Here are the sheep……….
Here are the goats………
Here are the dogs…….
Annabelle is spending most of the daytime now in the yard because she’s overturning furniture, spilling dogfood, chewing on everything she can chew on, and generally creating havoc on the porch. Her porch time has been reduced to bedtime on her blankie with Coco.
Annabelle hasn’t figured out yet that there is no mingling between barnyard cliques.
Coco has to rescue her when she makes a mistake and gets too close to Clover.
Ahh, that’s better. Just two dogs……….
……doing their doggie thing. Glad we got that straightened out.
The chickens and the ducks don’t mix it up any more than they have to, either. Mean Rooster update–yesterday, I tried to collect eggs and he attacked me. I’ve been collecting the eggs they lay on the floor, just leaving the ones in the nesting box where they’ve been laying for the past couple of weeks. I’ve tried showing Mean Rooster who’s the boss but it’s not working. Yesterday, I didn’t even get close to the eggs. He flew at me and pecked my knee so hard, it nearly made my cry. He drew blood through my pants. I ran out of the chicken house, eggless.
I crept back a little while later. I wanted those eggs on the floor!
But I was afraid to go in again. Mean Rooster was waiting for me at the chicken house door.
A hen was sitting there, probably getting ready to lay another egg, and there were still a couple of other eggs on the floor.
There was a mob of chickens surrounding one of the eggs.
A mob of chickens seemingly bent on destroying it.
Anybody ever seen anything like this? These chickens were in an absolute snit about this egg, crowding around it, pecking at it.
If I’d tried to get near that egg, I think Mean Rooster would have killed me.
I’ve been thinking it might be because it was her egg.
I’m not positive it was a duck egg, but I think it was. For the past few days I’ve been finding a big white egg on the floor that I think is a duck egg. Would chickens try to destroy duck eggs? Are they making a statement about whose house it is, after all? No (More) Ducks Allowed! Or are my chickens just psychotic?
Cuz I’m kinda special that way……
I get all the crazy ones!!!
Posted by Suzanne McMinn on March 24, 2009
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Or maybe they’re just happy spring is here, too, and going all crazy for a bit before they settle back down to their normal selves? Ok, maybe not… but you may want to hold off on those miniature donkeys for a minute — they’re a little stubborn and could very well conspire with the others very easily!
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Cece
4:32
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As for the egg issue, my chickens see any egg on the floor of the coop as food. They don’t bother the ones in the nest though.
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I had to wack him with it a couple of times and now he knows that the one with the rake is not to be messed with!
He waits until I leave the pen and shut the gate and then he charges the gate and crows loudly to let everyone know that he chased me away!
I tell him he’s a big dork.
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5:14
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Never seen that before.
But I know all about those attacking roosters!
5:22
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To catch him without getting yourself hurt wear gloves and get a chicken hook to grab him by the legs. Then it’s either off with the head, or pawn him off on someone else, who will end up having to do the deed. No one could or should put up with his behavior.
Pecking at eggs, not good. Once they get a taste for eggs often they will keep eating them. My sister had one hen was eating eggs every day. She could tell it was only one. The dirty bird was the only one had egg yolk on her face every day. I told her to get some oyster shell and see if it gave them enough calcium to make the shells thicker, thus harder to peck through. If that didn’t work I was going to butcher the hen. No point in having layers that are eating the goods. Lucky for the hen she quit eating eggs. The shells were noticeably thicker and I think harder to peck through. Either that or it solved some calcium/mineral deficiency and the hen no longer felt the need to eat eggs.
So glad for Annabelle that she has Coco to hang with. Life for bummer lambs can be tough without a friend and protector. I WANT ONE OF COCO’S PUPPIES!s…….as long as they aren’t rat babies.
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I don’t remember which other blog I followed you from (I’m really forgetful) but I’m so glad that I did and will definately be back
If you have a moment or two of your life that you’d care to waste, please visit me at my blog.
Take good care and……….
Steady On
Reggie Girl
6:01
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I think that is a duck egg, and the chickens are gonna kill it. You might want to think about a duck house sometime down the road. And, I agree. Chickens think anything on the floor is food. Some added calcium in their diet might help, but an egg on the floor is food.
If you can’t carry in a broom to swish away that stinking rooster, then eat him.
6:06
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The egg that you think is a duck egg should be fairly easy to figure out. Does the shell feel slightly waxy? Crack it open. Are the shell and membrane thicker than a chicken egg? If you answer yes to these questions, you have a duck egg. They are awesome for baking!
Good luck with the rooster. I would beat the living tar out of him. If he still came after me, he would be soup.
6:11
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I have been saving eggshells from baking and drying them out then crumbling them to give back to them, also they are on layer feed. They don’t attack any of the other eggs on the floor, only these particular (duck) eggs.
6:32
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1. Our “Bad Rooster” (a huge Rhode Island Red) ended up attacking a neighbor’s 4 year old child who had to go to the hospital for stitches much too close to her eye. Kill it. Kill it now. (We’ve had better luck with Banty roosters – smaller, nice, the hens like him.)
2. If the hens eat eggs, that’s a really bad habit, and our hens will peck eggs right in the nesting boxes too if they get a taste for eggs. In addition to providing more calcium in some way (oyster shell), you can save the eggshells from the eggs you use, dry them out really good (we hang them in a chicken wire “bag” on the side of the coop), then crush them and spread them with the feed. One other trick you could try that has worked well for us is to put golf balls in the nesting boxes (and on the floor for your non-nest box chicken(s)). They aren’t that bright. If they peck the golf ball a few times, they get more wary about pecking the eggs. (But if an egg cracks at all, they’re all over it.) Don’t let them eat eggs ever if you can help it.
Love your blog.
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In a way I’m hoping the batch of chicks I get in will have mean roos. It will make the butchering process a tad bit easier!
Is there any way you (or 18 or 52) can make a separate duck house this spring? It looks like there is little hope for ducklings at this rate.
Good luck.
7:20
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You have to stop the egg eating. It progresses to them eating newly hatched chicks. I know because it happened to us. Really nasty to see hens fighting over a chick because they want to eat it.
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Blessings,
Mrs. K
P.S. I think you may need to drop kick the rooster (right into the noodle pot. Apparently, he doesn’t understand the pecking order…literally!)
7:28
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We had “Barney” the rooster (looked just like yours) and we would whack him in the head when he started getting all mean and aggressive towards us. He’ll learn real quick what that big ole stick means. My Husband ruled that roost, believe me!
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Claudia
8:51
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To everyone here….I don’t think Suzanne could hurt an animal. Hitting the rooster is probably not something she would ever think of. I don’t know you, but you seem to be a very nice person. Of course, a couple of knee boo boo’s might change your mind.
9:02
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Love Annabelle and Coco together. I wonder if Annabelle will ever realize she’s a sheep, not a dog? And I see Honey’s horns have grown out really well…I know he was debudded, but tell him I think they make him very handsome.
9:10
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another?!
9:52
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Time to give your duckies their own place. I know they’ll love their pond.
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11:09
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If I remember correctly you already dry your egg shells and feed them to the chickens as suppliment for calcium. I was doing this as well but for some reason my girls started pecking and eating their eggs.
I stopped providing the dried shells and now my eggs are surviving – they no longer are eating them.
I have also gotten the oyster shells before for my first group of hens and they seemed good with those as well – they are a bit pricier though.
For this group I have stopped feeding any shells and all is well.
As for the rooster – take a pie tin to the coup with you and if he comes near wave it in front of him. He will likely frighten away. If not a straw broom should do the trick to wisk him away from you.
Good luck and thanks for the great site and humor you provide on a daily basis.
11:15
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11:26
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We have ducks and chickens sharing a house too, the duck eggs are waxy. We haven’t had problems with the chickens trying to eat the duck eggs, but I did see one chicken push a duck egg out of the nest box!
Like a few people have said though, I have read that once chickens start eating eggs it can become a real problem, and that putting fake eggs or golf balls in the nest can discourage them.
11:27
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Just a suggestion, if you can catch the mean rooster and don’t want to put him in the pot, take him to the Spencer Livestock Mkt on Friday night. You can make a few dollars off of him – probably $3 or $4 – and get a new rooster. Just don’t buy all the other cute critters that are there.
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Or, I’d get me a big dip net and catch him everytime I needed to gather eggs. Then whilst I had him caught, I’d clip his spurs and his beak.
The other option is a baseball bat.
I grew up on a farm, got no special place in my heart for mean roosters or hateful hens either.
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1:57
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Don’t know how you stand that rotten rooster. What a little swine.
2:51
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That’s just too cute that Annabelle thinks she’s a dog!
I want one of Coco’s puppies too! I’d love to work out a trade of some kind. Want some paintings of your beloved sheep, goats and dogs? Charcoals of your kids? All of the above? What’ll it take to get one of Coco’s registered puppies? Seriouisly. Have you found homes for them all? I know you haven’t even mated her yet…
She’s just such a great dog!
Sheryl
2:53
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I think I would have to side my vote with the roo for dinner–pecks can be nasty for infection. A tasty dinner of roo, or a dinner on the run because somebody needs stitches and spent the night in the ER. They are not very expensive and you already have a couple of other roosters that seem ready to perform the duties.
You really must check out the joke in the forum section (I think “joke of the day”.
I really must ask: Is Annabelle going to be Easter Dinner or is she to be a pet? I think I am getting attached!
3:22
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chicken noodle soup
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Mean Rooster needs to go into the stew pot!
As to the eating of the egg, My girls will do this if one gets crcked or broken. They just love a fresh egg. Thier own or someone elses doesn’t matter. Stupid birds.
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