The ... in the blog title means roosters!! Only once in all the years of getting chickens has there been a rooster. I may have mentioned that we gave it away to a fellow, after warning him that he was not kindly toward the kids. He was fine with that, until the rooster went after his daughters. The man shot the rooster.
The chicken people always warn buyers that they aim for just hens, if that is what the customer orders, but there is always a 10% chance of roosters. 10% of 18 is 1.8, and we have 2! We began to notice maybe a week ago that a couple had red combs. Female Speckled Sussex do not have any red on their heads. Well, this morning, Tom went into the barn early and sure enough a rooster crowed! We are actually quite excited. The Sussex is a mellow breed so fingers crossed the roosters will be as well.
See those red combs!
Takes me back to my childhood when everyone in my village seemed to have a few chickens scratching in the dirt. Our near neighbour, a German woman, had a smallholding where the hens ran free and my job as a small boy was to search out all the places where they'd chosen to lay their eggs.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful memory! What is a smallholding - just a small farm or amount of land?
DeleteI wish I could show my Daddy the size of your chicken coop, he would love it as I am sure your chickens and roosters do!
ReplyDeleteHas to be big because they won't be going outdoors anymore!
DeleteTHe las t batch of chicks my daughter had had two bantam roosters. One was very aggressive so they donated it to VINS for raptor food. The other is not as naughty.
ReplyDeleteWe'll just hope the both of them are cheerful! One welcomes Tom into the barn in the morning now with his "cock a doodle do"!
DeleteThat's something that you ended up with two roosters. So do they stay in the coop all the time? We have foxes and I know we would have a hard time. Love the post and I'll come back to see your answer :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is why Tom made a new, larger, protected coop because they will be in it all the time. It should be plenty big when we take down the divider when the babies are bigger.
DeleteThere was someone round here had a cockerel for a year or so - and I live in a very suburban area of terraces (row houses) street upon street. Cock-a-doooo cock-a-doooo every morning at about 5. Arghhhh! And all day, actually. But your hens and cockerels are very pretty and I hope that all works well.
ReplyDeleteWe had them too ages ago but it was always as a small scale business
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear more about it! How many you had, how many eggs you sold, etc.
DeleteThat has happened to our daughter and SIL too -- their "chicken seller" tells them the same thing and a couple of times they have gotten a rooster. Sometimes they have a breed of chickens where the hens have red sort of combs but not as pronounced
ReplyDeleteYes, our Dominiques have redder heads than the new Speckled Sussex. The other day, it seemed like the roosters were being aggressive toward one another, but no signs of it since then. What did your family people do with the roosters?
DeleteThey didn't really tell me and I didn't really ask. So it is left to my sad imagination I'm afraid.
DeleteThere are some friendly chickens on the next road and they always come by the fence as we walk by. My husband always wonder what happens in winter when it gets really cold.
ReplyDeleteMost likely, they go back to their barn and stay inside in the winter. None of our chickens or animals really want to go outside when it is cold!
DeleteI loved those pictures of the roosters, especially the roosters.
ReplyDeleteSo far, so good in terms of them being not aggressive. I do love hearing their crowing!
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