CompostaBlog

Well, it’s a sad day at our little homestead today. I left the dogs outside for what was to be a warm night. I thought they would enjoy it. Mr. Red had been aggravating the hens so badly, that I had turned him out of the chicken coop last weekend.

Now, you have to picture this, LOL A big, Rhode Island Red rooster, chasing a big black labrador around the yard. Molly, our lab does NOT enjoy getting clipped in the back when she’s not looking. Red holds his own every single day… until today.

I guess, since Molly was trying to sleep and he woke up at the crack of dawn, as usual, he found her napping. You can probably imagine the rest.

The worst of it was that he wasn’t dead. He was in terrible pain and beyond hospice. I had to do the dastardly deed. The least she could have done is… you know. Sheesh. Make me do this horrible thing. I cried for an hour. I’m not speaking to Molly for a couple of days. Every time she comes near me, I just wave a bunch of his feathers in front of her nose and say things in a tone I’m sure she wished she didn’t have to hear. So she can stay out in the yard… alone.

Mr. Red… Rest in Peace.

Mr. Red, Cock of the Walk Rest in Peace

This was WAY weird.  I came out to get tools going for about three hours we came up with in the middle of the week to work on the chicken coop and there was squeaking and squawking going on. Mr. Red was jumping up and down, carrying on something fierce. But let me give you some history about that…

The night before, I went in to make sure the babies were tucked in nice and sound. It was only their third night outside alone with a sole heat lamp. And while the night temps were hanging in the mid 50′s, I didn’t want to take any chances. So about three in the morning, I went out to make sure the light hadn’t burned out or anything terrible, they still don’t have all their feathers in… Once a mother hen, always a mother hen I suppose…

Anyway, I found four of the chicks had squeezed through the ‘chicken’ wire. They were in Red’s little makeshift house (and old dog crate with a large black plastic trash sack wrapped around it to keep out the rain. I thought, awwwwww… he’s lonely. So the next morning, I move his ‘bed’ in with the girls and put him back in the chicken run. Fast forward to six hours later and I come out to all the comotion and seeing him jumping up and down like a crazy red rooster.

Ryan drove up just as I was realizing that there was a HAWK in the run with all the chicks and Red. This is what he was going nuts over. He might be a big tuff rooster, but he is not much of a match for a young chicken hawk… even Red is less than six months old! So, below see the sort of motions sickness evoking film we got of the chicken hawks and his narrow escape….
There was a small opening, around eight inches high and around four feet long where this bird got in. And here I was blaming the loss of two chicks on the cat or possibly the dogs…

  View Video

Framing done!

What a long day, getting things square against all odds. The entire chicken coop frame was off square from the chicken run due to the fact that I wanted to use the 4×4′s from the garden fence to build off of… seemed such a shame to let all that wood, cement, and hard work go to waste.

You can see the autumn leaves are starting to really fall. Another reminder that we don’t have long to go before it gets cold and the chicks still don’t have a place to get out of the cold. Errrr.

From the garden side. Seems we didn

My son works during the day, goes to school three nights a week, has two children, one newly born August 28th and his brother will be two in November. His wife is taking online classes so she can stay home with the children, but ooooooooh do they have their hands full! Can anyone say “You should have WAITED on the family?” LOL Well, ‘Life is what happens while you’re making other plans” I suppose, it is what it is. And being a grandmother is SO way fun.

So, we have devoted our Sundays to working on the chicken coop… it’s the one day we can all get together. Ryan and I work on the coop. Amanda does her homework on the laptop in the lounge chair (our chair count just keeps growing) Aiden runs around chasing the rooster (who is loose in the yard while the baby chicks in the chicken run if you’ll recall) and the dog, pulling up my strawberry plants, watering the fall garden, and generally just having a ball pushing his trucks around.

Our first night outside. Covered, warm, and safe.

Our First Home, a box from Subway Deli!

Guess what my mother informed me she found while perusing my favorite ag store today? BABY CHICKENS! in the fall no less… I was really torn. Starting baby chicks in the fall… getting them grown up enough to face a cold surly winter. Should I? Mr. Red is so lonely… he needs some more of his own kind. What is a rooster, without hens?

So, I go home, I research the city statutes that I had left the girls to do last time we bought chicks in the spring. Sure enough, they were right. We are allowed twelve birds. Only one can be a rooster… well, that is accomplished well enough, so I bought eleven chicks. Once again, hoping for the best. If you’ll recall, that’s what we thought we bought last time.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed. The just cheep and talk. They are really adorable. Last time, in the spring, I didn’t have to worry about temps, it was just so warm and a plain old light bulb was perfectly adequate, but with winter coming on, this time, I bought them a red heat lamp. They are warm and toasty in my LIVING ROOM. One more REALLY motivating reason to get the chicken coop finished!

It's MR.RED to you!

Isn’t he wonderful? He now has his very own run… no real house yet, but his run is safe and sound. He crows day and night. I have been hoping my neighbors won’t complain, but he starts up around 5am and doesn’t stop until dusk… I mean off and on ALL DAY long!

My son has dedicated his Sundays to helping me build the chicken house. My daughter has started college, the ‘friends’ that begged and pleaded for their purchase, I see less and less. It’s just me and the dogs and the rooster.

I have to give him credit too.. he’s quite protective. Nothing is getting into this backyard without his say so. Even the dogs are afraid of him now. My sister came over the other day while we were working and as she came through the yard, I heard her getting on to someone. (yes, our animals are someones)

I said “what’s going on?” “I was getting on to Red, he’s pecking at Molly” (the black Lab) I said, “Don’t do that, I need him to be protective of himself with those dogs! Besides, he owes her one!” In Molly’s defense, he hasn’t left her alone out in the yard one day since!

He has the run of the yard and I haven’t had to clip his wings. Until we get the chicken coop finished, I have had to keep him out of the run, the chicks are too little yet and he pecks at them. He is getting to know them through the fence though. He is always curious and he stays close most of the time. I hope he’ll be a help and not a pain in the butt. He’s so handsome!

After I discovered that someone called the police, complaining he was a nuisance I went about asking everyone for two blocks… convenient there were three garage sales on my street that day! (where I found a few bits of wood I needed and a door for the chicken coop for a buck!) And after having spoken to many of my neighbors, I’ve discovered he is quite popular. They all say they like listening to him crow… makes them remember something from their own childhoods. This is what many of the older folks in my neighborhood have said. So it is something like fifteen to one. Guess he’s staying.