FoodKiller's chicken journal!

[OHhappychicks]

What a wonderful insight you have!! I just found your journal, and it has taken me a couple of days, but I am finally up-to-date. You have such a way with words. So happy to hear your baby daughter is fine! God is Good! I love watching the progress of your coop, and the excitement you have with your chickens. You have wonderful adventures!! Having chickens is an addiction

as you have already found out!! LOVE MY CHICKENS!

Looking forward to more of your Journal!

Thank you for sharing your heart.

 

[Baymule]

Hello from Texas! It is Saturday morning and I am drinking my coffee and catching up on what is going on with you. I am admiring your chicks and the lush greenery in your garden. Your rooster makes a beautiful "flower"!!

Your chicks are cute and look happy in their chick house. That is a good way to fertilize your fruit tree and the soil around it probably gets a good "chicken tilling" too!

You got good advice on the meat chickens. I have never raised them, but reading on the forum tells me that they would have a hard time in our ferocious heat here. They would definately have to be a spring,winter,fall project. I want to raise some in the future, but not right now. I got 6 one week old chicks 4 weeks ago and after they got big enough to go outside, I placed the wire cage in the big girls coop. My 2 big girls want to take the little chicks head off. So they are better off in the cage for now until they get a little bigger.

Having workmen in your home is a pain in the backside, I hope your family gets settled soon. It will all be worth it after the work is done, but it is so inconvenient while it is going on. How funny that your chickens are disturbed by the unfamiliar workmen too!!

 

[FoodKillah]

I have the same problem my flock wants to kill my chicks lol, i still keep them in the house at night and they stink, i am building a cage from a wooden pallet, i plan to use my 1/2 inch chicken wire as bottom, i am not sure yet if it will work or not, at some sides i might just use that wind net i have.

That greenery (weeds of hell) dont stop growing! I started weeding the yard as soon as i saw weeds and i am so slow that the weeds are almost my height (some are higher)

Yesterday i was looking through my crap collection and i found some wooden panels i could use to make a coop about 6 x 3 feet and about 3 feet high, attached to the new run, if i bring some stones in from the field "nextdoor" to surround the place i will have the coop and then fill this in with soil to level up the ground a little so it doesnt get flooded by water, then use the thicker wood parts of pallets as posts to hold the 4 sides together and screw everything up and paint it, i will have a new bigger coop that will fit all my chickens.

I will propably never be able to afford to build the coop of my dreams with bricks and cement and that new chicks will need a house soon

 

[domino7]

This is the first time I've run across your blog. Great job. I actually read all your posts. Very entertaining. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us.

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

Quote:
X 2

 

[FoodKillah]

My rooster attacked me for the second time in a week, he attacked me for the first time as i was carrying treats to them and i just left the treats and left, and today.. i was holding my daughter and i was showing something in the new run to my wife, and the rooster came and wanted to start a fight with my leg, at last he made a silly attack to my shoe and then.......he made a super ninja move that my eye couldnt catch and hit my foot then fell all the way back and to some metal wires with his back and head, injuring himself. I told my wife to take the baby and leave and the rooster followed them as i was chasing him to go in the coop. His comb was bleeding from the way he hit that wires. Where did he find all that force to make such an attack!

Good rooster.......

 

[FoodKillah]

Hello dear journal

It has been a little more than 10 days since my last post. During that 10 days that rooster has invented all kinds of ninja moves against me, when i face him, when i face sideways and when i walk away. Just yesterday i picked up "the dinosaur" to check her for mites and he attacked me for the second time because earlier that day he attacked me when i tried to fill up the quails dustbath box with some soil from the yard.
I want to report domesticated violence because this guy is not kidding, his wings hurt my legs alot if i dont manage to escape the attack with counter attack (shoot, goal!)
However, i dont hate him. He is a rooster and does best what he should do anyway. I am proud of him! I mean, he attacks... ME? He has some balls seriously. He is not playing games either, he means it. I used to call him chicky, i think i should call him Chick Norris!

My young chicks stay out in the yard all day and all night now, no more indoors for those smelly birds. I keep them locked most of the time in the cage and free range them for a while everyday. If i mix them up with my flock its like 3 murders waiting to happen.
I changed their water yesterday and as i was filling up the bottle, my hatched little white hen chick that i do whatever i can to keep it happy got out of the cage and hided behind some cardboard boxes. As i continued my yard stuff i could hear all kinds of birds singing from the surrounding area, and a bird that peeped strangely. It was my poor chick getting raped or getting beaten by the rooster and i didnt find out only when she managed to run away from him and come to me for protection. She was PURE white, now she has some brown dirty spots at the back and there is a small cut at her little comb. She was locked out of the cage and left with the flock for more than 15 minutes.

When i dig the yard, the "good one" (hen that was used to be called my mother in laws name and mother of my hatched chick) stays always by my side and follows me very closely watching my every move! She stays 1-5 inches away from my right foot, keeps her eyes in the soil as its getting digged and jumps in the scene leaving no worms behind, lol. Few days ago i turned my first compost, it was her day. She must have eaten 200 huge earthworms and maybe thousands smaller ones. Its weird how all the other hens have seen her eating worms and stole some from her for a couple of times, but they never join the habbit of following me around to eat worms. Its propably because the rooster is watching, lol

Goodbye journalllllllllllllll

 

[lovinlife]

It's good to see you back again! We've missed you.

Mean roosters are not to be taken lightly. I've had my fair share of mean roosters and I hate them. I have taught my three current roos that I am the boss and they need to stay the hell away from me. They respect all people because of it.

I wait until they are on their roost at dusk. I pick them up by their feet and hang them upside down for a few minutes, swinging them gently back and forth to make them a little dizzy. I'll hold their body up so they can see my face and tell them who's boss, then hang them upside down again. After a few minutes, I'll lay them on the ground and let them get up on their own. During the day, when i see them, I'll walk swiftly toward them to scare them away from me. I never let them eat when I'm around. If I see them trying to mate a hen, I'll run toward them to scare them away from the hen. This tells them I'm the boss and they respect me.

I have zero trouble from these roosters. The ones I tried to be friends with are the ones who were horribly mean. I will never try to make a rooster friendly again.

Good luck with your mean rooster. I hope you can convert him into a respectful roo.

 

[FoodKillah]

Quote:
I will try that too. But do you do this every dusk? If you skip doing it, how soon do you believe the rooster will turn back to being mean? 2-5 days?
Edit to add: do you keep your roosters in the same coop?

See i used to scare the hell out of my rooster when he was attacking me, showing who is the boss with several ways (also turning him upside down, keeping his back on the ground as i was holding his feet with one hand and his head down to the ground with the other. He DOES relax for a couple of days and doesnt attack me, but then he slowly turns back to the devil he really is. I dont know what i hate more tho, the rooster when he attacks me, or myself when i try to make him respect me. He DOES respect me, i think he gets confused sometimes and cant resist to attack me

After seeing me fail to teach him to be good rooster, yesterday i made something else. Again he attacked my foot right after opening the coop for them to free range, well, i just woke up rooster, no coffee yet, i havent even visit the toilet yet to let you free range first, and you disrespectful bird want to eat me?

No way!

I grabbed him by the tail as he was escaping MY attack, then the neck, then the legs and walla here is an upside down rooster, after a while i turn him in the normal position under my right arm and kept his head down with the other hand. (somebody told me about this in PM) Well. I felt something sticky on my hand that was drying quickly and didnt like what i thought it was. BLOOD. Again

His blood. He attacks me with so much force, he gets hurt!!! His comb was bleeding again. He has wounds that dont heal very quick and if he keeps attacking me he always has 3-5 wounds

Then i remembered reading here in BYC, that isolating the rooster for few days, makes him tame and calm, and he is scared to loose his flock again because of some silly attack. I cannot really do this, but what i did was to put him in the brooder cardboard box that i still keep stored for future hatches, close the box completely and put more boxes and stuff on it so he cant get out. I was angry at him and kicked the box saying "hey shutup" every time he crowed

i left him there 6 hours, he was crowing and if i was near, i was responding with kick and shutup

When i opened the box, he was very scared, i grabbed him and throw him on "the dinosaur" (top hen) and she pecked him

then i followed him around the yard to test him, nothing! He was calm

No more attacks, yet, but if he does it again, i will put him in the dark cardboard box, this time for longer.

I dont like punishing him tho, it takes away all the peace and calmness the flock gives me and makes me feel like a 5 year old that likes to kill cats, or something. Not to mention that the hens hate me if i mess with the rooster and then they are all scared of me like i am a beast and stay away from me. He is a columbian leghorn and if i am not wrong leghorns are mean. I cannot really punish him every few days when he attacks me.

Sometimes i grab him and pet him, speaking to him like to a dog, taking him around the yard, or taking him to parts of the yard he cant access and doesnt know, he seems so calm at these times. I can see that he knows who feeds them and who takes care of them. They stay away from everyone but me. I think that if i was always in the mood to pet them, he would never attack me, but i am not. I mean pet the chickens? Alright i love them, i dont mind the mess they do, i dont mind their smell (smell is my fault, i never cleaned the run yet) i do pet them to check them for mites and lice, but its not my everyday sport. (if i want to check the dinosaur for mites, the rooster attack is all mine! always!)

lovinglife, thanks for your tip, if he finally gets converted to a respectful rooster, its all because BYC friendly community.

I hope i dont get you all bored with my very long posts, do i? Sometimes i type and i type and never stop.

 

[cabincrazyone]

Quote:
No. Your long posts are interesting and entertaining. I enjoy your point of view, your insight ... and the subtle differences in the way we live on opposite sides of the world, and the many ways we are exactly the same, are interesting, too.

Don't change a thing!