Rooster Troubles

This is the first time we kept a rooster.  In the past we either only had laying hens or meat birds.  But we wanted to hatch our own eggs so kept a rooster.

At first all was well.  Two matured and I was watching them to decide which one to cull, when the larger, prettier, more mature looking of the two attacked my 3 year old out of the blue.  He was in the oven that night.

So we kept his brother, and he eventually got bigger and prettier.  Last month my 2 year old went after him, because she enjoys playing with the chickens and he freaked out when she fell in front of him and jumped on her head.  Blood poured from two scratches on her head, and I felt sick.  We didn't immediately kill him because he's our only mature rooster. We just made sure to keep him separated from the baby.  But I've been uncomfortable with him ever since.   

Not a rooster, but this chicken looks scary.

Today, Baby Bear got the back gate open while I was tending to a sick Wolf Girl and I discovered them just in time to witness part the confrontation.  Fearless little thing that she is, she wasn't backing down, just standing there screaming at him.  But he had already put a little cut in her head.  I went after him, and grabbed the nearest thing to me, which happened to be a hula hoop and waved it, then pitched it at him.  He was appropriately frightened.  Then I picked up a bucket (toy from the sandbox and chased him into the coop and slammed the door shut.  I may or may not have screamed at him crazy style.  Blood on my baby wakes something up in me.

I'm done with him.  He'll be in the pot tomorrow.  The kids are already excited thinking about chicken and dumplings and pot pie.  He was already slated to be butchered.  He just moved the date up again.

Our batch of chicks are almost grown now.  This group has been practically hand raised by the kids from eggs.  I'm hoping maybe we'll get a nicer rooster this time.  But I'm not holding my breath.  I'm thinking roosters may need to wait until our kids are older. 

The Goings On

Just posting a quick update to let y'all know what's going on around here. 

First of all, my computer is now finally back up and running.  It's had some serious issues, including a hard drive failure, but now things seem to be tip-top thanks mostly to Papa Bear.  I've also spent most of my computer time organizing and copying my precious family photos so hopefully, they will be secure and one computer problem doesn't wipe out the last decade of pictures. 

Second: Homeschooling is going great.  Wendy is a hard worker, and has really improved in the area of staying on task and working at a reasonable pace, so the days feel a bit less stressful now.  I do plan on putting her back in public school next year, because I just don't like juggling everyone like this.  I feel like I can't do all the things I want with the younger ones, because I have to do this, then that, then still be home for Wolf Girl when she gets home from school.  I'm also hoping to have Goldilocks in part-time pre-k next year, so that would be one more thing to juggle.  I'm mostly at peace with this. 

Third: The chicks are nearly grown and that means for many of them, time for slaughter.  We gave about 4 of them to the neighbor who loaned us the incubator.  We also gave them our newest hatchlings.  This batch only had 7 chicks.  One of them is deformed, so we kept it.  I was tempted to cull it, but couldn't bring myself to do it.  The chick seems happy and healthy hopping around on it's one good leg. So who knows, maybe it will be okay. We named it "Uno" because it has one functioning leg, and it's being raised alone.  I hope to integrate it with the others, but if that doesn't work out, we'll figure out something. 

The older girls were determined to buy a pig to raise and eat.  They spent most of the winter saving up money for it.  But the neighbor warned them that pigs are easy to get attached to, and now they have decided to postpone those plans for now. 

We built a small fence to go around the backyard for the kids.  We let the hens roam back there, but not the rooster, because he's jumpy with the little ones.  I expect he'll be in oven soon. 

Papa Bear has done most of his planting. 

Not much else going on at the moment, but I look forward to more blogging soon!. 

Homeschooling: Time for Art

I realized at the beginning of the year, that I have been neglecting one area almost completely.  That area is art.  I was never gifted with even the slightest artistic talent.  My mother used to draw pictures and paint and I would stare at them in awe, as if magic just floated out of her fingertips.  When I tried to copy anything I saw, the results left me staring at the paper wondering where the betrayal was taking place.  I wanted to make things pretty, but my hand and/or my brain had other ideas.  The dog, which looked so elegant and life like in my mind's eye, came out this disappointing animal thing.  It's like I only  have a vague idea of what a dog looks like based on a rough description, and have never actually seen one in real life.

My Mad Skillz, yo. 

While we were all down with various illnesses this winter, we took a full week off of homeschooling.  During that time, Wendy took up a pencil and paper and just drew pictures throughout the days.  She drew my lamp, various animals, get well cards for everyone, and toyed with perspectives.  Two things became clear to me.  I've been neglecting arts, which isn't fair to her.  And I have absolutely nothing to offer her.

So, I found a place nearby that does art lessons starting at 9 years old for homeschoolers.  BINGO!  She started her first lesson today.

The first thing they had her do was draw a self-portrait so they'd have a "before" picture for later reference.  Then they had her draw a few other things to see where she is right now.  She was really nervous going in, because she loves to draw, and doesn't want it to become something that she can be graded on.  But I'm trying to emphasize that this is about learning, not about being judged.  She ended up having a great time and can't wait until next week. 

Chickies Part II

 (You may notice I changed the name of my blog.  The old one was meaningless and was getting on my nerves.  Also, when I considered turning it into the web address, I discovered that it looks like this "whatitsabout".  It's probably juvenile, but I couldn't stop seeing "tits" right in the middle of my title.  Rather not attract the wrong crowd, lol.  So, now this is it.  And I'll try to make it the domain name soon.  I ran into a snag with that.)  
 
So we moved the chicks out to the brooder yesterday.  In the past we've kept the brooder on the back porch.  But there were a few problems with that, and we wanted to make a few changes to the brooder (mainly give it legs).  So we moved it to just outside the porch.  Up to this point, they've been living in the computer room, where they were born.  The long term plan, however, is not to raise house chickens.

They are not loving the outside life.  Poor things, and it's cold outside.  We lost one last night.  I'm not sure if it was from the cold, or the fact that they wouldn't leave the heat lamp to go get water.  I moved the water closer to them this morning, and all the chicks came over to drink immediately.  They look healthy, though still not happy about the new arrangement.  I think the wire floor freaks them out too.  I'm going to try and put some pine needles down or get some straw if I can find any.  The bedding I have slides right through the floor.  

 

We'll just stay right here, thank you.

Mama hen wonders what's with all the cheeping. 

Also, after getting a close look at them, and considering which eggs hatched (almost all were brown).  It looks like we are going to have a large number of red/black Austrolorp crosses.  Should be interesting.