How did my grandmother do it?

[arch_cpj]

Quote:
here here I also keep hawks away with bottle rockets etc my roam all day long I do lock the coop at night and my bird dogs dont bother the hens they do bother the oter stuff though... Ive set a coon trap weeks in a row and never have had one near the coop I do run a strant of hot wire around the coop but it is offf during the day my hens are livestock and I keep over 50 I build in a 10 - 12 bird loss every year but rarely lose more than 3 or 4 if that it gives me a reason to get some chicks in the spring....

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Ya, they were livestock and a few did have names, but they were still dinner at some point. They were raised for food. They had dogs to chase predators away and the dogs had room to manuver. They had the freedom of room to move in and bushes and trees to hide in. They had experience. The young learned from the older hens and roos and they in turn passed that survival knowledge on. My Mom enjoyed having and watching her chickens.

Now we're on smaller lots. We have different predators that we can't kill (Protected Hawks). My dogs still chase hawks away. My birds handle the heat better than Mom's ever did. My chickens eat the snakes or chase the big ones away, Mom's didn't. The young still learn from the older hens and Roo. I name some of them and they are all still dinner at some point. I enjoy having and watching my chickens.

So some things change, some things get better and some things are still the same. They just don't have as much room to manuver, but they use what they have just like we do. So we protect them by locking them up at night and they go right in to be locked up, too. They have seen what wants in their house at night. They can hear that owl in the tree in the wood lot next door most every night. They got it good and they know it.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Gotta agree with Ridgerunner, that's the way it was when I was a kid too.

Us boys were hunting with an old single shot 22 by the time we were 11-12 years old and it was a grand thing when Pa would say "Boys, I saw a fox up by the upper pasture today, ya'll might want to see if you can get him before he gets in the chickens". We still lost a chicken once or twice a year, but it was seldom and us kids hunted & trapped all winter to keep the fox, bobcats, mink, 'possums & 'coon numbers down. I remember once a mink got in the coop and killed a lot of the young chicks, but that's the only time I remember losing more than a couple at any one time.

They did have a few favorite chickens that got named and that was more than just livestock. I know that for sure because I remember (Very clearly, even after all these years!), being told one Sunday morning that we were having company and to go get a rooster for dinner. It was one of us boys that always killed & plucked & dressed the cookin' chickens. Now it just so happened that the week before one of Pa's favorite roosters flogged the devil outta me when I was gathering eggs. So when Ma said to get a rooster a light bulb went off (Hey, Great Idea Terry!), so guess which rooster we ate? The next morning Pa came in from feeding and ask if anybody had seen that speckled rooster?.... I got introduced to a hickory switch out behind the smokehouse. Now don't get me wrong, Pa didn't get us often, but Buddy, You knew you'd been got when he did!

Also, the pastures, ditch-banks & fencerows were kept clean so it took a pretty gutsy critter to come near the house back then. A couple of old huntin' hounds on the porch, barn cats meaner than most modern dogs and a bunch of smart old roosters helped too I'm sure.

But I remember Pa talking about the "Good Old Days" once before he died and him sorta looking off into space for a while then leaning over to me with a big old grin and telling me the good old days weren't so good back when he was living through them. Still think about that now and then..
Terry

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

Mississippifarmboy - my Brother did that with Dad's Rooster. Dad wasn't mad because the Roo was a favorite though, but because it was his best breeder. I think Dad wanted a few more of his chicks before he did him in though cause that Roo just didn't like my brother and the folks didn't tolerate mean Roos.

My sister started shooting Bobcats when they came on our farm and were after our new born calves. My brother went after them when he got home. Our Uncle heard the gun fire and came down the road to see what was going on cause he knew Dad was out of town then. They had killed one of his calves a week before and he blamed our dog, but when he saw the carcasses in our driveway he knew better. Needless to say the hunt was on and there was no rest for anyone untill every bobcat in the area was found. And I mean every last one, only then could life get back to normal. It took days to walk all the fields and wooded areas with members of each of the family and neighbors helping. I was maybe 6 and I'll never forget that, because my Aunts came to our farm to help make up meals for the hunters the next day. Each day they's go to a different farm to prepare meals, closer to where the hunters were. I don't remember anymore predator attacks after that. Course family had those lands for a few generations. SSS.