Conversations with My Yard Velociraptors

[2DogsFarm]

Same!
They remind me of @JSwan 's stories of her Evil Chucky rooster, but flipside
If I had more disposable income I might look into the Liege Fighters, they sound like incredibly cool birds!

@Shiloh MuaHaHaHa!
Come to the Dark(&feathered) Side!
They really are amusing birds & have a lot of personality for ~6-8# of feathers.
If you get a good rooster, all the better.
My first guy may have been a dick, but he died defending his girls - he was the most torn-up
PT respects me & Bluey is starting to warm up.
I may have a Pet Roo yet

[moonlitoaksranch]

Cricket is fourteen weeks old now. She is from the latest batch of pullets we bought from the feed store. Lovely coloration, a rather large comb, and she was crowing this morning! Sigh. We were looking forward to having a flock of just hens. Since we have a Juliet, Cricket will change to Romeo. For a long time, our flock had little old lady names. We’re switching it up a little because our son took over the naming.

One of my favorite things to do for our chickens is to buy about two dozen live crickets from the pet store and turn them loose in the coop. They recognize me coming with the bag now and start jabbering to each other. Probably betting how many they can catch.

[enjoytheride]

“what do you mean, you’re eating roast chicken for dinner?”

One of our ladies begging for snacks while we eat and wait for our hay to be baled.

[enjoytheride]

Oreo, who’s 8 inches tall but is intent on sneaking up on you and murdering you. He is pretty good at getting your ankles. He got booted out of his pen because he was mean to his ladies but he’s terrified of my standard sized hens and runs from them.

[2DogsFarm]

@enjoytheride I give the carcass of any chicken I cook to my flock.
For the protein & calcium.
It gets devoured, bones included.
I ask no questions

[TheDBYC]

@2DogsFarm, I admit to doing the same The butcher always returned the organ meats from the beef & pork I ran through. Because they didn’t sell well, I used to feed them to my laying flocks for extra protein. Avoided feeding them chicken for a long time. Then it got to a point that it seemed almost disgraceful /dishonorable not to use every part of the bird.

If you lived closer, I would happily pass along a few of the F1 generation of Larry & Louis progeny to you. They are fantastic hawk deterants. Knock on wood, we don’t get too many hawks hanging about except in the coldest months. The boys grounded one & were advancing on it with the whole squad behind them. Hawk managed to take off. Then the murder of crows that hung around all winter for scraps of chicken feed swooped in & attacked the hawk in midair. Haven’t seen it since!

@enjoytheride, I love Oreo! What is he? Frizzle? Silkie? Sizzle?? We had a Silkie purchased at the county fair. He was so funky looking that I used to joke that two of them guarded the gates to Hades in Greek mythology!

Eta: I’m fairly certain that Big Bird from Sesame Street is a Mottled Houdan.

[shiloh]

What kind of chicken is that?!

[TheDBYC]

Not @enjoytheride, but I think it’s either a silkie or a “frizzle” cochin.

[enjoytheride]

Oreo is a frizzle Satin (a version of a silkie with smooth feathers).

[2DogsFarm]

I wish you were closer!
Canada, right?
I’m not welcome at your borders right now

One of L&L’s kids might be what I need to put PT in his place
As of now, he & Bluey co-exist with no extreme violence.
But when I open the coop to the yard each morning, Bluey makes a beeline OUT.
Plainly has his Marching Orders

We have LOTS of redtail Hawks here year-round.
But I see tiny songbirds run them off all the time, makes me LOL

[TheDBYC]

@2DogsFarm

Canada, right?

Nope! We’re in Virginia. I love Canada but would turn into a popsicle in the first 10 minutes of a Canadian winter

[2DogsFarm]

Drat!
Still too far to travel for an L&L roolet

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

Has anyone celebrated a chicken’s birthday? I might kinda, sorta know a CrazyChickenLady who did.

Waffles' First Birthday

[rubygirl1968]

Waffles was very happy with the birthday goodies! That is so cute.

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

Well, she was quite rude to start eating before the song was over.

[2DogsFarm]

Chicken Etiquette!
Eat first, thank later

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

At least she saved some for her friends.

[moonlitoaksranch]

I was raking out the chickens coop this morning and found two carpenter ant nests. The chickens were locked away on the smaller side of the coop (I had raked that area out first). One nest was under the metal pan I use to put the waterer on and the other was under the metal feed can. They came boiling out in full battle mode. I shrieked and ran for the house to get boots on (slip on shoes and bare legs do not mix well with rapidly crawling, biting, nasties). Our son came back out with me to hand me tools from outside the coop. I carefully danced about and finished raking out the shavings with angry ants running towards me while throwing curses and waggling their pincers. Finally, I swept myself a path to put down food and water, backed off, and opened everything up as we made our escape. Only one harrowing moment when a swept ant went flying towards my son, but he was clever enough to move.

I was hoping the chickens could clean them up before I put new shavings down. My hopes were confirmed because as soon as they were released, the hens had fun pecking away at the ants. I wonder if it’s like eating spicy popcorn? The roo stood proudly and observed the scene (Romeo has stepped into his new role quickly). He occasionally shook off one of the little nasties from his foot while imperiously watching his hens do all the work. We happily watched them vanquish our enemies for awhile. I’ll lay down the shavings later. Good hens deserve a reward for all their hard work.

[moonlitoaksranch]

The carpenter ants are gone and we put shavings down for our little feathered heroes. They even gave us an egg tonight.

[TheDBYC]

@moonlitoaksranch

The roo stood proudly and observed the scene (Romeo has stepped into his new role quickly).

Yay! Good roo roo, making sure his ladies eat their fill before he partakes I do wonder if carpenter ants = popcorn with Old Bay seasoning in their minds!