I'm in sort of a strange situation, but it was unavoidable...
A friend from BYC (hi, Carress!) was going to bring some freebie craigslist roos over to practice processing with me. Due to circumstances our of everybody's control, she ended up arriving and getting them unpacked shortly before sundown. Normally, we'd just move to the (not ideal) barn and work there, but she had work early the next morning and a long drive home, so she had to leave. Roos are illegal where she lives, so they had to stay with me for a week until we could process the following weekend, but I had no place set up for them. (See how it gets complicated fast?!?)
We set up a lean to kinda deal in the run where my chickens go, unable to quarantine them, but ideally preventing these big roos from picking on my smaller birds. That worked for about 36 hours until the birds figured out how to knock the thing apart. But everybody seems to be getting along reasonably well. There's one alpha roo who bosses the other three around and they all seem to be ignoring the babies and ducks. Despite having demonstrated an ability to fly up to the top of the fence the first day, they also seem uninterested in leaving. I guess our buffet of chicken food and human snacks is appealing enough to get them to stay.
Last night, I fell asleep while dealing with the babies before putting the chickens in the barn. Long day, very stressful, etc. My husband also didn't put them away, I forget what the reason was. When he woke up at 2AM for something unrelated, he went out to check on them. The two barred rocks had traipsed into the barn with the little birds and were roosting on the highest place in the barn and the two wyandottes were sleeping solidly on the top of the fence to the run. They were indignant when Gary tossed them into the barn and locked the door.
This morning, we went out to deal with the birds. While I was out there, holding a baby in arms, the alpha roo decided to body slam me. I was livid. I was just so furious I don't even have WORDS. I couldn't do much with my arms, since I was holding an infant, but I kicked him several feet and yelled at him. He instantly backed down. I yelled a few more times before leaving, hosed him with water once and made sure he knew I was ANGRY.
Did I overreact? Did I UNDERreact? This is a bird I've only known since Monday, it's not like he's familiar with me or how I act, so it's not like I can count on that.
As an aside, I find it interesting that he challenged me, not my husband. The birds all seem to look at me as the bringer of food, come running at my voice and not his, and follow me like puppes when they're loose. But how did the NEW bird know that?
A friend from BYC (hi, Carress!) was going to bring some freebie craigslist roos over to practice processing with me. Due to circumstances our of everybody's control, she ended up arriving and getting them unpacked shortly before sundown. Normally, we'd just move to the (not ideal) barn and work there, but she had work early the next morning and a long drive home, so she had to leave. Roos are illegal where she lives, so they had to stay with me for a week until we could process the following weekend, but I had no place set up for them. (See how it gets complicated fast?!?)
We set up a lean to kinda deal in the run where my chickens go, unable to quarantine them, but ideally preventing these big roos from picking on my smaller birds. That worked for about 36 hours until the birds figured out how to knock the thing apart. But everybody seems to be getting along reasonably well. There's one alpha roo who bosses the other three around and they all seem to be ignoring the babies and ducks. Despite having demonstrated an ability to fly up to the top of the fence the first day, they also seem uninterested in leaving. I guess our buffet of chicken food and human snacks is appealing enough to get them to stay.
Last night, I fell asleep while dealing with the babies before putting the chickens in the barn. Long day, very stressful, etc. My husband also didn't put them away, I forget what the reason was. When he woke up at 2AM for something unrelated, he went out to check on them. The two barred rocks had traipsed into the barn with the little birds and were roosting on the highest place in the barn and the two wyandottes were sleeping solidly on the top of the fence to the run. They were indignant when Gary tossed them into the barn and locked the door.
This morning, we went out to deal with the birds. While I was out there, holding a baby in arms, the alpha roo decided to body slam me. I was livid. I was just so furious I don't even have WORDS. I couldn't do much with my arms, since I was holding an infant, but I kicked him several feet and yelled at him. He instantly backed down. I yelled a few more times before leaving, hosed him with water once and made sure he knew I was ANGRY.
Did I overreact? Did I UNDERreact? This is a bird I've only known since Monday, it's not like he's familiar with me or how I act, so it's not like I can count on that.
As an aside, I find it interesting that he challenged me, not my husband. The birds all seem to look at me as the bringer of food, come running at my voice and not his, and follow me like puppes when they're loose. But how did the NEW bird know that?
