A calm order has descended upon the Rural Roost, as the inhabitants no doubt re-establish a new pecking order, now that there is no confusion on who the head rooster is. And who knows, maybe they're preparing themselves for winter, in their own chicken way.
Our attempt at adding a few different breeds to the coop this year wasn't an overwhelming success.
The dozen New Hampshire eggs I purchased only hatched out four chicks. It's hard to believe the rooster in the first photo above once was part of this posse. I'm almost certain he's the cute one. Oh sorry, the cute one on the left. From that hatch, only two were hens. They're pretty ladies, quite large in size, at least compared to the Chantecler hens, but so far they haven't felt the need to play follow the leader with Eli or leave us any eggs.
The five Plymouth Rocks the Male Twin purchased at auction (you can read about that here) were missing a crucial detail on their auction slip. It seems they are bantams or with the exception of the one remaining, they were bantams. True to what seems to be typical Rock personalities, these birds are sweet, docile little girls whom I just adored. Our last little one is a darn good layer, leaving us a treat almost daily, and isn't overly shy around us. All I can say, though, is that rather large New Hampshire roosters are perhaps not the best coop mates to small, meek Plymouth Rock hens.
Eli however, my boy who prefers to be hand fed scratch, who calls out to his ladies when he spies a bird of prey overhead, and who breaks up a fight from time to time among all those girls, appears to be a wonderful companion for this little one. On a few occasions, I've seen her run to take cover under Eli when one of the other hens decides to be overly bossy.
It makes me thankful to have a rooster, our first rooster no less, that does such a wonderful job at protecting the flock, yet is so gentle with all of us. And thankful too, that I didn't listen to the Artist all those months ago when he declared Eli had to go. You know, because....he crows. Eli that is. Now if the Artist would just eat crow, I'm sure Eli would let bygones be bygones.
~Be well friends!
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Joining today Homestead Barn Hop, Clever Chicks Barn Hop and Down Home Blog Hop.
5 comments:
Oh and all is right with the world. I like this post and I also like Rooster alarms no matter what time of day. B
Such a clever and witty post :-) We have a sweet young couple at our church that blesses us with eggs each week...right now their chickens are molting which means no fresh eggs. A situation that I dislike; we got used to the gorgeous and tasty yard eggs!
I need your Eli on the farmette. I miss hearing that crow!
Thank goodness Eli stayed . . . the glue in the mix . . .
Cute post. I love the picture of all your fine feathered friends on the fence. Should be on a postcard or something.
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