This is a site I visit weekly. Everyone should have their own Rabbi. Rabbi Lapin and his wife Susan put together a weekly post, among other publications, that I find very interesting. He focuses on the Old Testament, and Hebrew teachings, and Susan's is more about current affairs. Both well written.
I really connected with Susan's Musings this week and thought I would share. Here's the link;
As you know, we decided, against what may be better judgement, to bring Monkey back to The Compound. Needless to say Saturday was VERY eventful.
There are moments when you could kick yourself in the behind for not bringing along your video camera. This is one of those.
The Moose and I drove over to pick up Monkey. As brave as the Moose is, I'm sure he wasn't expecting the warm reception he received from Monkey. Before the Moose could even finish saying hello, Monkey made his first offensive move. Let me just say, his spurs are over 2" long, and look menacing. I stayed protected, behind the Moose.
I had envisioned a game of cat and mouse through the backyard, wielding large lawn rakes and the like. But nope, it went really quick, surprisingly. The Moose waited patiently for Monkey's next move, and then he took the offensive and pinned Monkey to the ground, picked him up and in the dog kennel he went. Just about that quick!
But the fun was just beginning.
As soon as we got back to The Compound, we took the kennel out and placed the royal pain in the butt on the ground, the entire flock started making a huge fuss. They were not happy with this newbie, and weren't sure how he was going to fit into their currently quiet establishment.
Pig Pen our Orpington rooster had his shackles up and started scratching the ground like a bull. It was obvious he was not happy. The hens decided to create a cacophony of noises all expressing their displeasure. It was quite a show and it remained noisy for the remainder of our stay.
Then the sizing up of the opponents began. We put Monkey on the side of the run, where the three small Hooligans were housed. That upset those three. They couldn't figure out why someone else was in their area, and eating their food. They paced the entrance for quite some time. Then Rooster Cogburn the youngest, already has designs on how far up the pecking order he may make it one day. He played "chicken" with Monkey, and this is how it went;
He seemed to hold his ground at this point. He didn't have to face those spurs or the overall weight advantage the Monkey would have on him. But he'll be a force to be reckoned with one day soon.
Then Pig Pen decided to size Monkey up.
After this battle Royal, Pig Pen looked terrible. He was bleeding from where his comb meets his beak. Not sure it was Monkey or the fence that cause it.
Pig Pen has the most to lose at this point, or so he thinks. With the heathen behavior Monkey is known for, and our number of laying hens is still small, we can not in good conscience let Monkey out. He has the advantage of size, weight, experience and SPURS. It would not be a fair fight, and the hens would get too much attention. That's the reason we sold him to begin with. We had too many roosters for the number of hens. The problem would be exasperated at this point.
So Monkey will remain on his side of the run, until we need our hens/eggs fertilized for hatching. I would like nothing better than to let him roam, but he's really nasty. At this point, it is what it is.
I ended up putting up a temporary wall with some plastic corrugated sheets so they couldn't really see each other and if they decided to fight again, they'd run into the sheets, not the fence. Hopefully they'll behave themselves.
