HOOT is taking control...

Well, it is apparent Hoot is running the roost. She is the most stable chicken in the coop. She seems to rarely get upset, doesn't seem to hen-peck the others, but rules with an elegance. She is like royalty in feathers.

I am also seeing anger!!! Oh isn't this unusual... when there is no food in the feeder, they knock it over! What the heck, we are having food riots in the coop. I can see it now, I am going to walk tomorrow morning and there will be little sandwich boards wrapped around their neck, with chicken scratch on them saying - "Next time we won't knock the feeder over!" WOW.. spooky takes me back to that awful movie The Birds... Oh man, I never loo

ked at a crow the same again and when I did see one, I was sure the posse' was flying in to make my eyes the menu. Jaws was like this... I could not get a stoooopid swimming pool without wetting myself. Therefore, I really never got in, cause it was a cycle of clean, wet, change, clean, wet, change...

Anyway, here is HOOT.... I will report on something more salient later...

Rhode Island Reds

Great article I discovered on Rhode Island Reds (RIR). We have one of these - Millie. She is a cool little hen and is turning out to be stunning. This is an excerpt from a radio interview I grabbed from "Living the Country Life" Website. Another nice website.

One of my favorite chicken breeds is the Rhode Island Red. It's the chicken of choice for those who want quality egg-layers and good fryers.

Bud Wood owns a hatchery and says Rhode Island Reds are one of the earliest breeds developed in the United States and are among his best sellers because of their production qualities.

'They're a fairly gentle breed, and they lay a nice big, dark brown egg," Wood says. "They're a hardy breed, and easy to raise. Rhode Island Red is probably the beginning genetics of all of the commercial brown egg layers today."

At peak production, the hens are egg-laying machines. Just one hen will give you five to six eggs a week.

The Reds have a larger body type than other breeds. Wood recommends feeding them a commercial layer mix, which gives them all the nutrition they need. You can also provide a place to forage. It cuts their consumption of commercial feed way down, maybe even in half. Grubbing around the yard for plants and bugs makes their yolks a brighter yellow color.

We attempted to let them out in the garden yesterday, but they are as trepiditious as a kid is eating brussel sprouts.

Happy Father's Day

They May Not Drink Coffee, But They Know Their Chickens!

Utah State University has a great article here on correlating a hen's egg production with her physical appeareance.

http://extension.usu.edu/htm/publications/publication=9870