Keeping chickens can be a dangerous game. I didn’t realise how much until I experienced rooster rage this week. I can tell you being pecked by a rooster that seems to grow bigger every day is not what you want before you’ve had your breakfast in the morning.
Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that the chicken kingdom is a very different place that the world I live in. No equal opportunities in the chicken run. It’s all pecking order and rooster in charge.
That doesn’t mean I like what happens. In the last week George has turned his pecking attentions towards me so I’m learning the signs so I can get out of the way pretty quickly. I wonder whether this rooster rage is linked to the hens starting to lay and growing bigger and brighter combs.
Now I know that this business about the combs is a bit of a contentious issue. Ranchmum wanted to know more about this theory of mine. I have to confess that I’ve failed to find anything definitive on the comb theory but there is no doubt that the combs are getting bigger and brighter. Oh, and there are now two hens laying or rather we’ve been getting two eggs most days. Who knows who is doing the laying.
The eggs continue to be delicious although cooking with them is such a different experience from shop bought eggs it’s taking some getting used to. It’s a challenge that’s nice to have. If only I could get George to stop his rooster rage I’d be totally happy with my hen keeping world.
My friend Ruth says that there is not enough chicken blogging, so as always this post is dedicated to her!
Egg laying in action – sshh, don’t disturb and make sure the flash is turned off!
Guess who ruling the roost, pen, bush and all other parts of the chicken domain
Parade of the chicken combs
Almost as good as a comb – a cute fluffy behind
The happy harem
Re chickens’ combs, a hen’s comb is a good indicator of its health and egg laying capablities. The bigger and redder the better. A pale comb is a sign of a sick or out of condition bird. Our hens are kept till they die of old age and you can easily tell which ones are are on the way out. With our ex- battery hens their combs were almost white but they soon perked up, once I had taught them that they were not to spend the nights sleeping up in the apple trees in the hen run. I’ve never had trouble with any roosters but a suggestion is to give it a good squirt with a water pistol. Despite having no brains hens can learn and I have one who regularily slips under the gate of the hen run, has a good rootle around in the garden and then waits for me to call her, when she follows me back to the run and pops through the gate to eat the handful of corn I’ve thrown down. Actually I suspect the other hens send her out on purpose just to get an extra feed.
I really like the idea of those fresh eggs, that one picture you took of cooking with them does an amazing job illustrating the health difference. I don’t know what to do with an angry rooster, with dogs I’ve heard you can use a squirt bottle with water, I wonder how a rooster would react to that.
Claudious, an update on the egg differences. You’ll see I used them for my egg mayonnaise sandwiches for afternoon tea (see post for 12 August) and they were yellow. So yellow, it was sublime!
JT
Fantastic photographs! Yah for the chicken blogging! I’ve just visited ‘Irish Sally Garden’ that you have as a blog link on your side-bar and was so impressed with her informative site and amazing work – she’s selling a booklet on hen-keeping – particularly aimed at smaller gardens – perhaps I should give it a go! – The girls would love having fresh eggs for breakfast and I can envisage a lot of entertainment – laughter and tears! 🙂