a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Month: January 2014

Rooster Cull

Too Many Roosters

A sure sign that there are too many roosters roaming about is to find hens on their roost during the day. Young roosters especially can harass hens more than the hens want.

So after you’ve caught a rooster to cull, what tools do you need to take care of him? Not many. The tools below will suffice.

A Sharp Knife

Scissors

A Killing Cone

A Pot of Hot Water

Heavy Duty Kitchen Gloves

Today’s cull resulted in a four pound plus rooster. But as you can see, this one has had his share of battles with other roosters.

Battle Scarred Rooster

Nevertheless, it will end up making a wonderful roast. At seven months old, it is also a good candidate for canning.

Four Pound Rooster

Maintaining of flock of roosters, hens and growing chicks, is nothing like raising meat chickens by the tens of thousands. The dynamics of chicken culture are complex. Hens like roosters and you often see them flirting with their favorite ones. At the same time, too many young roosters can be a pain in the ass for hens, not to mention a threat to the older ones. But the rewards are worth it. The eggs are out of this world. The variety, flavor, and texture of these chickens just can’t be found in any store.

January 4, 2014
16 Day Old Chicks

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The chicks are 16 days old today. Their mother is taking them for an adventure along a woodland stream. The lives of chicks are greatly enriched by having a mother. Large, commercial operators talk about enriching the lives of chicks, but their concept of enrichment consists of hanging bunches of string, giving them sand boxes, or hay bales as described by PoultryHub – Environmental Enrichment. Really? Is that all? Which would you rather have? Chicken which got to play with a bunch of string, or chicken which was raised by its mother?

January 4, 2014
Sharp beaks – happy chickens

Sharp beaks

Healthy chickens have very sharp beaks. They need them to peck at food, dig in the dirt, and when hunting, to kill their prey. Chickens will quickly spear and kill a field mouse. Chicken beaks are complex organs with many sensory neurons which help the chicken sense things. Sadly, most commercial hen layers are debeaked as chicks. The reason is that when chickens are crowded too close, a chicken will peck to tell the other chicken it is too close. With crowded chickens, this pecking can cause injury and once a chicken develops a wound and starts to bleed, other chickens will peck at the wound leading to severe injury and death. But all you have to do is give the chickens enough room and they won’t peck each other. The next time you buy eggs, ask your grocer if the hen that laid your egg was debeaked.

Chickens at A Man and His Hoe are never debeaked.

January 3, 2014
January Sun

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The sun is out this January morning. Chickens enjoy lots of sun. You can’t raise healthy chickens without letting them soak in all the sun they want, and letting them roam as much as they want. The next time you buy chicken, ask your grocer, “How much sun did this chicken get? How far was it allowed to roam? Did it ever get to chase another chicken around a tree, or cross a bridge over a stream? Eat a tadpole or a frog?”

January 3, 2014
Two Week Old Chicks

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The chicks are two weeks old today. Even though it’s a wet December day, their mother is taking them a long way from the cozy, dry barn where they bed down during the night. Flower beds are favorite spots for chickens to scratch, so if you are planning on getting chickens and want beautiful flower beds, you’ll need to pick one or the other. Or you’ll need to protect your flower beds with fencing.

Out at the edge of the woods, when it’s time for protection or to get out of the steady rain, the chicks will huddle underneath their mother. A little rain doesn’t stop her.

January 2, 2014