------I had the funniest thing happen yesterday.
I am in the midst of building a rooster pen adjacent to my main coop. There will also be a grow out pen associated with the build. In the mean time, Aggie and her 3 week old chicks are lodged in the maternity box in the main coop which they are rapidly outgrowing. Aggie has been acting restless, like she wanted a break from the babies and I can't say I blame her after 6 weeks invested in them now. She was looking out the window, watching the other chickens so I opened the pen and let her out. She immediately headed outside, I'm sure envisioning a nice long dust batch followed by some power scratching for bugs. Little did she realize that cockerels from her February hatch have reached sexual maturity (thus the reason behind the rooster pen being hastily built) and are driving the hens crazy with their hormonal charged attentions. The boys noticed her tho and the chase immediately began. I had to laugh at what transpired. Here was Aggie, running like the devil himself was trying to pull out her tail feathers and screaming at the top of her lungs with two amorous adolescent roosters chasing after her and the flock master, my Lavender O rooster chasing after them screaming out his protest of them harassing one of his hens. They made three complete laps around the run, through the coop, back to the run. Larry (the LO) finally was able to catch up with the cockerels giving Aggie a chance to run back into the coop and stand in front of the 'maternity' pen where she proceeded to start that soft, chuk chuk chuk sound that the moms make to their chicks. Her request was clear.
Better to have 3 week old chicks on your back than two hormonal cockerels.
I told my husband about what had happened and he too had to chuckle. He told me to look at the bright side. She got a good work out running from them.
I am in the midst of building a rooster pen adjacent to my main coop. There will also be a grow out pen associated with the build. In the mean time, Aggie and her 3 week old chicks are lodged in the maternity box in the main coop which they are rapidly outgrowing. Aggie has been acting restless, like she wanted a break from the babies and I can't say I blame her after 6 weeks invested in them now. She was looking out the window, watching the other chickens so I opened the pen and let her out. She immediately headed outside, I'm sure envisioning a nice long dust batch followed by some power scratching for bugs. Little did she realize that cockerels from her February hatch have reached sexual maturity (thus the reason behind the rooster pen being hastily built) and are driving the hens crazy with their hormonal charged attentions. The boys noticed her tho and the chase immediately began. I had to laugh at what transpired. Here was Aggie, running like the devil himself was trying to pull out her tail feathers and screaming at the top of her lungs with two amorous adolescent roosters chasing after her and the flock master, my Lavender O rooster chasing after them screaming out his protest of them harassing one of his hens. They made three complete laps around the run, through the coop, back to the run. Larry (the LO) finally was able to catch up with the cockerels giving Aggie a chance to run back into the coop and stand in front of the 'maternity' pen where she proceeded to start that soft, chuk chuk chuk sound that the moms make to their chicks. Her request was clear.
Better to have 3 week old chicks on your back than two hormonal cockerels.
I told my husband about what had happened and he too had to chuckle. He told me to look at the bright side. She got a good work out running from them.
