Another chicken story

I am not sure if I mentioned we had to get rid of Big Red, my beautiful rooster. Several months ago, he started getting really rough with my girls. He even almost decapitated one of them. Noah called her the "scary hen" for a long time because Big Red totally plucked all the feathers off her head until she was bloody and bald. Good bye Big Red!

Actually, I took him to the flea market and sold him. We have the neatest flea market/trade day. We have a few around but people come from near and wide to go to this one. It has all the usual stuff but up on the hill in a back corner there are animals. My husband suffers through this part but I always insist on going there first. There are every kind of chicken imaginable, goats, pigs( grossssss!) horses, ponies, ducks, peacocks, quail, sheep, rabbits, hunting dogs and more.

Okay, yes it is loud and smelly. There are all kinds of people there selling and buying. It definitely has atmosphere! I have met some really interesting people there - interesting in a nice way.

I buy most of my chickens there. I was on a mission this Saturday for that very reason. I did a lot of looking before I came upon a woman who was selling 5 chickens about 2 1/2 months old for 1/2 price because they were her last and she was ready to go home. Ahhh, I love a bargain! They are Rhode Island Reds - in the top 2-3 best egg layers. They are not babies that I have to be so careful with either.

I brought home 5 chickens. Now if you know much about chickens, you know you can't tell them apart until they get several months old. Hatcheries employ people highly skilled somehow to seperate them right after hatching when they can somehow tell. The rest of the population has to wait and see. This lady told me one was a rooster based on the way it's feathers curved at it's neck. She seemed sincere but we couldn't see it. Maybe she's right. My husband looked at me in amazement when I said I thought I could see what she was talking about. All I know is they looked healthy and were a good price. If one is a rooster we will deal with that when the times comes.

I got them home and settled in a large cage inside the chicken coop until they all adjust to being together. If you don't do this the older ones will peck the new ones to death.

I stood there admiring my new purchases and watching how the older girls were walking up to the cage and trying to scare the news ones into submission. Lucas had been telling me that he thought another of my more recent purchases was turning out to be a rooster. I tried to study it's feet in comparison to the others. Roosters develop spurs on the side of their feet. Sure enough, this one appeared to have little knobs developing. Maybe Lucas was right, I thought.

I fed and watered everything before church yesterday morning. As I walked back toward the house, I heard a rusty ERR-ERR-ERR-ERRRRRR! Yes, we have another rooster in the hen house ladies.