Like a Rooster on the stove.....

 This morning Chance and I's day started out slow and mellow,just the two of us home drinking coffee,waiting to go roller skating with the Cousins and talking about how to fill the time until we met up with said Cousins.
   We both remembered that we needed to go to the feed store for feed and bedding for the chickens.Ok, simple enough,let's go.
   
   "Wait." said I "Let me call Mason at the feed store and see if he will take those Roosters we still have"

   You see we still had those three Roosters our hen hatched last summer.We kept talking about butchering them.We kept talking about re-homing them but had yet to move in either direction.They were becoming naughty young Roos,never wanting to give the girls a break,they just had to go. And let me add here that 4 Roosters crowing in the morning was not restful.No one had complained but we were complaining. As much as I would have liked a nice chicken dinner,the need for them to be gone was feeling a bit pressing.

 Well mason is such a nice guy and said "Yeah, bring them on in."
  
       SCORE!

We found a box for the rooster,easy part that was. Chance decided that since our little Doxie Sparrow may think a rooster in a box was her box lunch we should leave the box on the kitchen counter for safe keeping.
  Only at our house would it be considered "normal" to have a box on the kitchen counter waiting to transport roosters to the feed store in.
  Chance and I went out into the yard to catch at least 2 out of 3 of the roosters. We thought we should not impose on Mason to much at once by bringing all 3 of the rooster who were going. (We are re-homing the Daddy Rooster to friends who are in the process of buying a farm.)
   We caught the first one with little trouble and into the box, on the counter,he went.The next bird was a bit of work but in the end he ran himself into the compost bin were he was definitely cornered.
   Now this is where mayhem started, one of those times you wished there was a video camera already rolling. Chance brings the second rooster into the kitchen with me following right behind.Chance opens the box to put the roo in but before the lid is shut tight,out pops roo number 2 like a Jack in the Box ,POP, Surprise!
   Rooster runs the counter, hot foots it across the stove top, luckily it's not on and hops down to the floor.

  By now the little Doxie knows something is up and is trying to get in on it.She so wants to help us out like the big dog Thora knows how to do. Thora knows how to heard the chickens very nicely you see.

  The rooster runs into the living room, all I can think of is big rooster poo on my vintage wool rug but we have yet to scare that out of him. Now he's running around the sofa , around the dinning room table (we have one of those front rooms that is everything in one space.)and down the hallway,our house is small. The only door open in the hall is Sol's bedroom so in goes the roo with a crazy crowd following after, Chance, Little Sparrow, me and then Thora.
  The rooster has nowhere to go but under the bed.Chance pulls him out but loses his grip.Chicken, being bird brained, tries to hide on the book shelf but is finally caught.When I relayed this story to the boys Sol asked "He didn't poop under my bed did he?" I answered no and I am hoping I am right. Ew,let's really hope so.

 Maybe the telling of the story is not as funny as when it happened but really people it was very Keystone Cop-ish. I especially love the humor of the rooster running across the stove top.
   We left the roosters at the feed store and as we were leaving there was already a lady asking about them,so it looked like they did not stay for long.
   While at the feed store I of course spied the chicks,a dangerous thing since I had my pocket money in my pocket.They had two breeds I have considered adding to our flock Buff Orpingtons and Black Australorps, both of which are said to be excellent layers. I would really like to cull out our other layers since they have not been dependable in their laying.I would have to raise chicks until the reach laying age and then cull the older birds.But it would mean a few too many chickens than we want for awhile. The feed store dose have Ameraucana's coming soon which are actually the breed I want first and fore most. I was good and sat on my hands so no chicks. I am thinking about the Ameraucana's.....oh the temptation of little chicks.At least if I do give in they will be useful even once they are no longer darling puffs. I need to think through where the chicks will be now that Little Sparrow is here, again I think she would see them as a boxed lunch.We usually have the chicks in the kitchen but a new place will have to found if chicks come home.

   This evening when Chance went to lock the coop up for the night he found 4 eggs waiting,the first in a long while. I don't know if they were a thank you for the fresh bedding or for getting rid of those crazy roos. We don't light our coop in the winter months to encourage the birds to lay unless it gets frigid cold or snows. I just feel that it gives the hens a break and they can use their fat for making it through the winter not making eggs for a bit.We miss the eggs of course but my Grandparents did without so we mostly do as well. I do buy some eggs just not that many though.To me those first eggs are the sure fire sign that Spring is coming.

   We also went roller skating with the Cousins today. We had a grand time and plan to go again. I am a little bit sore from using my muscles differently but not too bad. I had forgotten how much I love to skate.Feeling the air rushing along with me reminded me of being a kid,minus those awful metal wheels.

 I will be back soon, we picked up some seeds and Walla Walla onion sets today so there will be more to report.

Rois