I can't remember when we've had such a long stretch of miserable weather. It has been overcast and/or raining for weeks. Everything is sodden and I seriously need some sunshine in my life. Pearlie doesn't want to go outside to potty. Today she has held it from 5:30 this morning until just now, 4:00 pm, when I made her go out.
We gave two of our roosters away, so we have two left. With four roosters and just nine hens, the hens were being abused. When we first started this farming endeavor with plans of getting chickens and I was reading in my chicken book about making jackets for the hens, I laughed and joked about it. But now I really do see the necessity for it. The roosters jump on the hens' back to breed and the hens get all torn up by the rooster's claws. This happens every day, several times a day. I'm hoping the hens will get a bit of a rest and their backs will be able to heal now that there are only two roosters after them.
I hadn't planned to name our chickens, but over time, in my mind, I've named the roosters. The ones we kept are Tubby and Hubby. Tubby, because he's the fattest rooster. Hubby, because since the beginning, he has hung out with one hen in particular. Tom and I didn't want to split the "little married couple" up so we made sure that Hubby didn't get butchered or given away.
Annnd, I sold some eggs yesterday. So far, I've just been giving them away. We have way too many for us to use and I enjoy sharing them with friends and family. But yesterday at church one of the women that I had previously given eggs to asked me if I had any eggs to sell. I had happened to bring a carton of them with me to church with the intention of giving them to someone, but she insisted that she pay for them and wouldn't take them otherwise. So...I took the money. **shrug**
Harry ate one of the apple trees that we planted this past spring. It's not enough that he has a whole forest of trees that he could gnaw on. No, he had to destroy our fruit tree. He bit it off right at the base.
Stupid mutt.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
Don't blame the mutt..blame the trainer..LOL
I think I had a similar post on my blog shortly after we first got chickens... If I recall. I said the rooster to hen ratio was off and the hens were being abused! Glad to have stumbled on to you blog!
Two or three of the hens are still torn up even though we just have the two roosters. I think we're going to have to pen up the roosters for a few days to give the hens a chance to heal.
Post a Comment