lockedhearts and Pumpkinpup drove up to visit and pick up alot of hatching eggs. We had a nice visit, glad to see them again. After they left, we head out to check on my broodies and I hear Dutch crowing and Mace crowing, my BR roosters. THe problem was that Mace's voice was coming from the wrong place. Mace was supposed to be in with the Welsummers in another coop/pen, but the sound seemed to be coming from the main pen. I mention this to my DH and we look to see Mace standing outside the main pen. That's the problem--he's outside his own pen AND the main pen. They were co-protectors in the big laying flock till recently when I removed Dutch to allow his hen-pecked comb to heal and put him in a separate coop/pen. Then, just yesterday, we switched them and put Dutch back into the laying flock and Mace into the other coop. He wanted back in with the layers that he had to himself for almost two weeks and flew over the fence for the first time. Mace apparently didnt care for his three new women and I guess decided he wanted his 30-something girls back again.
My DH corrals him and says he wants to try to put Mace back in the main flock; I tell him that Dutch will go after Mace since they have been in separate coops for awhile, not together in the laying flock where they started out, that we will have to keep an eye on him. I also tell him that Mace now thinks those girls are his and will fight Dutch for them.
A few miinutes passes. I go inside because it's raining and slippery and I'm paranoid of hurting my healing broken ankle again. Does DH watch them? No. Then suddenly, I hear him yell something about Dutch and Mace and he runs out the door toward the pen. The two brothers are embroiled in a Battle Royale, covered in blood. I see Mace chase Dutch, something that has never happened since Mace was the Jr Roo till now. Mace wants the girls back and Dutch isn't giving 'em back.
DH scoops up Mace and brings him to the house. One wattle is torn almost in half and he's bleeding from the front of his comb. Being the good boy he is, he sits in my lap and looks up at me with those sweet eyes he has and we stop the bleeding. DH takes Mace back to the other coop and brings Dutch to the house. Dutch has blood on him, but it seems to belong to Mace. Dutch is now back with the laying flock.
After all these storms run through by Saturday night, we will have to play musical flocks again. Mace, the Welsummers and my Delaware girl will go into the Firetower, where my 15 almost--five week-old chicks are now housed. The Delaware chicks will move into the Delaware coop a couple of weeks early and then all will be right with the world. I hope it will be, anyway.
The Firetower coop has a covered pen, so Mace cannot fly out of it this time. And now, I feel like I need an aspirin and a pot of coffee.
My DH corrals him and says he wants to try to put Mace back in the main flock; I tell him that Dutch will go after Mace since they have been in separate coops for awhile, not together in the laying flock where they started out, that we will have to keep an eye on him. I also tell him that Mace now thinks those girls are his and will fight Dutch for them.
A few miinutes passes. I go inside because it's raining and slippery and I'm paranoid of hurting my healing broken ankle again. Does DH watch them? No. Then suddenly, I hear him yell something about Dutch and Mace and he runs out the door toward the pen. The two brothers are embroiled in a Battle Royale, covered in blood. I see Mace chase Dutch, something that has never happened since Mace was the Jr Roo till now. Mace wants the girls back and Dutch isn't giving 'em back.
DH scoops up Mace and brings him to the house. One wattle is torn almost in half and he's bleeding from the front of his comb. Being the good boy he is, he sits in my lap and looks up at me with those sweet eyes he has and we stop the bleeding. DH takes Mace back to the other coop and brings Dutch to the house. Dutch has blood on him, but it seems to belong to Mace. Dutch is now back with the laying flock.
After all these storms run through by Saturday night, we will have to play musical flocks again. Mace, the Welsummers and my Delaware girl will go into the Firetower, where my 15 almost--five week-old chicks are now housed. The Delaware chicks will move into the Delaware coop a couple of weeks early and then all will be right with the world. I hope it will be, anyway.
The Firetower coop has a covered pen, so Mace cannot fly out of it this time. And now, I feel like I need an aspirin and a pot of coffee.
the calm in the middle of the storms.
