Chicken Gangs – What to do when you discover the dark side of your birds.

I could not believe my eyes yesterday when I walked into the living room to check on my chicks. One of the brooder pens had a food dish that the birds flipped over onto a chick. They were taking turns standing on top of it pecking at the poor chick trapped under. 

Poor chick being bullied!





After I nearly wet myself I realized that I have to keep a close eye on them. I don’t have that type of food dish in any of the other pens thank goodness as the other pen floors are solid and the poor chick wouldn’t have any air! So if it was going to happen then it was good it happened in this pen.

The other problem I had this week is the darker colored month old chicks had started pecking at my white Leghorns. They were very nasty and did it all around their tail feathers. I couldn’t believe how fast it happened. I went to the store came back and checked on them and there my four Leghorn’s were with bloody bums!

Once there is a red target like that the other birds find it irresistible. It is a bulls eye to them that they do not have the will to resist. I had to separate them immediately to stop the pecking. I put some Neosporin on their boo boos and they seem to be doing very well. I hope this doesn’t affect their feather development.

The dogs are very happy with me at the moment. While shopping the butcher had some huge cow leg bones full of marrow that they just love. I picked up a couple of them and all I can hear over the peeps of the chicks is the dulcet sounds of … klonk… lick… crunch… klonk. The bones are rather large and make a lot of noise when they drop them. It scares the dickens out of the chicks!

 

While I was in Ohio picking up Paul we stopped by a friends house to pick up Natasha. Well, that is what I have decided to name her. Rocky is her boyfriend and while I thought about calling her Adrian it seems such a cliché. I am undecided… time will tell. Rocky instantly fell in love with her. He threw his wings to the ground and instantly started doing his mating dance for her. Poor hen however wanted nothing to do with him after a 5 hour trip in the truck! Now it is day 4 and she is very happy to follow him around and let him feed her choice bits of grass and bugs. Ahhhh… Love is in the air! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1yzIeBRh5o          

The Mallard pair that is mating in the kitchen pond (named not because it is located in my kitchen but because I can view it out my kitchen window!) is very shy and will not let me get close to take pics of them so I took a pic through my window. It made me realize I really, really need to clean said window! They instantly fly off to the big pond. I worry about the ducklings they will hatch as that pond has water snakes in it. While they won’t mess with a full size bird they will take a duckling.

I’ve been working on getting the brush cleaned away from the edges of the pond and hopefully that will make it easier for us to get into it. We really need to get some waders and get in the mucky pond to clean out some of the trash that the nasty renters before threw in there. Plus it would be good to get a lot of the weeds cleared back etc. We don’t have any algae problems there which is good but I want it nice for the 3 female Mallards that we have. Now that I have blown up the pic I took it does not seem to be a Mallard but a Wood Duck... oops!

Yesterday was really special. I know this will sound such a simple thing but it was wonderful to me. I kissed my husband in the morning and sent him off to work… then he came home from work the same day. I made a nice dinner to celebrate him no longer being on the road for weeks at a time. Salmon topped with crab, baked in parchment paper so it was nice and moist. Then roasted tatties and peas. I even had some béarnaise sauce to top it off with. YUMMY~!  It was a lovely way to celebrate my husband being home.

Now… on to my adding things to the Honey-Do list now that he is here to actually do the things on it!