I've been wanting to update about a few things..I've been wanting to blog about our chickens! We have had some turnover around here. Peepers as you may recall... Was a chick we were given by the Aubin family. Peepers had a hard time adjusting with our hens and rooster, as the pecking order is a real thing. Oh it could not be more real! We kept them separate, then when Peepers was big enough (size wise) I introduced her to the flock. She would escape every day from the fenced yard as she was getting pestered. I would catch her every day, and hope that she at least had some nice time on the other side of the fence. This was a total pain in my behind as I always had the kids with me. Owen would be over on one side of the property, and Ara would be over at the hay, doing who knows what! And then I would be running around trying to catch little Peepers.
When we returned from Glamis after 9 days, Peepers had changed drastically. SHE had beautifully filled out, and seemed to have additional feathers... SHE wasn't looking so much like a SHE anymore...
SHE was a beautiful ROOSTER... And had been all along... Which made sense as to why "she" had such a rough time fitting in. This was our second accidental rooster, our first was Pat, which was not a nice rooster. We let Pat fend for himself for a while and then nature took care of him for us...
"I will take him! And I know your husband!"
My reply was: "So awesome! I have to load up kids, catch a rooster, but I will meet you in half an hour!"
And that was exactly what I did! Peepers was used to me chasing and catching him but I have never put him in a box before. Good thing we just upgraded Ara's carseat and had a large box to house a large critter. As I was closing the box I realized I didn't have any tape....DARN! If you've visited our property you know the barn is not in close proximity to the house. And I wanted to get this rooster off my back quickly!
I had been researching ways to recycle hay ties recently as each bale of hay comes with three plastic strings. They are very heavy duty, but I am pretty anti plastic in general and I feel like it is such a waste. The information I had gathered was just ok, mostly recommending using it to repair fences temporarily (done that!), close gates (that too!), and weave with it. I like to sew but I don't know if I am going to take up weaving plastic rugs anytime soon....
On that note, I used a hay tie to jimmy rig the box "closed". The whole (thankfully quick) ride to the meeting spot I was a lot worried that Peepers was going to jump straight through the top of the box and into the car, onto one of the kids, and cause a huge accident. This did not happen. But we were close.
I met with the new owner who lived a bit away on 20 acres. She had another rooster already but had two separate yards. 2 roosters isn't always a problem if there are enough hens for them each to have their own. We just didn't have that many.
The most recent update I had was that she found her two roosters snuggled up next to each other, and that she had never heard of Gay Roo's! It made me chuckle and glad that Peepers was happy!
I was also very happy to not have to chase a chicken around twice a day while also chasing around my children in the field, one of which STILL thinks that sheep poop is black beans..............
Another day she made it out and then she just started laying down all the time. She must have been in pain, or re-injured her self. I was giving her water as often as I could, but again, the chicken area isn't super easy to get to. She would drink on her own but wanted to be helped as well. We separated her again, into the barn, and she just deteriorated. She wasn't able to move off of one side, so I would rotate her once a day. Her quality of life was just poor. Chris ended her misery 2 weeks ago. It was sad but we have learned a lot through keeping animals. The kids have learned a lot about responsibility, feeding and caring for others, as well as the circle of life. RIP Sweet Pea.
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