You Can have too many roosters

I have been threatening to change the name of our place from Treffynnon Farm (which roughly translates from Welsh as "the farm by the stream"), to the more apt "Cockerel Corner" due to the large number of roosters we seem to be collecting.

We started out with two: one Rhode Island Red rooster who protects our egg-laying hens, and one Blue Chinese Cochin Bantam who came with his two lady friends. Along the way in my chicken rearing history of the past five years, roosters came and went, much to the delight and annoyance of my Atlanta neighbors. Now we live in a rural area, and everyone has a few chickens, maybe some ducks or doves. In the last year we have hatched several batches of Cochins (they are such broody girls!), but I think we win the prize topping out this week eleven roosters, with one baby I think will also turn out to be male. That will give us an even dozen.
This is not a good thing. Roosters are good to have around only for protection of the hens, they aren't needed for egg production since the hen lays eggs every day (or every other day) whether there is a 'man' around or not. If you have more than one, they will fight, most often to the death of one or another. Having a rooster does give one fertilized eggs, which can be hatched into more chickens or sold as having (in some circles) specific health properties. This brownish rooster was our "Gift With Purchase" chicken that we got when we ordered our chicks back in April. "Buy 25, get a Rare Heirloom Breed (hatchery choice) at no charge!!! We'll also include an extra chicken of the type you purchase just for buying". We are waiting for it to get older so we have a shot at identifying the breed.

So we got 25 females guaranteed plus one free rooster Silver-Laced Wyandotte and one free Unknown Chicken who turned out a rooster, too. What a surprise.

Plus, we have five Cochin bantam roosters who hang out together and argue a little bit. We call them the "Gang of Five".The bantam rooster who is top of the heap of the little chickens is Colonel Boogie and he is one tough little guy. He weighs maybe four pounds and has fended off hawks, crows, and a huge turkey vulture. He has earned his place as head of the bantams. The Gang of Five bows down to him at all times.

The big rooster Rhode Island Red is "Big Boy", and he is the one who lost his tail feathers to the possum. He has earned his spot in the pasture just by being able to wake up the household so we could battle the possum for him. He couldn't stand up to that huge bastard all by himself, so I helped him out a little, me and my metal fence post.

With such a plethora of roosters, we are faced with the choice of a) letting them have the run of the place, crowing at all hours and possibly annoying the neighbors and us, or b) butchering them and eating them. I have to be honest and blunt, although Barry will grumble at me for revealing it: I am in the "b" camp. I vote we eat them, even though the bantams are small and probably pretty tough at this age. Yes, they are beautiful, and yes, I'm sure they would make someone somewhere really nice show roosters, but no one wants roosters. They are useless and we have too many of them. Barry votes for "a", and so far seems to be winning, mostly due to apathy and inertia on my part.

We have done in two roosters since we've been here, but those two were Evil Roosters and needed to be Done In. They crowed at all hours. ALL. HOURS. It started at midnight, which got our other roosters going, then continued until dawn and then all day. It was tiresome. Plus, they attacked every human who got near them, and I just don't truck with no evil roosters. My baseball bat and I have a little talkin' to do to them roosters if they come flying at my face, which they did, and we did. But when it came time to do the deed and butcher them, I did it with as much kindness as I could muster, but I had no regrets. Unfortunately, they were too old by the time we butchered them and were both far too tough to eat. I guess they got the last laugh on us.

If anyone is interested in having an adorable, fluffy, sweet, funny-crowing pet bantam rooster, drop me a line. I'll deliver him in Atlanta or mail him for anywhere else in the lower 48 states of this great rooster growing country.

Cock a' doodle doo, y'all.

More Poultry Fun

Last week we moved the Turkeys from their home by the garage to a more permanent home in the field. We set up our old dog kennel for outside access until the turkeys are big enough that the hawks can't take them. Here they are trying to decide if this new place is safe and interesting enough to all come out and play. Barry goes in to entice them out with a bit of food, but they take their time and really, really think about it. Fifteen minutes later one comes out: Houdini, our escape artist from the beginning. Of course it's he and not one of the others (and we are pretty sure it is a 'he' and not a 'she', but time will out).

They are really starting to look like turkeys now. Every day they seem to grow by leaps and bounds and get uglier, too. Personality-wise they are very fun, charming, actually. They cheep and twirp and twitter(without an iPhone) and gerble and gobble in a small way. They are super-curious, talk back to you as if they are listening and come when called. I tell people they are the best parts of a dog, which is why Barry loves them so much. Not too much, I hope, and keep reminding him that these turkeys, with three or four held back for breeding, are heading for stuffing and cranberry sauce come November.

So they've all come out to inspect. Seems okay...

"Hey, there's mom! She's the one in the red covering with the beak up high."




Here is our newest chicken. She is a typical "supermarket chicken" we got from a farmer friend of ours in north Georgia. It was left behind when the other chickens went to slaughter because it was too small to worry about. He said "You can have it if you can catch it", and I always love a challenge. This is a Cornish X designed to put on weight fast and have a big, meaty breast. She was easy to catch, is sweet, likes to be held and stroked, hides her head and thinks she's invisible, and is the dumbest chicken I have ever seen.

She spends her time hanging out with the ducks (because they are white like her?), or with her beak in the food dish. She is afraid of kitchen scraps and runs around avoiding the other chickens like they had the plague. Poor thing does not act like a chicken. Barry gets so upset when he thinks about how our agriculture industry are breeding stupid automaton birds just so everyone can have a giant chicken breast on their Caesar salad. In my years of having chickens of various types I can safely say their are some myths I can bust: chickens don't really mind getting wet, but they will run from the hose; and they are not stupid at all.

Poor little Corny won't be able to stay with us for too long. They aren't known for their egg laying abilities, and the sad fact is that it will get to large-breasted and its legs will give out before it ever got old enough to lay eggs anyway. We can't keep her from the feed dish, and it isn't fair to keep her in a pen, to limit her food intake. So s/he is destined for the frying pan, even though its sweet temperament would convince me to keep it awhile. The kind thing will be to butcher her humanely when the time comes.




We had some new babies show up the other day. One of our Cochins had been sitting on a dozen eggs, and we left her to it since they were useless to us by the time we found her. Well, one night some predator found her secret hiding place and made off with her, leaving the eggs behind. Since Cochins are known for being good mothers and very broody(having a constant desire to hatch eggs), we moved the eggs under a different hen. She hatched four chicks from the dozen eggs. The rest she moved out of the nest one by one and we took them and composted them. None of the non-hatchers had been fertilized, so were just bad smelling eggs. It amazes me how hens know when an egg is 'good' or not. I never take eggs out from under a sitting hen until she moves them away, then I know I can dispose of them. Nature is brilliant!







Here are Harriet and Howard, a bonded pair of Pekin Ducks. Howard is the greedy pig in the water with the bright orange beak. Harriet is behind him. Pekins are well known for they tasty, juicy meat, but I've told Barry that these two are here to stay for good (unless Howard keeps making a randy pest of himself with the other girl ducks, little sod). Since H&H are bonded, if one should die the other would stop eating and likely die, too. Of course it appears that being bonded doesn't mean Howard can't play the field and get action with the other ladies. Interesting...

All for now. See you on the farm!

Out and about

A few days ago the chicks and poults (baby chickens and turkeys) made a brave move to the out of doors. We have been keeping them in cardboard boxes in our dining room, which has gotten very dusty thanks to the dust baths the chickens like to have daily. Barry had finished the chicken 'tractor' and pen for them, so out the went and never looked back.

Here they are trying to decide if this new world is a good one or a bad one. They stood on the entry ramp for most of the day. One little chick came out right away and stayed out. Now it's a job to get them to go in at night. We recently added our cochin chicks into this group and they are getting along fine. Yesterday we were almost wiped out by two hawks who have come to live in our field. They got three of our little cochin chicks before we could stop them. Barry wants to get a gun, I wanted to cover the pen and keep the little chickens in for a few weeks. We covered the pen and are letting the dogs run the field for a few days.

It is very sad to lose an animal that you've watched hatch from the egg and grow up in your barn. We've got another cochin mama hen sitting on eleven eggs. That wasn't the plan as we are tired of the broody things. They just sit on eggs and don't lay them. We try to keep them moving, but this girl had hidden all these eggs in a corner in the feed room and has been sitting on them. I only found them because the roosters were harassing her, and when I punted the lot of them across the field she went running into the barn. I followed her and there she was with her little clutch of eggs. So if anyone is interested in keeping bantam chickens, we'll have a few for sale in the summer. They are lovely little birds, very friendly and compact for urban gardens. If you'd like a testimonial or two I can refer you to our friend, Chicken Coop Mary, who has three of ours from last spring and she's been having a grand old time in East Atlanta with them.


Here is the inside of the new chicken tractor. Very spacious compared to their former box. While this seems small for 27 grown chickens, they will only nest at night and they love being close when they sleep. They will have the run of the field during the day (after they are bigger).







Turkey Day Out


I felt bad for the turkeys now that the chicks had their indoor/outdoor condo, so I got an old rabbit pen the former owners had left behind and I trotted the turkeys out to the yard.

Barry is building a fabulous new turkey apartment for them (bigger than the chickens', they might get jealous), but it isn't finished yet. Once it is I'll have the dish-tv set up and make sure their hot tub is working okay before they inhabit it. Until then they are living on the front screened porch in a pen. They keep growing bigger, so I think we need to move them again soon.
At first they were a little wary of this new place, "outside", but after about 30 minutes they were chirping and singing like crazy. Yes, turkeys sing. I don't know what else to call it, but it sounds like high-pitched whistling but the seem to be talking to each other, and us.

The turkeys are still winning in the "I've got character" contest against the chickens. Don't get me wrong, I really like chickens, that's why I kept them in the city and now have over 50 around the place. But the turkeys are so...well...dog-like is the best way to describe it. They come to the side of the pen when we go out to see them, they chirp and tweet when we talk to them, and a couple of them even 'ask' to be picked up. I'm not joking. Barry has is special turkey (Houdini 1) who always wants to be picked up and carried. I keep reminding Barry that they will be Thanksgiving dinners for people, but I wonder how we are going to say goodbye to all the cheeky birds.