The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[speckledhen]

First of all, we got rain last night, yea!

I was cleaning leaves out of the barn gutters with a rake when I caught out of the corner of my eye, Hector grab my big old Blue Orp hen, Dusty. She put up a huge fuss, prompting little Xander to swoop in to save her, not unusual at all. What was different was that Hector did not run. He lowered his head, flared his hackles and decided to fight. So, I have this big wide load of a BR cockerel fighting with Munchkin Dictator, Xander, who does have very long spurs, but he's a little bantam Cochin and just Hector's weight coming down on him could badly injure the brave little guy.

I thought it would end immediately, but it didn't so I was raising my rake to put between them, when out of the blue, swoops in Apollo. He isn't fighting Hector, he's coming in to double team Xander, as any second-in-command rooster in a flock would do. So, I break that up, make sure Xander is okay, and now, we have to change up our habit of allowing Xander out with those two groups. So far, the Brahmas are still very afraid of Xander, but that may also change soon.

I did find it interesting and really, very satisfying, that Apollo would assist Hector, that they would work as a team. I wish I could feel confident in putting them in the same pen, but if it's just those two together, Hector is a huge bully, unless the dynamic matures and changes a bit.

 

[Wyatt0224]

Wow, that's pretty surprising. Is that good or bad for Apollo to be doing?

 

[speckledhen]

Wow, that's pretty surprising. Is that good or bad for Apollo to be doing?

Well, naturally, I don't want it aimed at Xander, but in general, it is a good thing. Though I sometimes hesitate to pronounce the motivation of rooster behavior as definitely this or that, I feel that it shows Apollo and Hector feel themselves to be one group, loosely speaking. They are all birds of a feather, so feel a kinship as a Barred Rock flock, all the pullets roam with both Hector and Apollo separately and together and usually, if Hector is not asserting his dominance over Apollo, they stand fairly close to each other, or sit on the same outside roost bar at the same time, etc. Not sure how it would work with them in the same pen unless there were quite a few more BR girls for them to share, say if something happened to Atlas and I put them in with a few of his hens. I hate to clean up blood. Combs and wattles tend to bleed profusely.

My experience with rooster teams is limited because Isaac nor Rex nor Atlas would tolerate any other males with their hens for long, not after the younger one matured to a certain point. Ladyhawk has had a lot of stories where roosters who were in separate groups and generally would not tolerate each other close by would team up against a common foe. That is what I believe I saw today with Hector and Apollo.


ETA: Almost all the leaves are off the trees now. Soon, the mountains around us will be only gray with some green from the pines up there, no beautiful golds, oranges and reds.

 

[h2oratt]

Happy thanksgiving to everyone. Hope your day is joyous.

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks, but I have sort of a hate-hate relationship with holidays, starting at Halloween and continuing until January 2, when we catch a breather. Since my best friend is Cherokee, I always consider the flip-side of Thanksgiving, that it was not all that happy for the Indians and was sort of the beginning of the end for their nations. Some folks became angry at me for even bringing up once on BYC, really got in my face about it, but it never pays to put one's head in the sand. Truth is good, always. I am not a fan of one-sided or sanitized versions of anything. http://www.indians.org/articles/thanksgiving.html (not sure about this site, some are "pretender" sites, would have to ask LH).


We are not participating today, but that's mostly because we are not invited to Thanksgivings anywhere, not that we really would stay away if someone invited us somewhere, unless it was just too far to go. Most close friends live in other states. My married son has never invited us to his house for any event since he married about 17 years ago. He participates in holidays with his in-laws, who moved into a house in the same subdivision almost right behind them and stay up in his business. My other son has lived in Korea for the past five years so he's not here and may never be. What is odd is that now, my husband is the "patriarch" of the family, as our nephew put it, after his parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents all passed on and he's the oldest. Used to be family gathered around the older relatives with respect and paid them at least a modicum of attention, and I don't see that now that we are there. Different generation, all caught up in their dramas, I guess.

Next, we'll have to deal with the dreaded family dinner in December. My husband will go because his brother may not make it much longer, he's in such poor health. Me, I really don't relish being with that bunch of folks, summoned over to that side of Atlanta yet again. I've skipped them before, though I went last year. As the years go by, I more and more am of the opinion that if someone really wanted to see me, they'd make the effort to come this direction and visit sometime during the year; and I less and less want to be more than ten miles from my place. I just don't feel right being gone all day long. Plus, I have been having more headaches lately; I really dread having one triggered two hours from home by the smell of cigarettes on the clothes of other folks in close proximity. Too many smokers in the family, which makes me crazy that they still smoke after so many in our families have died from it and Tom's brother is another one who won't make it out of his 60's because of tobacco. I just am not sure I'll go. Makes me tense just thinking about it. Come on, January 2!

DH made a version of cornbread-and-biscuit dressing using some of our chicken we'd put away this year, but I ate just a little and gave the rest to the bantams, LOL. It was okay but I'm not as gung-ho about Thanksgiving food as he is and others seem to be. He loves dressing and potato salad and macaroni and cheese and other T-G staples. I don't much care for most of them. I could go the rest of my life without those foods. If I had a piece of pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie, or any pie, I'd be happy, but no goodies here today. Just his dressing. Guess I'll have a salad for supper, again. Or I could get a jar of that awesome beef stew we canned this year and put it over some hot biscuits. It was really tasty, I must say.

 

[h2oratt]

Speckledhen,
Sorry I don't know your real name or I just can't remember it.

I feel your pain. The holiday that comes after TG is the one that hurts me the most. I carry all my mother pain from the holiday.
As I move into my golden years I realize that is just being around people you care about and that care about me is the only important thing.

My animals sometimes are better friends than anyone. I have stayed home from the big dinner because of animal obligations. My choice. I am a little sad because I do miss the family. It is a good time to reflect. I understand how you feel about the injustice to the native Americans . It is very sad.

Peace and blessing to you and your husband.

 

[speckledhen]

@h2oratt thank you, I appreciate that. I'd rather be with my chickens most any day than most people so that's probably where I'll be on any given holiday. This season is hard on my husband, but he makes an effort to see his family, even if they don't seem to much care if we're there or not. I was never much for family in the first place, but he was so it's harder on him to see how things have shaken out in recent years. We'll live, though. We always do.

 

[speckledhen]

We wake to the good news that the butcher, Fidel Castro, is dead. I rarely post anything like this here or anywhere on BYC, but since he was the one who ordered the execution of my biological father, Robert Otis Fuller, ignoring my grandmother's pleas for her 25 year old son's life (she knew Castro personally), I am glad he's gone. He got to live out his miserable, selfish life, while my family lost Bobby. My family never got their land back, I'm told about 2000 acres or so. You can read about it here, though it does not mention that he was also a U.S. Marine:
This story is fairly bare bones, does not speak about the torture that preceded the execution by firing squad. He told his mother he was happy to die for the cause. My older sister was six years old at the time.




The woman instrumental in helping me find my family in late 1999 was Janet Ray Weininger. Her own father was also a victim, his plane shot down and him captured, executed, but his body frozen and brought out to display on holidays (how grotesque). Here is his story:

Thomas Willard "Pete" Ray

 

[GabrielBane]

x2 regarding Castro!

I'm going to have to bookmark that post for later reading.

 

[1muttsfan]

I agree about the injustice of a man like him living out a long and pampered old age. Sounds like things are finally changing for the folks that live there, maybe now that his toxic presence is gone it will get better.