Rooster Pedicures & Other Chicken Tales

Yep, you read the title correctly.  Today my husband gave our two adult roosters a pedicure.  Three of the four hens they have access to all have bloody gashes on them and these hens all get along with each other.  The roosters are the culprits.  Their spurs were so long and pointy that every time they got busy with the ladies they were gashing them. So Jack and Sawyer got a spa day today.  They got caught and held upside down while John filed down their spurs to duller nubs.  I think the ladies will appreciate the results.

We also cleaned out the "horse stall" portion of our barn (holding bikes, car toppers and other misc. things) and made it into a night area for our two "free-rangers".  John was a little put out that the ladies (Mrs. Q really) were roosting on the steering wheel and leaving lovely little "gifts" and deposits all over the cab.  So out came the junk and in went two cardboard nesting boxes, their food, water and grit and a roost.  At night I simply close the sliding stall door and in the morning I'll open it.  This way the tractor should stay clean.  (I've only seen Mrs. Q on it at bedtime.) I thought perhaps we would have trouble getting them into it but tonight we walked them into the barn and they went right into the stall.  What good ladies.

We took the cardboard nesting boxes for Mrs. P and Q and the other hens got two brand new nesting boxes.  My son did most of the construction while my husband instructed him.  I think they look pretty snazzy.  Hopefully the hens think so too.  I hope the changes don't mean we go eggless for awhile again since we just got them back to laying.

Also today, for a refreshing change, I picked peas and not strawberries!  We enjoyed straight from the garden peas for dinner.  Yum!  I'm also excited because we have pepper forming on our plants and tomatoes too!  Good summer eating ahead.  Now if we could just get on top of the weeds.