in there!" Someone had the garden hose going, but the water pressure was so low it wasn't making much of an effect. Fortunately, these neighbors have an above ground swimming pool, so I grabbed the nearest container to dump water on the adjacent chicken houses, while Dan started shoveling dirt to smother the spread of the fire. Miraculously, we were able to keep the fire from spreading to the other two little wooden chicken coops and the trees overhead. 

Turns out she had just moved 30 new chicks from the house into the coop. The extension cord for the heat lamp was apparently faulty and started the fire. The cord itself was burned about halfway to the house. The adult chickens survived because they were out in the yard, but all the chicks were lost. My neighbor was devastated. All I could do was give her a big hug. We don't plan for bad things to happen, but they do anyway, and we always feel responsible. Unfortunately, bad things happening are a fact of life.

As you can imagine, I was extremely careful to check our heat lamp and extension cord when I set up for our new chicks. They're about a week old now, so they'll stay in the house until they outgrow their tote. Then we'll set them up in a brooder box in the chicken coop. We can anticipate them starting to lay in September. In the meantime, I'll have to adjust our diet to what two hens can produce. 

Chicken News © May 2021 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Lost & Found - One Rooster

I'm a big one for routine when it comes to our animals. We try to work out a routine that accommodates both us and our animals and then stick to it. When they know what to expect, things go so much more smoothly. One thing that seems to be a challenge for our chickens, however, is when we change their free range area.

The green stars are where the chicken gates are located.

We have two chicken gates in the chicken yard, one leading to the front pasture, and one allowing them back into the doe pasture. Every couple of months we alternate where the chickens are allowed, but for some reason, they've never caught on to this. It takes many weeks for them to catch on to which gate is open, especially if they have established some favored egg-laying spot. A few of the persistent ones never catch on. These insist on making it into the "off" area, and then get into a dither about trying to get back to the coop at night.

The other day this happened to one of our two roosters. He somehow managed to get into the buck pasture, currently being used by the pigs and off-limits to the chickens. At dusk, he and one of the Buff Orpington hens were in that pasture, running frantically back and forth along the fence nearest the chicken coop. Now, the most obvious solution would seem to be simply open the gate and let them out. However, with pigs in one pasture and piglets-in-weaning and goats in the other, this isn't so simple. Opening the gate means every critter rushing to get through it to where we don't want them. That meant everybody had to be lured away from the gate and distracted long enough for the chickens to go through.

Our two Black Australorp roosters

It took Dan and me several minutes to accomplish this (feed being the distraction), and then we set about trying to tend to those fretting chickens. The hen ran right through the gate, but the rooster absolutely was not going to go through it. It didn't matter how wide open the gate was or how we tried to herd him through it, he instead ran right by it a number of times. Apparently our wanting him to run through it was reason enough in his chicken brain to not do it! Once the distraction was consumed, all the critters made a beeline for the gate. It was getting dark, so we had to give up.

The next morning the rooster was gone. Dan looked all over for his remains, but never found anything. After getting rid of the first skunk another showed up, so there was that to worry about, plus we have owls, opossums, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, and hawks. I looked for him to show up all that day, but he never did. Not that we need two roosters, but it was still a shame to lose him that way. Oh well, life goes on.

The next afternoon there was a knock at the front door. It was a neighbor from across the street. "Have you lost a black rooster?" he asked. "It's next to my house hiding in the bushes. It's almost gotten hit by a car twice."

Needless to say, I was surprised! I thought that rooster was a goner! With my neighbor's help we were able to herd said rooster back across the street and toward the chicken coop.

How he managed to get from the back of our property to across the street while bypassing the chicken yard is a puzzle. How he managed to survive those two nights is another. It's nice to know he didn't have an unfortunate demise. All's well that end's well, I'd say.

 Lost & Found - One Rooster © Sept. 2015 by
Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

The Up and Coming

Our Australorp chicks are going on 11 weeks old. They are all feathered out now and look like little chickens.

Of the original chicks, twelve remain. Three were killed by a rat, and one was lost due to an accident. Of those twelve, we appear to have two roosters.

The two on the right have the reddest and most developed combs.

Of those two, one is larger and can always be found with the pullets.

This one is attempting to crow!

The smaller one is more of a loner, usually to be found on the periphery of the other Australorps.

The Loner

Choosing a rooster has always been a much deliberated task on the homestead (see "Rules With an Iron Claw"), but this time, the choice appears to have been made for me. The chickens themselves made the choice.

What do my older hens think? For the most part they go about their own business, while the young 'Lorps all stick together.

The Buffs and Speckled Sussex have pretty much left the chicks
alone. The Wyandottes, on the other hand, chase everybody. 

The hen who had been trying to crow is no longer doing that, although none of them seem to care one way or another about the presence of roosters once again. These are all older gals, some of them in their fourth summer of laying. I'm only getting about four eggs a day now, so their production is not impressive.

The pullets will be five months old in October, so we can expect our first pullet eggs then. After that we'll get down to a core group of chickens for the winter. The rest will be canned for chicken stew.

It's a lot of fun to try out different breeds of chickens, but we've pretty much decided that we're through experimenting. For better or for worse, we'll stick with the Black Australorps, assuming some will go broody. I've had mixed reports on that, so we'll see. The plan is to let them raise half a dozen or so of their own chicks every year, and replace the oldest hens from those numbers. As long as we can have a fairly steady supply of eggs, I'll be happy.

The Up and Coming © July 2015
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Volunteer Day Rooster

Our volunteer day rooster

Well, we didn't remain roosterless for long. No, we didn't go out and get another rooster; rather, the junior rooster from next door was quick to notice that our flock of lovely hens was without, and quickly made himself available for the job.

The first I realized he was there was one morning when I went out the back door and heard a rooster clucking his prettiest "I found a treat to eat" song. There he was in our backyard, clucking to about half a dozen of my hens who were in the chicken yard, on the other side of the chicken wire fence. They were extremely interested in what he'd found, but couldn't get out to get it.

The next morning, Mr. Rooster was in the pasture with the hens, just as happy as he could be. He's shown up every day since, not that he's been invited to stay (by the humans, that is), but the hens haven't discouraged him either. I'm not sure if our next door neighbors have noticed, but I'm sure their senior rooster doesn't mind getting rid of the competition.

Unfortunately for him (but fortunately for us?) he can't quite figure out how to get into the chicken yard.

He's on one side of the chicken yard fence ...

the hens (who come and go as they please) are on the other.

The chicken entrance into the yard is a bit tricky because I'm routing them into the front pasture. I did that when I replanted the back pasture and didn't want them gobbling down all the seed.

To go out to the pasture they have to go out the chicken gate ...

... then follow a small lane I made with a scrap of fence. I tied it off on the gate you see above, which is propped open for the time being. From there they head on out. The barn red building you see off in the distance in center of the photo is the goat shelter.

Getting back is a bit trickier, however, because the chickens have to remember where the entrance to that lane is. The bright ones do, but a few of the others initially bypass it and end up in the corner instead. They "remember" when they see another chicken make it successfully back into the yard.

Hens in the compost with Mr. Roo
watching from outside the chicken yard. 

Our volunteer day roo is usually around at chore time, so Dan or I toss him scratch over the fence. But no one is going out of their way to show him the secret entrance to the chicken yard. So, during the day he happily escorts the hens around the pasture, but heads back home for the night. For the time being, it appears to be a pretty good arrangement.

Volunteer Day Rooster © February 2015
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Roosterless

Some folks seem to do well with more than one rooster. I've read of cases where roosters don't fight and actually help one another watch the flock. We have not had the privilege of such an experience.

Our flock consists of Buff Orpingtons, Silver Laced
Wyandottes, Speckled Sussex, and a few mixes.

This past summer we had two broody hens, each raising only one chick. Both turned out to be cockerels. Our Wyandotte rooster was pretty good with them as chicks. Unlike roosters past, he pretty much tolerated and ignored them. I compared the roosters of our experience in "Rules With An Iron Claw", and I hoped peace would continue in the chicken yard.

The Sultan with part of his harem. He had a marked preference for the Buffs

I called the two cockerels R2 and R3. As they got older The Sultan started chasing them away from the hens, food, and coop. R2 was pretty intimidated by him, but as time went on R3 got bolder. When The Sultan started backing off, we knew a challenge for the top spot would be going from a simmer to a full boil in a matter of time.

R3 in the background. R2 was usually hiding behind the coop.

Initially, the two young roosters kept their distance from one another, but eventually they paired up. Every morning The Sultan would chase them behind the coop where they would hide until the chickens were let out to free range. Then they would go back into the coop and wait for a hen to come lay her egg, where they would jump her.

The chicken yard was in a constant uproar. As the crowing, challenging, and chasing got worse, we knew it was time to do something. The Sultan too. For his good qualities he had some bad ones, particularly that he would bully the hens. They are the producers on the homestead and they needed a break.

So. We are currently roosterless, peace resides once again, and I have three roosters in the freezer. Such is life on the homestead.

Roosterless © February 2015 by Leigh
at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Rules With An Iron Claw

Dan calls him “The Sultan” because he keeps his little harem of Buff Orpingtons in check. He's the third reigning rooster we've had and it's interesting how different the three have been. They've all done what roosters do, but not exactly the same way.

The Sultan, our current rooster, a Silver Laced Wyandotte

Our 1st rooster Lord B, a Barred Holland

Our first rooster was a Barred Holland. I called him Lord Barred Holland (or Lord B) because of his lordly manner; Dan called him B. He was almost perfect: always watchful, always on the alert, deferential toward his hens, and non-aggressive toward humans. At least that was initially the case. As he got older he did show some signs of aggression toward us (a big no-no and absolutely not allowed). His biggest fault, however, was that he was entirely intolerant of new additions to the flock, pullets as well as cockerels. After killing one, he had to go.

Our 2nd rooster Cowboy, a Buff Orpington

Our second rooster was a Buff Orpington. We named him Cowboy because of his approach toward his hens. Rather than do a courtship dance to get their attention as Lord B had done, Cowboy would puff out his chest and wings, then charge the hens, and grab on like a rodeo rider. Cowboy did not have all the natural roostering qualities. My oldest Barred Holland hen had to teach him that any goodies he found were for the hens, not himself. I don't know how many times she had to rush in and gobble down his food-finds until he learned to simply announce them and step back to let the girls enjoy. But he did catch on.

Last year Dan became interested in Silver Laced Wyandottes so we decided to give this breed a try. Of our three SLW cockerels, The Sultan was the last one left after the elimination process. When he first realized he was the only roo, he chased down each of the hens in turn and simply stood on top of her. Eventually it got to the point where any time he approached a hen, she would hunker down in obedience before he could grab her. This is mostly true of the Buffs. The Wyandotte and Speckled Sussex hens have minds of their own. They go where they please and as fast as they can if The Sultan in on their tail. But the Buffs can almost always be found in a cluster with The Sultan standing tall and proud in their midst.

We have mostly Buff Orpingtons, with 3 SLW hens & 3 Speckled Sussex

To his credit, he respects the humans and keeps out of the way. He is very alert and very quick to round up all the hens if he hears a hawk or one flies overhead. Because he rules with an iron claw, they heed and obey. I've not lost a chicken to hawks so far this year.

The other really nice quality about this rooster is that he does not bother the chicks. Lord B was aggressively intolerant of new chicks, while Cowboy would simply take pleasure in tormenting them. He loved to sneak up from behind and grab a beakful of feathers. He would proudly parade these around while the youngster ran squawking. The Sultan, however, doesn't seem to take notice of them and leaves them alone. That's a huge plus in my book and he may have a longer career on the homestead than the others.

Rooster tales, anyone? I'd love to hear your stories about your roosters.

Rules With An Iron Claw © August 2014 by
Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/