Thursday, August 11, 2011

New Chapter for an Old Chicken

Now that Kate's out of the closet we have some decisions to make.

First, what do we call "shim?"  Mom and Brian settled on Doc...as in Doc Holliday.  I like the name, but out of habit I keep calling our poor rooster Kate.  This quite possibly has caused some anger.

Kate/Doc attacks poor Miss Jessie when we let them out.  If we don't break up the fight quick enough then Kate/Doc comes up with a mouth full of feathers.  Poor Jessie just screams.  However, when the partition is between them Miss Jessie struts her stuff and acts like the big man on campus.  She's thick, but she can't fight very well.

Second, my goal in having chickens did not include owning a rooster.  If you remember, their jobs were going to be to eat bugs, compost and lay eggs.  Do I get rid of Kate/Doc because she/he can not fulfill one of her/his duties?  Suppose my parents didn't pray every night for a baby girl (which they did.  my brothers did too.  I'm an answer to a prayer.  hehe) and they wanted a little boy.  Once they realized I was female would it have been appropriate for them to get rid of me or have me for dinner?  Probably not since we live in America.

I have joined Dallas Backyard Poultry Meetup Group.  They are hard core chicken handlers and they've basically all said I may have to give him to someone to eat.  The office has said to keep him umtil I get a noise complaint.  What to do?  What to do?  Knowing me I will ignore the problem until I MUST do something.

I'll keep you posted...meanwhile if you want to see her it might be wise to hurry out.

Trouble on the Homefront

There are MANY options for the title on this one...

Am I Hearing Things?
Please Tell Me I'm Hearing Things.
Is it Possible To Castrate A Rooster?
Please Let Him Be Gay
That Explains Things
Oh Boy!
What Will the Neighbors Think?

Long story short...

Brian and I went out to "mend fence" one morning last week.  I thought the wood had gotten old on the horizontal boards and snapped.  Come to find out my handy-dandy drunk neighbor hit it.  Anyway, Brian was in the alley checking out the fence and I was in the back yard when we heard something.  I sounded a bit like a metal gate opening and closing.  Brian said, Did you hear that?"  To which I responded, "Yes."  Then it happened again and then again.  Each time it sounded more and more like a "cockadoodledoo."  In my head I was thinking that Miss Jessie sure did mature quickly.  I started watching Miss Jessie so I could see her crow.   What did I see?  Miss Jessie was eating so either Miss Jessie wasn't crowing or she's VERY talented and can multitask like a champ.  Upon closer inspection...IT WAS KATE!!!!  Kate's a dang rooster!  We had a 95% guarantee that Jane and Kate were hens.  All this time we were worried about Miss Jessie being a rooster and turns out we were worried about the wrong chicken.

Now what do we do??  This poor chicken that I have bonded with now has identity issues.  She's dang cute when she does it though. :)