Why {Most} Roosters Are Mean

Ok, now that we've had a few roosters in our flock, I think I'm at least semi- qualified to explain this phenomenon, which gives roosters such a bad reputation.

I'm sure many of my readers can relate-- if not recently in their lives, then perhaps earlier in their childhood they can remember some rooster stories to make us all laugh. Of course, at the time, I'm sure it was no laughing matter!

Our buff orpington rooster, Foghorn, in his younger days.  RIP.

Roosters seem more than happy to perpetuate the myths of their terror-stalking ways.

One thing I've learned is that they ARE territorial.  And if you don't remind them who is the boss, they will happily take that role over for you and be the boss of everything around them, including YOU.

That was the mistake I made.  I let our roosters strike fear into me, and I avoided them.

HUGE MISTAKE.

Here's the best explanation I found on the internet and I hope it helps others realize the best way to make your rooster see things YOUR way.

Go ahead, click on over and read this. It's very interesting, full of good information, and it's a short read too.  What more could you want?

Keeping Your Roosters Sane

So what do you think after reading the above page?  Is this new information for you, or did you already know this? It makes good sense, doesn't it?

I already knew that it's a good thing to handle chicks (and guinea keets) as much as possible the first 2 weeks after hatching, if you want them to be tame. In our case, this is extremely difficult - we both work and we're gone enough that it's hard to be consistent in this endeavor.

Sally with her young chicks in May 2013 (2 months old)

In addition to our time crunch, our buff orpington Sally was diligent in watching over her chicks 6 months ago.  She made absolutely sure that we did NOT touch them in any way!

But I do believe even though we missed this crucial first step, we can still catch up for lost time by consistently reminding our rooster -- with a broom, a boot, or a spray of water from the hose -- that WE are the dominant alpha entities at this house!! The back porch is now off limits to him, and we boot him off every time we see him perched there.  (So far it seems to be working!)

Roo-boy, crowing his supremacy... um, no.
We'll be taking back our living area starting TODAY.

So I don't blame our rooster - he's just being a rooster, after all.  He wants to be King of the flock and everything else around him. It's in his DNA.  He can't help it.

We'll commute his death sentence for now, and give him another week or two of grace, and see if he accepts our alpha-ness. He's young; he still has the potential to learn a new game.

I hope he's smart and decides to play along, and play nice.  After all, he IS a pretty boy.  It's hard to see in the photos, but he's beginning to grow some green feathers in his tail -- gorgeous!

If he doesn't want to be nice, well, there's always chicken and noodles.  A 7-month old rooster would do nicely.

Sally, Our Buff Orpington Hen, Has Chicks

A week ago Sunday, this is what we found in Sally's nesting box... two baby chicks!

Sally had been sitting on a clutch of eggs since late February.  Needless to say, by the time April 7th rolled around, we were ready to get rid of her eggs.  Chicks only take 21 days to hatch.

And then, amazingly, two eggs hatched out these little barred rock chicks!

Looking back, I think what happened was this....  several times, when Sally hopped out of her box to get a bite to eat and a quick drink, one of the barred rock hens would get into her box.  So Sally would just hop into a different box and sit.  Hours later I would find her in the wrong box, with the clutch of eggs cold.

So even though many of the eggs didn't hatch, I believe our barred rock girls laid a few late eggs that finally got a consistent "sit" from Sally and hatched out these little sweeties!

Sally is happy.  She has always wanted to be a mom.  :-)

Now only time will tell if we have hens, or roosters!!  Hopefully, these two little cutie pies are hens.

Don't you just love it when little chickies poke their heads out from mom's feathers?!
SO CUTE!

Update 6/2013:  The little chickie on the right in the top photo is a rooster, and the other chickie with the red head is a hen.  Really?!  Couldn't they both have been hens?  :-)

The Angry Rooster

He's even bigger than this now - this is an older pic.

Yesterday morning I donned my riot gear before I let the chickens out of the coop.  Our rooster has been on the attack for several months now, and he's getting worse.

Methinks he's not long for this world... and frankly, I'd be happy with just the five hens.

At any rate, since the hubby was sick yesterday and he is the one who has been dealing with the chickens, the task fell to me to let them out for the day.

I won't lie.  I was nervous.  I had been attacked by the rooster several months ago, and several kicks to him did not deter him one iota.  He had it in for me!

So I prepared for the mass exit from the henhouse by building a wall between me and the hatch door.  I built my wall with a large piece of cardboard, some 2x4s, and some particleboard.  Then, to lengthen my wall a tad, I stacked two 5-gallon buckets next to the cardboard.

For defense, I took the herding stick we use for the guineas, a very long 2x2 piece of wood, maybe 10 - 12 ft long?

One more thing... I decided I needed a shield, like the knights of old.  I found the perfect shield - the removable top from our chick brooder - it's square, has handles on two sides, and a tight wire mesh screen.

My shield was one-half of the top you see here, with a 2nd handle added.

(The top of the brooder has been modified since this photo was taken.)

PERFECT.  I was ready for battle with the roo.

I got myself in position, took a very deep breath, and opened the hatch door.  Before I could get it lifted and latched to the building, I quickly put my wire-mesh shield in front of the opening, to slow down the chickens' exodus from the coop.

I'm not sure what happened in the coop, but I heard claws screeching to a dead-stop on the concrete floor, a very loud raucous clucking from everyone, and feathers a-flapping.... I bent down to peer into the coop, and did not see one chicken in sight!

The sight of the wire-mesh shield in front of their door must have sent them into a panic, and instead of attacking the shield, even the rooster must have flown up onto their roost!

I clipped the hatch door to the building, and began to methodically remove my riot gear from their pen.  As I exited their pen, I decided to watch and see if they would finally come out of the coop?

It was really quite funny....  a few of the hens finally peeked their heads out the door.  They saw the 5-gallon buckets stacked nearby, and tilted their heads, wondering why they were there?

Finally, everyone came out.

Let's just say I had no battles with the rooster all day.  And I was in and out of the coop quite a bit.  Twice I retrieved eggs.  For safety's sake, I took my human shield with me, and propped it in front of their hatch door, just in case the rooster would come running into the coop to attack me .... yes, he always runs into the coop whenever we go inside.

He didn't come into the coop even once yesterday when I was inside.

All of this preparation on my part may sound pretty funny to those who aren't familiar with roosters, but for those who know roosters, then you know how mean they can be when they put their mind to it!

Even my husband was amazed at how well the rooster can launch his attacks and hit you mid-air!  He curls his body into a U-shape, and both his beak and his claws are hitting you at the same time.  It would be stunning to get video and then play it in slo-mo.

If he continues to behave, then he gets a free pass and gets to live.  Time will tell.

If he decides to attack again, he may become "Angry Rooster Soup".    Jes' sayin.

Don't forget to enter January's country giveaway here.  You've got until January 27th to enter.  :-)

All In A Day - and The Lehman's Country Giveaway!

It's been a busy Sunday already... cleaned out the keets' Rubbermaid tote AND cleaned the chicken coop. Cleaning the coop is always quite the chore.

Hubby put together a new metal nesting box unit for the hens, which will be so much more healthy (translate: not as germy) than the old wooden nesting boxes were.

9 keets so far - 4 pearls, 5 lavenders

 

Midge, our Ameraucana hen

Foghorn poses - yep, that's his name

We did a walkabout on the property - hubby showed me what he had accomplished with the Bobcat we are renting this weekend.  He started digging out the silt pond yesterday afternoon. 

We did get about a half inch of rain last night, of course.  Because we rented the Bobcat, you know.

The poor dried-up big pond

A mud turtle at the big pond

He decided to remove a nasty bush at our back porch that attracts flies as if it had a dead corpse inside it.  It doesn't (have a dead corpse) but the flies must think so.

Bush be gone!

The Bobcat removeth!

Don't forget to enter the Lehman's country giveaway

for your chance to win one of two $25 gift certificates.  

Click here to read the post with

all the details on how to enter!

Farewell My Red Roo

The time finally came.  Red Roo had become over-the-top aggressive, so we needed to eliminate him from the chicken flock equation.

Upon my return from work late Thursday night, I checked on the birds like I always do. Within about 60 seconds of my entering the coop, Red Roo had hopped down off the nesting boxes to attack our barred rock rooster, who was quietly laying on the floor in front of the boxes.  When our buff orpington roo saw the commotion, he decided that Red Roo needed help and joined the fray.

Red Roo, shortly before his departure on Thursday

With nothing more than a mini-flashlight in my hand, I tried to beat Red Roo away.  He didn't seem to mind being beat with a small flashlight.  He probably thought, "is that all you got?"

Wouldn't that have made a great video?  I'm sure it would have been absolutely hysterical to watch me helplessly fend off a mad rooster.

Red Roo before his demise --

that's our buff rooster you hear crowing

When I finally managed to get both roosters off the poor barred rock boy, I still had to keep swinging my free arm to keep them away, while I attempted to pick up the barred rock who lay limp and lifeless on the floor of the coop.

I gently placed the barred rock on the separate side of the coop with the guineas, while I went to find our large dog crate - yes, the very same dog crate which had just been used for the injured hawk last weekend! I had already washed it and hubby had put it away in the garage.

Barred rock boy safe in his dog crate.
Don't let his small wattle fool you - we've watched him crow!

While I got him situated in the dog crate, the Red Roo decided to go at it some more and began attacking various hens, with the buff rooster helping him out again. I jumped to the other side of the coop again, yelling and flinging my flashlight at him.  Oh yes, I was so effective, I'm sure.

I think I even saw Red Roo roll his eyes and smirk at me.

I texted hubby, who was still at work, and told him the Red Roo's days had come to an end... yeah, who's smirking now, Red Roo?!

He was a major disruption in the flock and he had to go. This really did make me sad - but honestly, the hens (and us) got along fine with the other two roosters.

Hubby dispatched the Red Roo this morning.  

We were both sad, but even sadder that we didn't have the time to scald & pluck & cut him up to serve as dinner.  

I mean, really, that would have been ideal, and respectful of his existence.  But with our work times bearing down upon us, we didn't have time to do all that - with our newbie chicken status, it would have taken us longer than the average farmer.   

Psssst: Hubby HAS done this before, it's just been a long time. 

I'm the real newbie here!

The barred rock has been sitting quietly in the dog crate on our indoor back porch since last night.  I don't see any visible injuries - perhaps he has brain damage.  I say that half-jokingly, but then, you really never know, do you? 

I had noticed earlier in the week that he seemed quieter than usual, laying around a bit more.  When I checked on the birds Monday night, their waterer was cocked at an odd angle, and all the water had spilled out onto the floor.

That was my first clue (DUH) that there was tension in the flock.

When I put him back into the coop tomorrow, I think we'll keep him with the guineas and let him free-range.  No sense tempting the fates.  There are only 6 hens with the buff orpington rooster - the "books" all say there should be just one rooster to every 10 hens.

When we realized we had 3 roosters,
we knew we had a bomb just waiting to explode.

Reminder to self:

Buying all pullets does NOT guarantee you won't get any roosters. 

It does guarantee you'll pay more for your chickens.

Next on our to-do list:  Why is one guinea hen limping??!!

Help. Our birds have overtaken our lives.

P.S.  Next time we have an errant rooster, we will put him in the dog crate to await Saturday or Sunday when we can properly butcher him.   :-)

Three Roosters

Anyone want one?

They are now approaching 13 weeks old. 

We are beginning to hear some half-hearted

"cock-a-doodle-do's", kinda like a teenaged boy

going through puberty with a wavering voice.

Three roosters in a lot of 8 chickens is, well, um, not a good thing.  

The "books" recommend ONE rooster to every 10 hens.

So far, no fights, but I'm sure it's just around the corner that these three will start asserting their dominance over the hens.  So glad I didn't buy straight run - I actually bought all pullets and ONE panfry special, so I would have at least ONE rooster.

You see how that worked out.  Not so well.

Pond Shrinks While Chickens Grow

We are rapidly losing the pond to our ongoing drought.

If it dries up completely, we may look into options for some

heavy equipment to expand the pond boundaries and depth.

You can see how high it has reached on the sides in the past,

and we have lost much at the northwest end.

 In the meantime, the chickens are growing like weeds!

Hard to believe they are only 10 weeks old!
Another 12 weeks and there might be eggs.
:-)

Summer, Already?!

95 degrees today with a stiff 25 -30 mph south wind.  Ouch.  

I cleaned and refreshed everyone's water today -- the horses, the chickens, the guineas..... gave them all fresh, clear, cool water.  I noticed a few of the guineas panting today.  Poor things.

Where has spring gone?  It's only May 8th and we're having record heat.  Tomorrow is supposed to hit 100 degrees!  These are July and August temps here in south central Kansas, not May temps!  There's barely been any spring showers, and so our pond is shrinking rapidly.

The little silt pond (below) shriveled up and disappeared a month ago...

In spite of the heat, the chickens are growing big fast... I'm not entirely sure yet, but I'm afraid one or two of my "pullets" might be roosters in disguise.  A few more weeks should tell.  Especially one of my Rhode Island Reds -- definitely looking like a rooster!  If we end up with 2 or 3 roosters amongst our 8 total chickens, well, you know what that means.  One out of 3 will stay, and that will be the rooster with the best attitude.

 Rhode Island Red by feeder that suspiciously looks like rooster.

 My one Ameraucana in back by the waterer,

with pretty copper and blue-gray feathers.

This would be Sally, a buff orpington who is

my friendliest and most curious chicken.

The hubster has been busy, busy, busy these past few months.  With the arrival of our 8 chickens on April 1st, he quickly got to work building a divider in the chicken coop.  They were moved from their brooder to the coop last weekend, and they've adapted well.  We opened their outside door today to the small fenced run, but they chose to stay inside.  I'm sure the 30 mph winds had something to do with their decision.

He has also installed our new front doors, both the inside door and a new screen door.  We're not done with trim yet (obviously), but boy oh boy do these doors make a huge difference.  Now we can leave the door to the front porch open!

This is the old screen door (above) -- the bottom portion was duct-taped and would flap noisily in the wind.  Poor Trixie Lou was afraid of it.  This door is destined for the junk pile. ( I should have taken a picture of the old doors in place.)

Hubby has also put up an economy greenhouse for me near our gardens.  I'm hoping to utilize it more this fall and next spring.  If the cover doesn't hold up to our Kansas winds, well, at least we have a footprint to build a more sturdy greenhouse in the future.

Small garden from last year in front,

newer and larger garden close to greenhouse, and

new "boxes" to hold manure compost to the left of gardens.

Graveled interior with pavers.

Shelves to be added on either side of pavers.

My Grosso and Provence lavender plants,

soon to be planted in the garden.

Hubby is currently working on a stone border around the front porch -- clematis will be planted at this corner to grow up the lattice.

A quick side note:  A big thank you to Laura of A Simple Happy Life for the maple syrup that I won in her contest .... only one person was supposed to win, but she decided to draw a second name and I was the lucky winner!  So Tom and I got to sample her fresh, homemade maple syrup.  I didn't realize how much I missed the real thing -- ever since I moved here to Kansas, it's been just too expensive to buy real maple syrup.  THANK YOU Laura for sending this most delicious treat to us!

 And finally....

.... CiCi wanted to say "hi" to everyone.... although she's a bit miffed at us right now.  You see, we finally took her to the vet on Thursday to be "fixed", so she's been taking it easy this weekend.  She's been confined to our bedroom, and banned from the bathroom where she enjoys jumping high up to the window.

Here's hoping that everyone is enjoying their spring.... I think the rest of the nation IS having spring, just not us.  :-(

2 Guinea Eggs = 1 Chicken Egg

What a surprise!  Hubby found an egg on the floor of the chicken coop on Thursday, right before we had to leave for work.  As y'all might know (or not), we have 5 guineas.  The last thing I expected was to find any eggs from them.  They are not free-ranging (yet) and with the cold temps and the short days, I must say we were both very surprised to find the egg.

We thought it was probably an isolated incident, until today... lo and behold, another egg!!  Now, since 2 guinea eggs equal one regular size chicken egg, I might just fry these beautiful brown eggs up tomorrow morning.  I must say, I'm very curious to see how they taste.

Some of my internet research has revealed that many people prefer the taste of guinea eggs to chicken eggs. One man said that he always took chicken eggs to the farmers market, and then he began adding guinea eggs to his offerings.  No one would buy the guinea eggs, unsure of how they might taste.  One day he sold out of his chicken eggs and only had guinea eggs left, so a few reluctant customers decided to try them.  Now he says he sells out of his guinea eggs before his chicken eggs, as many of his customers prefer the guinea eggs!!

I've also heard/read they are higher in protein than regular ole chicken eggs.

Soooo, I'll let y'all know what I think, once I've tried 'em.  Any of my readers tasted guinea eggs?  Would love to hear your opinion.

P.S. Speaking of chickens, we will be getting our first chickens this spring.  Woohoo!!  On my shopping  list:  buff orpington, australorp, dorking and barren rock breeds.

P.S.S.  I apologize for my bloggy absence.  Two jobs makes it tough for me to have a significant online presence.  And I must admit, I really miss my time here.  Hope everyone is doing well!  I will be back on a more regular basis someday, I promise.  :-)

Our *Updated* Menagerie

I'm asked from time to time how many horses we have, what kinds of dogs, and what about the cats? So here's the current stats on our animal roster, updated July 2011.

Our Horses

Close to 27 years old, Murphy is the most senior member of the herd. He's a registered quarter horse, and true to his breed, pretty darn laid-back. I think he's lookin' pretty good for 27 - Purina Equine Senior food sure helps keep him in good horse shape!


At only 11 years old, Stormy girl is just a kid. Don't let her burst of energy here fool anyone - she loves her food and would rather be a pasture ornament than work too hard burnin' calories. This was her first day in the big pasture, early spring 2009. She's just showing off her quarter horse style.


Paint horse = king of the herd. It wasn't always that way - Murphy was the reigning king until we added Stormy, and then with the 2009 let-out to pasture, the herd dynamics changed. Adding the mare had something to do with it, we're sure, and even though Murphy and paint horse are both geldings, well, they're still guys at heart. Paint horse is 11 years old, and only green broke. We hope to finish him.  Someday.

Our Dogs

Ringo is the ranch dog, although he has managed to squeeze his way through the screen door on numerous occasions, especially when it's too hot or too cold outside. He's a chocolate labrador, close to 8 years old, and has honed his mouse and rat killing skills better than the cats. Oh, and the occasional opossum who tries to steal his food.

Update:  Ringo is no longer the ranch dog. 

He absconded guard duties to the guineas. 

He is now a low-ranking house dog.

Tori Mae, my blue merle australian shepherd rescue, was adopted from Heartland Aussie Rescue just north of Columbus, Ohio (no longer in operation). She's almost 8 years old, and is THE frisbee fetch queen. Get a frisbee out, and prepare to seriously damage your rotator cuff. This girl will not stop until you hide the frisbee. All toys are now put away in cabinets in the house, else we are constantly having them thrown in our laps. She's quite serious about her job.


Trixie Lou, the cuddlebug, is 8 years old and not the least bit interested in fetching anything. She's learned her lesson and stays far away from Tori when that girl is working; Tori will mow her down! Trixie is approximately 7/8 australian shepherd and 1/8 border collie, and also a blue merle. The vet said her nerves never stood a chance (she's a big sissy most of the time).

Our Cats

We currently have 4 cats - two inside the house, and 2 barn cats. We had 3 barn cats until 2009 -- the mom, Boogie, mysteriously disappeared. She was the most affectionate of our barn cats, and was the first to jump into our laps and take a nap whenever we sat outside.

We miss you Boogie!

Fluff is Boogie's daughter. She's a great lil mouser, and she loves her big brother Ringo. She especially loves curling up next to Ringo in the autumn.

Barack is Fluff's kid. He's another fantastic mouser but has a bad habit of including some of our resident birds in his catches. Bad cat! We've had both Fluff and Barack "fixed", so here's hoping they hang around for at least a few years to amortize our investment.


Finally, there's Baybee. I rescued her from a litter of feral cats in Ohio. She started spending more and more time on my enclosed front porch there, especially in the winter, until she became a part-time indoor cat. Since my move to Kansas, she has become a full-time indoor cat. I'm not sure that the resident barn cats would take a likin' to her, and I'm afraid she might become coyote bait since she's not accustomed to the wide open prairie.


Newest member to our cat family is CiCi aka Seesers.  She was rescued from the side of the road at approximately 8 weeks old when I was driving home from a visit to Ohio in June 2010. I was only 3 miles from home when I saw her little head whip around sideways as I passed,  and my curiosity got the best of me, so I turned around and went back to see WHAT THE HECK was that - baby owl?  Ohmigoodness, a teeny baby kitty, who came right up to me meowing, wanting to be picked up - definitely not a feral cat!

I kilt that pesky toilet paper, mum.

And now, finally, her and Baybee are buddies.  Well, sort of.
It's an uneasy truce at times.

Our Birds

We started out with 5 guinea keets in the fall of 2010.  This meant we had to remodel, er, rebuild, the chicken coop on our property - hubby tore it down to the studs, and started replacing boards.

Next, we got 8 chicks in the spring of 2011.  Two Plymouth Barred Rocks, 2 Rhode Island Reds, 2 Buff Orpingtons and 1 Ameraucana.  We bought pullets - really didn't want any roosters - then we decided to buy one "pan-fry special" (which means, rooster).  So that upped our Barred Rocks to three chicks.

Now, we have THREE roosters (so much for spending extra for pullets!) and five hens.  Two roosters will be heading to freezer camp within the next 4-8 weeks. One buff orpington and one rhode island red ended up being roosters, in addition to the barred rock rooster we bought ON PURPOSE.

In the last few days, we have added 2 more guineas to our flock.  Well, they are not officially added to the flock yet.  They just hatched a few days ago, so it will be awhile before they are integrated into the coop with the other birds.  It was quite an experience, trying to hatch our own eggs using the incubator!

Last but not least, I have to include my buddy Greystoke even though he's no longer with us. He lived a pretty long and pampered life for a dalmatian (12 years). As my mom used to say, it was a good thing he had such a great home with us; anyone else probably would have dropped him off at the local shelter. He chewed EVERYTHING. He was especially fond of kitchen or bathroom trash; I quickly decided that closed trash receptacles was the way to go with him. I still use them to this day. I mean, why tempt the next generation of dogs?

Next he decided he liked money. He even ate a $20 bill one time; I waited for it to magically appear in the back yard. When it did I took it to our local credit union in a baggie and told them my dog had chewed it up. Well. He did. I didn't lie.

You will always be my first doggie love!