Chicken ranching in mid-life crisis

Wow time flies.  It’s almost the end of the summer and I haven’t blogged since mid-spring.  It really shows how busy it gets once you’re up and running errands with the chickens.

Out of the original 25 chicks we got last spring, one young hen (spotty head) died mysteriously while we were away one weekend camping.  My brother-in-law was looking after our place and the chicken just died in the morning.  We never figured out why. 

 

 

Spotty head saying hello to Louie

Chicken as pets are fun.  Each young chicken has its own personality.  Some are very shy and don’t want to be petted.  This one particular pullet pictured below is so beautiful but I can never get hold of her.  She’s next to impossible to catch.  But it’s probably a good thing because it will be very hard for a potential predator to catch her.  She’s very special because she’s a Cochin with fancy feathers on her legs.  She also fights against the weaker rooster (pictured below). 

 

 

 

 

Others are just extremely friendly and will just jump on your lap or shoulders.  Others want to be carried and be patted on their backs like this one below. 

 

However the bad roosters are very aggressive and will try to pick on you.  And they hoard the food and water. 

 

Overall chicken ranching has its ups and downs.  They are fun to watch.  They love worms and one would grab it and the others chase her around for it.  And then they will pull it apart and get the worm to the size they like.  But it can cause headaches trying to break a fight between chickens (particularly between roosters).  I wish they can just figure out pecking order right off the bat.

So out of the 24 pullets we have, 12 turn out to be roosters and I’m pretty much confident this is the final count.  And I’m a bit disappointed it turned out that way.  I was really hoping for more laying hens.  Last month I thought there were only 8 identifiable roosters but I was wrong.  I thought these guys (pictured below) were hens until they started mounting the hens.  I mean do they look like a rooster to you (pictured below)?  Yes they are roosters.  The funny thing is that I've never heard these two crow.  And there are other roosters mounting this beautiful brown Brahma/Rhode Island mix rooster so I never thought it was a rooster. I found out that a rooster will go after another rooster as he might a hen to show dominance.

 

 

On another note, our struggle with our two dogs roaming problem has ended.  Our agile dogs (35 lbs Australian Cattle dog and 67 lbs Hound/ Great Dane mix) used to roam the neighbours farmyard and disappear across the road to his field and at times brought home rotten bones probably from dead animals.  But that had ended last June when we decided to get the wireless containment system.  My last straw was when Baloo (Hound/Great Dane mix) went barking and jumping up onto the police officer parked at the end of our sideroad.  And I heard a voice yell "Hey get off me!"  The police officer must have heard my voice and told Baloo to get back here.  I seriously thought that Baloo had caused an accident when I saw the police and cars stopped but it was simply a vehicle check on an early summer Friday afternoon. 

The dogs can be challenging at times; especially Louie (Australian Cattle dog) who is very dominant and loves to jump and bite me if she doesn’t get enough play time.  I totally lose my cool at times with this female dog.  On the other hand, Baloo is very mellow and calm despite Louie dominating him but is very slow in learning some tricks.  Baloo only barks if necessary (i.e. if there are some strangers coming to the house).  Louie on the other hand barks at everything including air.