My birds are weird. I’ve had poultry for over ten years now and it never ceases to amaze me how strange they are. I’ve been through about four or five different cycles of laying hens and every single group has been different.
My first group was the best. A mixed variety that we hatched in my highschool ag class. Two of those hens lived for around eight to nine years old. I was amazed. I didn’t know hens lived that long. I always tried to take good care of them, so I guess I must have done a somewhat decent job of it. In this batch was an Americana rooster I named Pepper and a red rooster I named Psycho. Psycho lived up to his name and was given to an elderly couple that wanted a rooster for their chickens. I figured it would be fine…then I heard stories of him chasing the woman up a wood pile. I’m not sure what happened after that but I’m guessing he was “taken care of”. Pepper was fun. My dad even enjoyed him. You would see him in the barnyard pecking away at bugs and grasses. You would turn your back and go about your business only to hear the pitter-patter of little feet. You’d turn around and there was Pepper,pecking at the ground and scratching. He seemed to be closer to you than before, but he acted as though he hadn’t moved. You’d go on about your business only to hear the pitter-patter of little feet….. You would turn around quickly and see Pepper….pecking at the ground and clucking; having a good time and minding his own business. He was much closer now, but you couldn’t imagine how he covered all that ground in such a short time. Thoughts of going insane, and a little bit of paranoia would set in, but then you’d shrug it off and go back to work. After much patients and planning the beast would attack. He liked the lower legs and rear flank. Felt a lot like someone cracked you across the back of your legs with a stick. You’d turn to find him in his victory dance. If he was too cocky you could usually catch him with a swift kick.
The next couple batches I don’t remember very well. The couple batches I had before the pullets I now have were horrible! I got mostly Americanas and I didn’t interact with them very much. All my birds are free range but these birds took it to the extreme. They would just run away. Literally. My mom watched one run down the road and never come back. Others wouldn’t come in the hen house at night and chose to perch in a tree in the ditch and be eaten by raccoons. I have nothing against Americanas; I really do like them, but all the ones I’ve had are very high strung.
I decided that with this new batch of hens I would make sure that I took some time each day during chores to interact with them. It seemed to work like a charm, but now I have hens who muddle around my feet, and I literally have to push them away so that I can walk in the pen. They come running for the bread and food scraps that I give them, and the ones that haven’t gotten any beg at my feet for a piece, which I will of course give to them. I think I’m spoiling them….and that scares me.
The chicken I was having problems with has been successfully integrated back into the herd (I know it’s called a flock but I’m a cattle woman and a “herd” of chickens makes me smile). She is the worst begger of them all and is one of the first to come up and see me.
One morning I came in to do chores only to find one of my Reds in with the ducks. I figured she’s slipped under the door but wasn’t sure why she went into the duck pen. I told her I would get her out in a minute and I watch as she followed me to each side of the pen with this anxious demeanor that said “Get me the heck out of here lady! I don’t know what these birds are but they’re crazy!”. After receiving the telepathic chicken SOS, I decided to stop what I was doing and get her out. I leaned over the gate hoping to try to just grab her but to my surprise she literally jumped into my arms in a pure act of desperation. I have NEVER had that happen before.
My pullets are now laying eggs consistently. The only thing that’s not consistent is them laying their eggs in their nest boxes. I’m use to pullets dropping eggs randomly throughout the pen but these ladies are pretty special. I don’t hang my feeder, so they sit on it. I realized one day when filling the feeder, I would have to check before I pour the feed in because they’ll drop one in there. One day I was aggrevated with their lack of nesting habits and said to them “What do you do, just poop out an egg while you’re walking around?”. Yes….they do. A couple days later I was collecting eggs on my twice a day Easter egg hunt and watched a chicken walk over to the feeder, eat a little, make some noise (which is why I was looking at her) and squat down like a cat taking a crap. Is she laying an egg? I wondered to myself. When she walked away seconds later there was a nice new egg laying next to the feeder.:)
Coming soon to a blog near you….Duck tales….
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The lovely hills and bluffs of the Midwest have been surrounding me for a month now, yet it feels strangely odd to be back. I had fully expected to be nestled in front of a fireplace crocheting during countless snowstorms or lacing up my boots and strapping on my cross country skis to enjoy a perfect winter day then coming home to enjoy tea time while gazing out the window at the snow covered neighborhood. That isn’t happening though. We are experience one of those ‘mild’ winters that the rest of the population seems to really like. I personally would be much happier with a few feet of snow on the ground and some sub-zero temperatures to really drive in the season but why complain, there is still plenty to do and it hasn’t been a total loss of a winter.
This is just a tiny prototype of what may be an epic craft endeavor!
