Boy crazy hens
We usually either hatch
our own layers or buy unsexed chicks, but this year we decided to take
the easy way out. We ordered fifteen pullets and one cockerel as
chicks, figuring we'd replace our laying flock without having to kill
all the excess males.
Unfortunately, predators
picked off two of our chicks during their first month of life. And one
of those chicks was the rooster-to-be.
Most of our roosterless
pullets have settled into their hen-party life just fine. But two were
boy crazy. They kept flying fences to hang out with the broiler boys in
the other set of pastures, so we eventually just let them move right in.
Slowly but surely we've
been picking off their paramours, though. And, on the final day, the
boy-crazy hens got so confused they flew out of the pasture they'd
begged to be in so they could chat with the cockerels in the holding
pen, waiting for freezer camp.
What will our boy-crazy
hens do now that there are no roosters left on the farm? Only time will
tell. I'm hoping they'll move back in with their sisters. If not, it'll
be time for a tractor time out.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Jennifer Quinn --- At least one of the two is laying --- they were giving us an egg per day until we moved them in with the rest of the layers and lost count. I suspect they were both laying but at a lower rate because they didn't have a light in their coop.
Jayne --- Ha! You made me laugh.