- Sep 17, 2013
- 34
- 4
- 34
Hoping to stock the freezer with broilers, many years ago I made the mistake of bringing home 50 inexpensive male White Leghorn chicks. I doubt a more bloodthirsty bunch of cannibals could have been located. Nothing stopped the carnage entirely, not topical treatments, not red light in the brooder, not even debeaking. For all intents, the first drop of blood was a death sentence.
Fortunately, this years chicks, a mix of Jersey Giants, EEs, and red sex-linked pullets, are limiting themselves to semi-sham sparring. Two little buggers will square off, stretch themselves up to full height, someone yells "fight" and a second later it is a battle royalle from one end of the brooder to the other. So far at least, no one is getting hurt and it is a ball to watch. With all the strutting and posturing that goes on it reminds me ever so much of Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder in the film Stir Crazy, walking through the cell block chanting "We're bad, oh yeah, we're bad." If it starts getting serious I'll need to do something about it, but for now, they are a lot more entertaining than the television.
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Fortunately, this years chicks, a mix of Jersey Giants, EEs, and red sex-linked pullets, are limiting themselves to semi-sham sparring. Two little buggers will square off, stretch themselves up to full height, someone yells "fight" and a second later it is a battle royalle from one end of the brooder to the other. So far at least, no one is getting hurt and it is a ball to watch. With all the strutting and posturing that goes on it reminds me ever so much of Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder in the film Stir Crazy, walking through the cell block chanting "We're bad, oh yeah, we're bad." If it starts getting serious I'll need to do something about it, but for now, they are a lot more entertaining than the television.
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