Hector's World: Adventures and Mayhem at Mountain View Poultry (or Sequel to The Evolution of Atlas

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Good to hear everyone is okay. I'm seeing lots of hawks lately too, but they never seem to bother my chickens, lots of field mice here.

 

[speckledhen]

Good to hear everyone is okay. I'm seeing lots of hawks lately too, but they never seem to bother my chickens, lots of field mice here.

Millions of meadow mice here, too, and other rodents. Hawks rarely dive on the birds, never had a hawk get one, surely. And it may have been after something else and just came in low and spooked Hector, but it must have been really low or he woudn't have acted as crazy as he did.

 

[1muttsfan]

Good boy!

 

[speckledhen]

Good boy!

Yes, he is. He carried on at the top of his lungs for such a long time that Tom finally went out to calm him down. I think Thea hit the dirt rather than zip around the corner with the other three by her own decision, but Hector was getting them all inside pronto. He's very smart, that boy, he really is.

 

[kitkat5505]

Good job Hector!

 

[speckledhen]

Cora, Bash's daughter, is trying to go broody and Jill is laying so I can put Jill's eggs under her along with some Brahma eggs if she does stick to a nest.

 

[speckledhen]

Hector is being a very good boy lately. He's so smart. I am sort of wishing for a broody so I can hatch the few Jill eggs I've collected. Cora still isn't truly broody yet.

 

[1muttsfan]

He has magnificent hackles. And even though not quite correct, his comb is very good looking.

 

[speckledhen]

He has magnificent hackles. And even though not quite correct, his comb is very good looking.

He has a great presence, even with his low tail angle. At least, he has a beautiful, full tail. He's a good looking boy. I thought several times about selling Hector, but I fear the moment I do, I'll lose Atlas, him being 4 years old and with serious joint issues. Hector is a great flock rooster. He can count his girls, always goes back for a straggler unless I say, "Hector, it's okay, I'll get her" and shoo him into his pen. He really turned out to be a good one in the end, though him running up to someone the way he does can be a little disconcerting if they don't know his antics well.

 

[speckledhen]

Hector's tendency to go off in hysteria every time a voice is raised in the coop (he went nuts yesterday when I burst out laughing at something in Bash's pen) has earned him a new nickname.....The Feathered Fire Alarm.

I keep a blue spray bottle hanging on his pen. If I reach for it when he refuses to shutup, Hector quits going off and begins grumbling under his breath. It was not in the barn all winter long because I can't spray water in frigid temps, but he doesn't like to get a squirt in the face. Usually, I don't even have to squirt him, just show him the bottle. And if Bash follows Hector's lead, all I have to do is show it to him and he clams up immediately. They can learn, those two. They're both really smart boys! LOL.