Flock merger and new management
The
current small subset of the forest pasture has finally been mostly
denuded. In
preparation for switching the cockerels over to the larger paddock
(where the weeds are now waist-high), I opened the dividing gate and
let the mother hen and her chick mingle with the flock.
I was a bit concerned
that the lone chick
would be no match for 25 mostly grown cockerels, but I needn't have
worried. When I went in to feed the combined flock Friday
morning, the cockerels stampeded me and even rushed out the door.
Were they starving? Nope. They were just terrified of Mama
Hen, who was walking behind them.
All
the mother hen has to do is glare in their general direction and 25
teenage males scatter in terror. How's that for a matriarch?
On a semi-related note,
next week we'll be slaughtering our first round of cockerels. If
you're not ready to see that part of the life cycle, you have now been
forewarned.
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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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