Memorial Day Salute

It is by God’s grace and our soldiers sacrifice that we still live in the best country on earth.   Here’s a salute to those that have gone before us, and to those still serving.   It has been through faith in God, honor and courage by it's soldiers and citizens that our country has had so many blessings bestowed upon it.  I pray God continues to Bless America.

Green Eggs and Ham

My Easter Eggers started laying this week!  I have green eggs!  Little eggs, but they are green.  Quite small, but green.  One is mint green, the other two are more olive green.

Monkey - RIP

Monkey, our returned rooster, lost the battle with an upper respiratory infection of some kind.  We gave him the strongest meds we could get our hands on, for nearly 2 weeks.  Even though he was really mean, and you couldn't be around him without a rake in hand, he was truly a beautiful bird and the last of our original Hooligans.

It's a sad day at The Compound.

Peace at The Compound

As a result of my chicken hoarding, a change was necessary at The Compound.  The horde of Easter Eggers, 16 total, 9 boys and 7 girls, were creating chaos.  There was no peace in the valley.  Too many boys, not enough girls to go around.  The boys have reached maturity quicker than the girls.  I'll tell you what has happened as a result.

Now, understand, not one of these roosters has misbehaved when it comes to the humans or dogs in the room, they just don't know what to do with all their pent up hormones except to attack any hen within reach.  They are so desperate they are brutal to the hens.  Being of the female persuasion, this was not working for me.  No means no!

One of the issues the hens faced was coming off the roost to eat, dust bath etc.  Once they hit the floor one of the boys would sexually assault the poor girl.  They weren't eating or drinking very much.  I swear they would come over by me (on top of the coop, not the floor) and tell me all about the nonsense!

The Moose and I decided to divide the run off again to house just the boys until they can find a new home in the next couple of weeks.  Yes, I have a buyer for 7 of the 9.  I'm going to keep 2 for breeding;  Hootie and Sparkie.

It took a few hours of work, but between Spud and the Moose it's now complete with roosting bars and protection from predators.  The really fun part was herding the roosters in to their new designated area.  Spud took one for the team and got scratched up a bit.

The boys were a bit nervous with the new area, but the girls were thrilled!  It didn't take long for the girls to realize they had freedom.  They came down and ate as fast as they could, and boy did they drink the water!  They spent several minutes drinking water, which is not like a chicken.  They'll typically get a few mouthfuls and are on their way.  These poor girls were really thirsty.

The other nice side effect, it was quiet.  No hens were screaming for their lives!  Now they just need to adjust to the pecking order, which will be much easier to deal with them all those boys!


FYI - I sold three of the White Orpingtons from the last hatch.  I have another 20 chicks on my porch and 40 more eggs in the incubator!

What are you Feeding Your Chickens?

Here's an interesting article for the chicken lovers that follow this blog and for those of you who care about what you eat.  Does it ever end?

http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/05/02/57250.htm

I'm going to be reviewing the ingredient list of my feed.  I may have to really consider making my own.  I know there are some recipes out there, any success stories?