Roosters

I have been sitting around the past several evenings while my little dog, Xena, was outside to do her business and used this time to observe my chickens.  Chickens have, upon close study and observation, a very complicated social structure.  We currently have four roosters.  I would like to introduce said roosters to you one at a time.  They form the governance of the group.  Firstly the top ranking rooster I call Big Red.  He's a Rhode Island Red (RIR).  He is the biggest and most dominate of all and is seldom, if ever, challenged.  Big Red is one of the group of chickens that came to the farm first.  We refer to them as the "Tractor Supply Chickens" because we bought them, well I bought them from there.  They were straight run and you just reached in and picked a chick.  Two of them were a little ruddier than the others so I selected them.  I was happy that I ended up with one RIR rooster and one RIR hen.  Poor Little Red, the hen was among those lost to the Coyote raid of 2011 that killed over half of the chickens.  RIP Little Red.  Anyway, I digress, we are talking about Big Red today.

On any given day one can watch Big Red leading around, shepherding, his harem of hens.  Big Red also has his subordinate roosters and the pecking order is clearly defined.  The general argument that I hear that is anti rooster is that roosters are only interested in one thing and that's truth right there but they are so much more.  Their role in the flock is to guard and protect.  Big Red uses not only his voice in various clucks, perts, and whistles, but certain body language to influence his harem and subordinates.  It all begins in the morning when they are let out of the chicken house to free range.  The first order of the morning is to hustle up and feed up from the scratch feed that is cast out to them by the Primary Food Source (me the momma) so Big Red runs up the hill, the flock in tow to head to where I cast out the scratch feed.  He clucks and perts to them all the way up the hill.

Always a Story on the Farm

This week has been the first down time week since hay season began 4 weeks ago.  So, now that Johnny is out of the hay field he had no choice but to turn his and my attention to the much needed new truck.  I searched the internet for local deals on a Ford F-250, gas, 8 ft bed truck as this was the "wish list".  We drove to all the local car lots on Sunday to no avail.  He then really focused his attention to the internet listings on Monday; he made phone calls and did a bit of dealing.  At the end of the day our plans were set and we would head to Northern Virginia on Wednesday afternoon.  My darling husband absolutely hates to drive further than 30-40 miles so a trip of 100+ miles brought forth quite a visceral response.  Nevertheless, as Wednesday rolls around we head to Sterlind VA.  My trusty GPS, Loretta, led us right to the sellers front door.  Johnny carefully examined the interior, exterior and had a short test drive.  We agreed to buy the truck and gave the sellers some cash to hold the truck.  Once home I completed the loan application, the check has arrived and tomorrow; due to my darling husband's charming smooth-talking ways got the sellers to agree to bring the truck to us on the farm.  So, he will be back on the road in his new/used 2006 F-250 and I will get my Jeep back.

This weeks has also brought some animal husbandry opportunities.  We have had two calves born this week; one of them had to be helped into the world by Johnny and his friend Dale.  Johnny said it was a tough pull, this was the first calf for this young cow and the calf was really big.  We have also had some additional chicks hatch and this time it was a disaster as the poor old hen has passed away and the chicks have not fared well, we will hope the strongest of the clutch will make it so the hens legacy will live on.  She was a prolifc setter, hatching clutch after clutch,  I believe that she just set herself to death.  What an amazing primary objective they have.  Life goes on.

Life's good; Live it.

From a Surprise Capture to an Exhausted Husband

Today was the day to get up hay.  The plan was square bales and a crew of four were coming so that meant that my main role of the day was refreshment and gopher.  I awoke at about 6:45 because our little bantam rooster was having a crowing fit outside of my bedroom window.  I get up, Xena follows, and go pee then check the rooster, he's no where to be seen then - since I was already up and out - go let the chickens out and feed them.

I head straight to the chicken house door and shove it open just like always and then, headed uphill to the house lot door to throw the scratch feed in.  I have to open the door now since I've put the mesh over the top of the entire lot.   I stopped in my tracks as I look up and in the lot and see, looking back at me, a huge owl. He had dived in but wasn't able to get out.  My heart stopped in my throat.  I did a complete 180 and rand back to the house to get Johnny.  He met me at the door when he saw me run up.  I told him what I had seen and that I needed his help.  Johnny slipped on his shoes and came behind me fetching a gun on the way.  He took aim but the gun wouldn't shoot it - I ran and fetched a piece of wire that he rammed down the barrel to free a previously spent bullet by dislodging it.  He took aim one final time. This time with a repeat of the shot.  Johnny said, ok, go get it, I was still afraid of it and told him that is what I got a husband for.  He collected and disposed of the owl and I collected and disposed of the last one of my chickens that he will get.  Good riddance and I'm sorry if you are offended by the graphic description, however this owl had taken more than six of my pullets.

After that was taken care of Xena and I headed to Food Lion with the list of menu items I had prepared.  Almost $200 later we return back to the farm to begin preparing for the day.  We started with a breakfast of fish sticks.  Sustained and ready to roll; it was on!

Johnny headed to the fields and I made macaroni salad, made the hamburger patties and marinated the chicken.  It was then time to head to the lawnmower for me.

About noon the crew arrived; Jared, Bryan, Josh, and Roger.  HK came down and all was underway.  Then that's when things started to go wrong.  The tongue broke on one wagon, the tire came off the rim on another, the driveshaft broke on the baler.  All were repaired.

I fired up the grill about 4:30 and the crew fed and marked the end of the day.

Fences for Chickens

Most folks that know us and the farm already know that the chickens that live on the farm are permitted to range free.  They do roost at night in the chicken house but during they day they are usually out and about. They do what chickens do; scratch, peck, eat dirt, eat grass or what ever else they find that looks like it will be a tasty morsel.  The young pullets and roosters that I have though are generally confined to the chicken house lot.  Not because I force them to stay there but because most of them can't figure out how to leave the yard nor do they really seem to have a desire to do so.  What this means is that they have become easy picking for flying predators.  We've lost a number of them to these predators so today I finished installing netting over the lot.  Hopefully this will stem the loss.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Wow it's June!

We have reached the sixth month of 2011.  Today Johnny left home early to head to the part store and work on repairing the haybine.  By the time I got home at the end of the day I could see as I road along Bybee's Church Road that he had been successful; there were two passes of newly mowed hay!  Yay!

First order of business for me was to check on the welfare of my solo queen.  Sadly, most of her nurse bees had expired and she, plus one lone nurse were alive, barely.  Johnny and I had a little debate about what to do, I relented and tried his idea which was to take a single frame out of our strongest hive and see if that would work. I suited up and broke down the blue hive, Hive 1, but could not find a suitable frame so just freed the queen and her one remaining nurse bee.  What will be will bee.  Lesson learned.

When I returned to the mercifully cool interior of the farm house I started dinner preparations, shrimp again.

It was getting late by this time so needed to collect the eggs and check on the chicks.  To my horror I found that another chick had succumbed to the attack of a hawk.  These hawks an me will be at odds for ever!  During the egg collection I found another one of my  hens had started to set.  Chickens come and they go.  In spite of the hawks and other predators, they seem to survive.

By the end of the egg collection Johnny had returned from the hay field.  Broken down again.  Thus we arrive at the end.  Tomorrow will be another opportunity and another story from the farm.

Last Sunday we added a second brood box to Johnny's bees.

This frame is from the center of the primary brood box.  These bees have drawn comb across all 8 frames

Hive Split Failure

Saturday, Johnny and I attempted to take bees from an existing hive and give them a new queen.  I just checked them and all of the bees have left for their own hive.  Failure!  I'm certain that we tried to locate the newly queened bees too close to the origin hive.  Will have to try again.  Hopefully we can get this to work so we won't lose our queen.