Will Egglebert Retire?

Egglebert came to Busy Solitude Farm in the first chicken year.  I had ordered four Cuckoo Marans pullets in a joint order with a friend.  It soon became clear that one of the four was more manly than the others.  No problem, thought I, every flock should have a rooster.

As the chickens of reached maturity, Eggy came into his protective own.  He would chase me out of the barn willingly enough and without provocation. The summer of 2007 brought his first chick, when Chick-Chuck hatched to the ill-fated yellow hen who was murdered just weeks later.

The next year I added a second rooster to the flock, hoping to boost the number of chicks we could hatch.  Tweedledum was a fighter and eventually had to be dispatched to keep peace.

Which leads us to the latest development.

My naivete about hatching chicks failed to acknowledge that 50 percent of them would be roosters.  After a fruitful 2010 of hatches, there are a total of five roosters in the barn, and only one new hen.  (There are also two male ducks to one female duck, alas.)  All was well for a while.

But yesterday someone attacked Egglebert.  I think it was his son, Eggy Jr.  When I came into the barn I discovered Egglebert with his head and neck stuck through the gap of the gate.  He'd tried so hard to get out that the gate was jammed and it took some maneuvering for me to open it.  He stayed so still I thought he was dead, but when I turned my back he sped out the gate into the greater barn.  I fed the hens, then looked around and found him hiding.  He was petrified.

I let him stay out there for a while, placing food and water near him.  Then later in the evening I retrieved him (by then he was standing up) and moved him into the isolation pen in the coop.  Eggy Jr. raised a ruckus when he saw his father returning, and Egglebert was clearly frightened until he recognized that he was protected from attack.

So now I have a situation that must be addressed.  If Egglebert would graciously step down as top rooster, would Eggy Jr. allow him to stay?  I watch enough PBS documentaries to know that some species allow that to happen, but some don't.  Will he need to be separated for the rest of his life?  If so, the configuration of coop space needs to be rethought.

For the time being, Egglebert will stay in isolation.  I will acknowledge that five roosters is too many in my small flock, and something will need to be done.

But for now, it is Christmas.

Christmas at Busy Solitude Farm

U:  "Uncle Oskar, is it true that Santy Paws flies around the whole world tonight, bringing presents and biscuits to all good dogs everywhere?  What time do you think he'll get here?"

O:  "I must explain, Ulani, that he sees you when you are chasing the cats.  Or eating chickens.  Or stealing food off the kitchen counters.  Santy Paws sees everything."

U:  "Oh.  I didn't really want to meet him anyway."

Merry Christmas from
all of us at Busy Solitude Farm!

DANGER ALERT!

My book group meets at 5:30 today.  My plan was to put sweet potato chips in the oven at 4:00, then get cleaned up and organized to venture out in the snow.  But my plan was changed.

The video shows the beginning of the saga.  About five 'til four I took the dogs out in the yard.  We looked around some to see how much snow is down.  Near the barn I noticed an unusual chicken sound.  Usually that means one of the chickens is picking (sometimes literally) on another, so I went into the barn to investigate.

I discovered two chickens absolutely squished under the ramp that leads to the outside.  Why had they gone there?  Was one attacking the other?  The red hen's wing was caught in the space between the ramp and the wall.  All the other chickens were very agitated, squawking and clucking and running back and forth.

Of course I had to leave the pen for a minute to get a pitchfork with which to pry up the ramp, freeing the red hen.  The young white chicken was stuck under there with her.  What on earth?

I picked up the red hen, who seemed to be relieved to be freed.  Then all the chickens came running into the part of the pen I was in.  What is going on?  I carried the hen with me into the other side of the coop.  That's when I saw the hawk.

Yup, there was a hawk inside the chicken pen.

I quickly shooed the chickens into the far side of the pen and blocked the door between.  There are still open spaces, but that seemed a bit safer.  Then the hawk swooped at my head.  I hadn't anticipated that!  While I looked around for a stick or something to shoo it along, it flew out of the pen into the other part of the barn.  That's when I got this picture.

OK, here it is cropped:

Is that a Cooper's Hawk?  It was about the size of a crow.

Anyway, there are vents along that wall between the ceiling and the outer wall, and the hawk must have escaped up into the upstairs of the barn.  So I raced over and opened the Dutch door, hoping if it came back down, it would leave.

I climbed up to have a peak upstairs.  I never go there, there's nothing up there but a bunch of dust and bird poop from the sparrows (who may be leaving if the hawk takes up residence).  At first I couldn't see anything, even with my flashlight.  Then I saw a form perched on the far side.  I took a picture, and while you can't see anything in it, you do see the reflections from two beady eyes.

Back down I went, raced into the house to get my gun.  My staple gun, that is.  Because you see, every winter I put heavy plastic up all around the chicken's pen to reduce drafts.  And I hadn't done it yet this year, but it was clear that some heavy plastic across any openings could be mighty helpful in deterring this hawk!

You know that the plastic was all balled up in the corner of the barn, covered with a summer's worth of heavy dust.  Blech.  But I went forth and got it all up.  And I stuffed empty feed sacks in any spaces I could find between the ceiling and the wall.

At one point while I was stapling, the hawk returned, swooping right at my head.  I screamed and chased it out of the barn.

When last seen, it was fleeing over a snowy field.  But will it return?

Update 9:45 pm.  I went to check on the barn before bed.  Sadly, I think the red hen is dying.  I discovered she has a hole in her back, presumably pecked by the hawk.  I set her in the isolation pen under the heat lamp because I couldn't bear to take her outside in the blizzard while there's still life in her, but I expect she'll pass by morning.  Further update Monday morning.  The red hen's life passed away over night.  Rest in peace.

Have a Pac-Man Christmas!

After much struggle to get a single strand of lights around the little pine tree in the yard, I finally broke down and got a couple of those shrub light blankets.   Seemed a piece of cake until the timer switched on and I discovered...

Someone took a bite out of our lights!  Now a blizzard is bearing down on us, so I'm not certain if I'll be able to get this fixed, or if I should just enjoy having a "special" tree this year!

A Bedtime Tour

In the chilly darkness of this winter evening, I decided to take a few photos of the chickens at bedtime.  They all roost by the time it gets dark.  I like the peacefulness of the barn at bedtime.

The ducks huddle together on the floor for bedtime.  Ari is well protected by her posse of Wacky Quackers.  It appears that they take turns sleeping and being watchful, all to the benefit of Ari.

Mama Hen roosts with her two "chicks".  I believe the white one will be (yet another) rooster, and the stripey one is a girl.  This is a first for my barn, that a hen remains family with chicks this large.  Normally by this time the mother has pushed them away to begin their independent existence.  This hen even lets them try to nest under her still!

Spot and his girls roost up high on the edge of the isolation pen.  He's grown into a beautiful rooster.  His feathers are silky soft, and now that he has claimed the girls who were chicks in the spring, he's settling into his roosterhood.

On the other wing of the coop, these two old birds roost up high.  Eartha and the Ameraucana are from my first chickens here, in 2006.

Beneath them on the window ledge are (yet another) white cockerel and the gold hens.  (There is a sheet of plexiglass on the outside of that window, they are not sleeping exposed!)

And finally, Egglebert, Eggy Jr. and the rest of the flock.  Chick Chuck sleeps on the far end of the top rung, next to Egglebert.  Then the Isa Reds sleep one or two levels down.  And...  What's this?

[In reviewing this photo I realized something was wrong.  That hen on the ground is not taking a dust bath.  She is dead.  She was also one of my original chickens here.  I guess the cold just got to her, and she died.  As soon as I realize, I rushed out to the barn to remove her.  The other chickens were not in the least bit upset.]

So much for the peaceful bedtime tour!