[Ag-eq] Chickens

[Susan Roe]

Well, funny you should ask.  My husband would put on a pair of winter cover 
alls when he had to catch him.  Then we could wrap him up in a big towel and 
he'd hand him over to me and we trimmed up his spirs.  We hadn't bothered 
with them until we noticed they were starting to curl inward towards the 
bottom of his feet and we were afraid he would eventually puncture his feet, 
causing him to become lame.  While they were still slightly hooked, I had 
gone into his coop to feed, check water and gather eggs.  Now I could do 
this usually with no problems because I never stepped down into their fenced 
pen area, a definite private domain of Big Red.  I'd just open the inner 
coop door that went out there, hand toss out their scratch and leave it open 
while I did the rest.  Red rarely came in there with me because I always 
took a rake or broom in as a sort of buffer between me and him.  This also 
allowed the hens a more open exit to leave if they were ancy about being in 
the coop with me.  I had already put fresh mash, oyster shells and grit in 
the inside feeder and gathered about 15 or so eggs when all I had to do was 
check the water, remove any straw they may have scratched up into the 
waterer and turn to close and latch the inner door before I went out the 
connecting door to the feed area and then out of the coop.  Well, when I 
bent over the waterer that sits up on a cinder block, I propped the rake 
against a long perch in front of me instead of keeping it between me and the 
open coop door.  This coop sits about 2 feet off the ground and Red must 
have been watching my every move from just beyond the open door.  The next 
thing I knew, he had flown up into the doorway, caught me below and to the 
outside area of my left knee with his beek while he hooked one of his spirs 
into the flesh of my foot just in front of my ankle and just above the edge 
of my shoe.

Lucky for him I had a small empty bucket in my hand and popped him with it 
instead of grabbing two handfulls of feathers.  Needless to say, he almost 
became Sunday dinner!

Whenever I go out to the coops I always have my cordless house phone and it 
is still in good calling range of the house.  I called my sister next door I 
told her she would have to come over and finish up the chickens for me 
because Red socked me a good one.  She said, "Is it bad?"  I replied, "Well, 
I'm bleeding pretty good and I'm gonna have to clean it up before I can get 
it to stop bleeding.  Is that bad enough?"

He put a pretty good size hole in my foot and a deep v shaped scratch on my 
leg and I was wearing pants too.  I was not to happy with Red at the time, 
but he was just doing what he did the best and that was protecting his hens. 
He could be mean as spit, but he was super protective and careing for his 
hens.  You could feed him grass through the fence while he sat up on a 3 
foot perch, but he would not eat the grass bundles himself.  He would pull 
them through and toss them on the ground in front of the perch, sound a 
little chuckle call to the hens and they would come over and eat the grass 
in front of him.  sort of like he was providing for them instead of us 
feeding the hens ourselves.

Susan
dogwoodfarm at verizon.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jewel" <jewelblanch at kinect.co.nz>
To: "Agricultural and Equestrean Division List" <ag-eq at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 5:03 PM
Subject: Re: [Ag-eq] Chickens


> Susan!  Do you have to dress up in a body protection suit to handle  your 
> Rhode Island Red rooster?
>
>       Jewel
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Susan Roe" <dogwoodfarm at verizon.net>
> Sent: Friday, February 28, 2014 8:30 AM
> To: "Tracy Carcione" <carcione at access.net>; "Agricultural and Equestrean 
> Division List"
> <ag-eq at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: [Ag-eq] Chickens
>
> Hi Tracy,
>
> I am still leaning towards the Rhode Island Reds.  They are a large, brown
> egg layer, very hardy in summer and winter and their roosters are mean as
> ... I never had anything get in the pen where I had a Rhode Island Red in
> residence.  I like nature, but I refuse to let nature feed off of my
> chickens!  So, whether you be fox or farel cat, you are going to be dead
> meat if you mess with my chickens this time around.
>
> I'll let you know when I finally settle on the breed.  Who knows, I might
> just have a mixed flock of hens and a Rhode Island Red rooster.
>
> Susan
> dogwoodfarm at verizon.net
>
>
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