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[rancher hicks]

Kathy, gotta ask. (I had typed a whole page out but hit the wrong button so I'll keep this short).

The one rooster I kept is very aggressive and has attacked me more than a few times. I can deal with this but one of the hens was killed. Either by him or the flock in the coop. They are not crowded. It was my own fault I suppose because she refused to go in at night and I kept tossing her in only to find her dead on the third morning. She had no obvious wounds so I wasn't sure why she wouldn't go in. Even after she was killed it wasn't apparent what had happened. She seemed fine otherwise. I had separated her for one night because she kept acting broody, but when she seemed not to be , I put her back in the coop.

Now that I think of it I have two hens who appear to be broody but are in the nest box with out eggs. Perhaps they're hiding?

I now have one who has been not coming in at night sleeping I don't know where. She comes back in the morning but this morning I let her in the run as I noticed she has more scrapes than yesterday and her wound seem worse. When I picked her up she was really bad, though you wouldn't know it from her behavior. I now have her quarantined but am concerned this may be a frequent thing. They have a huge area to roam during the day. The coop is 9 X 8 with the same size run.

I had thought she was gone off to set since it is a problem with the hens. Or at least a few.

There are two SLW hens in the flock. Now down to 11 including the rooster.

The wounded bird has scrapes on her back and her side is all tore up and bare. Do you think it's the rooster? I don't have experience with mean roosters and he will be going after I hatch some new chicks.

What do you recommend? I only have him and he is nice looking but he has to go. Should I hatch from him or just give up the whole line. He's all I have to work with.

Take care and thanks ( ok not so short)

 

[speckledhen]

Tim, that sounds like your rooster is very rough on the hens to me. He can certainly kill her by ripping her wide open. Just happened to a friend's beautiful BR pullet.



The logging is not too far from completion. It will probably take another week to two weeks for them to finish the 3 acres they're doing, but here are some pictures to show what I was trying to open up. In winter, I have a view of Watson Mtn (the huge one) and Piney Mtn (a smaller, pyramid-shaped one to the left, not shown here), but couldn't see either in summer. I can see Vance Mtn in NC from one side, but I don't own land to clear on that side for a summer view, unfortunately.

Too bad we won't make any real money on it, by the time we pay the capital gains on the piddly income and then pay our greatly increased property taxes if our appeal doesn't work, but we'll have more sunlight, some open area to see the wildlife (deer and turkey) and a year round view.

Still more trees to come down here on this side, but here are my chairs at the end of our garden- you can see the cabins up there, then a zoom in view of them from the same angle:





Other views from the same area. There are several open sort of circular areas that we'll be cleaning the slash from and cutting up the smaller trees they left for us for our firewood. We plan to build a woodshed, something we never really needed, but there is enough wood there for many years to come just laying on the ground, lots of it already dead and dried out before they ever got here.









That is some of our livestock fencing laying there. Will have to put it back up when they are finished, but we may take it on down the mtn a little ways and enlarge our "yard" area, which is already 2 of the over 5 acres we own. Have to get a new set of "Keep Out" and "No Trespassing" signs for the acreage since open land tends to draw folks in where they shouldn't be and we cannot see the bottom of the property from up where the house is, it being about 100 ft lower in elevation.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Kathy, gotta ask. (I had typed a whole page out but hit the wrong button so I'll keep this short).

The one rooster I kept is very aggressive and has attacked me more than a few times. I can deal with this but one of the hens was killed. Either by him or the flock in the coop. They are not crowded. It was my own fault I suppose because she refused to go in at night and I kept tossing her in only to find her dead on the third morning. She had no obvious wounds so I wasn't sure why she wouldn't go in. Even after she was killed it wasn't apparent what had happened. She seemed fine otherwise. I had separated her for one night because she kept acting broody, but when she seemed not to be , I put her back in the coop.

Now that I think of it I have two hens who appear to be broody but are in the nest box with out eggs. Perhaps they're hiding?

I now have one who has been not coming in at night sleeping I don't know where. She comes back in the morning but this morning I let her in the run as I noticed she has more scrapes than yesterday and her wound seem worse. When I picked her up she was really bad, though you wouldn't know it from her behavior. I now have her quarantined but am concerned this may be a frequent thing. They have a huge area to roam during the day. The coop is 9 X 8 with the same size run.

I had thought she was gone off to set since it is a problem with the hens. Or at least a few.

There are two SLW hens in the flock. Now down to 11 including the rooster.

The wounded bird has scrapes on her back and her side is all tore up and bare. Do you think it's the rooster? I don't have experience with mean roosters and he will be going after I hatch some new chicks.

What do you recommend? I only have him and he is nice looking but he has to go. Should I hatch from him or just give up the whole line. He's all I have to work with.

Take care and thanks ( ok not so short)

Can I chime in?

Sounds to me like your rooster is too aggressive. There are too many roosters available, many of them for free, for you to put up with that kind of behavior. I breed Andalusians and I can tell you, if he were my bird... he'd be in a pot. There is NO WAY I would propagate his genes. They DO pass on their temperament.

 

[kathyinmo]

Kathy, gotta ask. (I had typed a whole page out but hit the wrong button so I'll keep this short).

The one rooster I kept is very aggressive and has attacked me more than a few times. ...............

...........What do you recommend? I only have him and he is nice looking but he has to go. Should I hatch from him or just give up the whole line. He's all I have to work with.

Take care and thanks ( ok not so short)

I don't tolerate mean roosters. Eat him. If you have some fertile eggs, you could hatch them. Never know, ya might get a good boy out of them. If it was me - I would probably hatch.

It sounds to me like your hens are hiding in the nests from him. I have one rooster that has that effect. He is not mean, but persistant.

 

[kathyinmo]

The logging job is looking good, Cyn!

 

[Cetawin]

That roo needs to be stew. And do not breed.him that mean gene will pass down. Get you a good boy. If you were closer I would let you have your pick of 12 wonderful young boys.

 

[speckledhen]

Tried to find a picture of that area before any cutting. We did some ourselves earlier right behind the garden. Heck, this place was a jungle when we bought it. Since the logger we first consulted a year ago became ill and closed down his 40 year business, we got the farmer who lives less than 1/4 mile from us to cut the trees. He sells firewood in addition to raising quarterhorses and he is doing it with a farm tractor, so the ground isn't being chewed up badly like it would with the huge professional equipment. He and his dad are doing the job themselves and are very adept at felling the trees in the proper direction.

Here is the garden and what was behind it, the dense woods, in a picture taken years ago. The same mtn is right through those trees, but you can't see it. Now, we will be able to view it year round, plus more starry skies in winter, which we love.

 

[rancher hicks]

I don't tolerate mean roosters. Eat him. If you have some fertile eggs, you could hatch them. Never know, ya might get a good boy out of them. If it was me - I would probably hatch.

It sounds to me like your hens are hiding in the nests from him. I have one rooster that has that effect. He is not mean, but persistant.

I probably will but hold the roosters to see if one is nice. This boy is nice looking with a nice comb except for a sprig in the middle of points 4 and 5. I have no where else to find as nice a looking rooster. Otherwise I would take his head off with a good heart. He's a good size too.

The hen is named #9. He has no name but if he did it would be 4 cuz that's the size family he will feed, or I could call him Skillet, cuz thats what I'm going to use to take his head off!

Thanks for the advice everyone .

Lacy - never be afraid to chime in if it's me doing the asking. In the multitude of counselors there is safety.

 

[halo]

Cyn, that will really give you some wonderful long range views. And will make your property look about 4 times bigger than it is!

 

[speckledhen]

You realize how big over 5 acres is when you walk it, but it doesn't look that big from the house because you just can't see most of the property that is behind the house. We still have plenty of huge oaks and maples from the garden to the driveway side of the place for shade around the house. The deer keep coming up and looking confused, like hey, where did all the trees go? LOL. The farmer said, "you guys sure have lots of deer-every time I step, I see deer scat."

I'll post more pictures when they're finished with their part of it. Then, we buy a decent chainsaw, probably a Husqvarna 346 or similar, and get started on cutting up what they left behind and moving brush aside. Our chainsaws are just not enough for the job we have to do on that 3 acres.