Chicken Adventures Abound

Above is our Rhode Island Red rooster.  He began cock-a-doodle-dooing last week.

The chicken adventures in our house continue.  The chicks are now 11 weeks old.  Some weeks ago, it became apparent that we had a rooster on our hands.  We watched his crown and waddle grow at a much speedier rate than the rest of the other chicks and we started to suspect that the blue paint spot on his head at purchase may have been there for a reason.  Livia had unwittingly picked out a rooster that was actually requested by another customer.  His name originally was Mama Odie, so he is now officially Papa Odie.  As it turns out, though, the man who wanted the rooster never came back for him and we didn't want to relinquish him at this point.  I had been thinking about breeding some of the hens eventually anyway, so now I get my chance.  I will keep him in a separate area from the hens until such time as I want to have fertilized eggs and then will let him join the hens temporarily. 

Next, we realized that although we had been told we had Black Australorp chicks, we it seems that we actually have 2 Barred Rock chicks.  One of these black and white chicks, Belle, is quite a bit larger than the other one, Dixie Chick.  You can see Belle below.  We've been wondering for at least a month whether or not she is a rooster, as well, and thought that if she was, her name would change to Gaston.  After watching her carefully, though, I think we just have a large hen on our hands which I would much prefer over having 2 roosters. 

Belle, our bigger Barred Rock hen.

Lastly, I was having a dreadful problem with my other hens, my five Columbian Wyandottes.  For some reason or another, several of them had started to eat their own eggs.  This is pretty disastrous considering I mainly have hens for their egg production.  I, of course, immediately Google the problem and read about several possible ways to avert complete disaster.  One was to put golf balls in their laying area and they would supposedly grow tired of pecking really hard "eggs" that hurt their beaks and be dissuaded from pecking their eggs open.  I drove to the local golf course with the girls, begged about 15 bad golf balls off of them, and promptly tried this trick out.  It seemed to be working a bit, but of course I was also checking the coop every couple of hours for eggs to try and get them first.  Then, I found out they were eating eggs still, so I had to isolate a few on a rotating basis in a large box in the garage and watch them carefully to get their eggs before they ate them.  I finally have all 5 back together and for the last couple of days, I have been getting all of the eggs from the hens.  Now, I'm hoping that they'll forget how good their eggs taste and just leave them for me.  

At least I can trust that the hens and chicks will keep things exciting around here, along with 5 girls, a dog, new fruit trees and grape vines to care for, and all the other little daily items that pop up on a regular basis.