Sunday, September 25, 2011

Menopausal Henhouse


Over the last few days Buck has been aggressive and unpleasant, coming up to the glass door and throwing himself at it, bringing his hackles perpendicular to his neck when he sees me as he comes out of the coop in the morning, letting me know what he thinks when I gather the eggs, and pretending to be standing behind a bush when his intentions involve jumping, flapping, hissing and waving sharp pointy toes around.
I think he needs more hens.
I think 4 isn't enough to keep his attention on hens and off protecting turf.
On Craig's list today I found a number of people in the area trying to rid themselves of superfluous chickens, especially roosters, but also menopausal hens.
In the chicken world, as in the human it seems that females are undesired consumers of resources when they aren't dropping eggs anymore. 
If God doesn't make mistakes, why do chickens have a 20 year life span  and a very much shorter egg span?  There must be some purpose for the old chickens.
What wisdom would some old birds freed from the brooding  process impart to the  girls?
"Dearie, don't let him get away with that behavior."
"Baby girl, don't encourage him.  Just step aside.".
"Sister wife, stay with the flock, you don't want to get out where the weasels can find you".
"Don't eat that."
It would be interesting to see how seasoned hens would deal with Buck.  Would they accept his dominance?  Will they follow him around the yard and do as he says?
Whatever they do, they're welcome to come to my house and  consume resources if they will eat ticks.  It's worth it to me to stay off antibiotics.

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Glad to hear from you, but criticisms will be ignored. It's the beauty of the web. I will answer all friendly remarks. Buck handles the rest.