Beginning A Rooster's Road to Recovery

[Starseed]

Definitely enjoying seeing this process not least of all, the pictures! beautiful yard. I admire your patience.

 

[islandgirl82]

Thank you so much for your comments and I'm glad you're all enjoying this thread. I am an information junkie and social behaviors have interested me since I was very young, before I really understood what it is. I've spent an endless amount of time with my face buried in books studying behaviors and have learned a tremendous amount about various species simply by observing . When considering the very basic instincts of all creatures, we're here for the same things; food, shelter and procreation - Survival and we need each other to accomplish this. Whether we're two legged or four, feathered, furred or bare our responses to the pleasant and unpleasant aspects of life are the same. We greet each other with smiles, handshakes, kisses, embraces, tail wags, cooing, etc. We all thrive on healthy interactions and congregate around food. We play, dance, sing and slow down and bundle up when we're ill. We all tense up when we feel threatened or we're scared or angry. We lash out or run or cry or pin our ears back or swish our tails or kick or bite or flog and so on. We find safety and security in our families, friends, packs, flocks, herds and depend on each other in one way or another, even if we're not the same species.

 

[islandgirl82]

Your experience, good common sense, understanding of animal behaviors and the ability to spend a lot of time observing and 'managing' said behaviors...and being articulate in conveying all the activities......has been the highlight of my visits to BYC recently, so Thank You!

I am retired so also have a lot of time to observe and adjust things (can't imagine raising birds and working full time) am only 3 years into chicken keeping.
Kids are grown and long gone, birds are confined, only one dog left who has no interest in them really(except poops) and keeps well clear of beaks when they do meet on chance. Not sure I'd be up to managing as much as you do....but I certainly find it all fascinating.

Rest assured, if I did not work from home and did not have a greater window to wall space ratio which makes me feel like I live in a fishbowl, I would not be able to keep such a close eye on them, nor would I be the kind of keeper I want to be. I only have few more years of flock keeping experience than you do and much of my "management" takes place in the 5 or 10 minutes breaks from number punching that I take here and there. Spending time with the flock is like interactive theatre.

Quote:

Willie is my right hand. He picks up on things when I don't and acts accordingly. He's actually a house dog...or more a wherever-I-am dog and became part of my family before the thought of keeping birds ever crossed my mind.

The westie came to us a year ago in March when it was approaching the one year mark of my father's passing and I was dreading it. My father had moved to Ireland when I was 15 and after he'd been there for a while he got a westie and kept his own flock. It was difficult not having him around but dogs and eventually chickens gave us something to bond over even with thousands of miles between us. I was with him when he passed and tending his flock while I was there brought me comfort. I guess I took the westie in for the same reason. I never intended on keeping him but knowing he was an older dog and was headed for the shelter, I figured his chances of finding his forever home were better if he wasn't competing with younger dogs so I decided to foster him. I'm a big dog person. I grew up with Newfies and mixes of, Great Pyrenees, Mastiffs, etc. but a westie? There was no way I was keeping him. We struggled a lot when he first arrived - he was nothing like what I had been used to but we worked through our differences and through the effects the extreme neglect endured had on him and he fit in here beautifully. I had been fostering him for 5 months before finally admitting to myself that I truly adored him and decided to keep him. In those 5 months, he went from a dog who hadn't set foot outside in over two years to being one who got to run free through the grass for the first time in his life, to canoeing, beachcombing, hiking, being read to by my children, making friends with Willie, my cat and the chickens. Then I took him in to our vet for what I thought was a UTI and it turned out to be carcinoma - an extremely aggressive cancer that devours everything it touches. Just two days after getting the results back, he slipped away in the most beautiful and peaceful departure, right here at home with his family.

I would have another westie in a heartbeat. I've met several others and they're just friendly, happy dogs who are completely fearless and are great vermin hunters including fox and badgers. I've been on the lookout for one for a while now. Sometimes I find one that I think might fit in well but for one reason or another, it just hasn't happened yet.

 

[Leahs Mom]

We have a friend that wrote a whole book and published it about his Westie. He and his wife absolutely loved that dog and when it passed, it was like losing a child. My husband did the layout and design on the book so he got to know "Weston" and his antics very well by the time he was done with preparing the book.


What kind of work do you do from home? There are probably a lot of us that would love to find something like that. I do have some flexibility which allows me to be at home some and am very grateful for that! But I do work primarily from the office.

 

[islandgirl82]

Westies are such characters. We had one that lived around the corner from us and we'd always stop to visit on our walks. He was the only thing that brought Willie out of his grief after we lost ours but they've moved out of state so we don't get our visits anymore. We didn't have ours long but he left a huge imprint on us and they way he and Willie worked together was incredible.

I actually have two jobs - the first as grounds-keeper which keeps me outside and my flock follows me everywhere while I'm tending the grounds. The second is as an assistant project manager (invoicing, bookkeeping and any other back office work that needs doing) for a company that does installation work all over the country. My fellow employees practically live out of hotel rooms with all the travelling they do but I am very blessed to be able to work remotely from home. The downside is a million other things that need to be done staring me in the face while I work.

 

[aart]

.....I actually have two jobs - the first as grounds-keeper which keeps me outside and my flock follows me everywhere while I'm tending the grounds......

So you work as grounds keeper right where you live, housing included in job and they let you have chickens?
Maybe that's more info than you want to share.... if so, ignore my insatiable curiosity

 

[islandgirl82]

Quote:

They love the flock and the girls pay their rent in eggs.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Incredibly wonderful!

 

[islandgirl82]

They knew I kept a flock before I took the job. They also get the benefit of rich compost in their own flower and veg gardens, pest control, etc. They even love having the rooster here and were happy to hear his previous owners let him stay.

Needless to say, I have a great relationship with them.

 

[aart]

They knew I kept a flock before I took the job. They also get the benefit of rich compost in their own flower and veg gardens, pest control, etc. They even love having the rooster here and were happy to hear his previous owners let him stay.

Needless to say, I have a great relationship with them.

Sweet Gig!!