#43 - Missing my Roosters and Eager for Priceless Eggs

It's been a few days since we re-located our roosters from our backyard to another location. They had found their mature voice and had perfected its volume to full strength. The rooster definitely put a kink in our backyard chicken plan.

Big Rooster on his way to his new home in box with plenty of holes.
The new location is less than five minutes from our home.

Now, both roosters are in the box, ready to go.

But, it's been eerily quiet since the two boys have been gone. I remember the day we selected seven chicks; I was in baby chick heaven. They were so adorable and frail and all were a pale yellow, very similar to each other. However, we ended up with two different breeds and after a couple of weeks, we noticed that two of the chicks were remaining smaller than the others. Two ended up to be white with black specks.

I'd ALWAYS wanted chickens, but we had never lived somewhere that could make it possible. Finally, after reading some informative articles in "Hobby Farmer," we discovered that many people in the suburbs are raising chickens for the eggs. Suburb neighborhoods are fighting their neighborhood associations to allow small backyard flocks and several have changed their regulations to officially allow it. We're coming a long way! Having your own laying hens is a great way to exert a bit of control over your food supply, to teach children where eggs actually come from along with the responsibility of taking care of a farm animal, and to simply enjoy these awesome creatures.

This time, I'm working to lead the chickens closer to the area that's
more populated with chickens.

Come on roosters!

However, after Deputy Dave and I re-located our roosters, I was told that the girls would not lay eggs without a rooster. I had never been told this before. I believed chickens would lay eggs with or without a rooster, the only difference would be whether or not the eggs would be fertilized. It made me worry. It's almost time for the chickens to start laying eggs; it would be terrible if something happened that seized their egg-laying abilities before it even started.

Me and my big rear trying to coax the roosters further inward.

I hope my fellow bloggers out there will have details on this rooster and hen-laying matter.

Today, I woke up to see my five chickens happily waiting for their morning food. It's amazing to have chickens finally because for years and years I imagined what it would be like to raise chickens. I could picture myself suddenly comfortable around chickens, instead of petrified. A new side of me would finally be cultivated; a new Lana would emerge due to chickens being a part of my life.

Now, I'm living out the joyful thoughts I had once entertained only in the confines of my mind! In fact, all that I had imagined could only be described as insufficient when compared to the real-world joys of raising chickens.

My roosters - my boys - in a lovely new home. This time, we're on
the backside of the building. Deputy Dave found more chickens
in this area. They initially ran from us, but they are starting to
slowly creep closer toward me and the roosters.

So, when we brought home two roosters this past March, by mistake, I found myself at a loss because I'd never imagined having a rooster. This was out of my carefully imagined plan. As the seven chicks grew and grew, we began to notice that two of them were developing combs. I THINK they are called combs; I'm still learning. Anyway, at first, we were telling ourselves that perhaps this breed of chickens meant that the girls had combs. Is this even possible?

Regardless, it was soon apparent that we had two real, live roosters. This meant that I would learn a few unexpected lessons about roosters. My first lesson is that, if you purchase chicks from Tractor Supply, you just might get a rooster instead of a hen. Then, I learned that roosters are indeed aggressive. In the same day, a rooster will protect his chickens and attack them.

It's actually dark, but my rooster boys are finally socializing and not
running after us squawking.

A rooster seems to be a natural born expert at strutting his stuff. Big Rooster had endearing moments in our backyard when he reminded me of John Travolta in the movie "Saturday Night Fever." Confident strutting was Big Rooster's specialty. Well, our Big Rooster would strut and intimidate the small rooster right out of his mid-strut. Poor emasculated Speckles.

The roosters were awesome, but our location wasn't conducive to their need to be LOUD. One day, I hope to have a coop specifically for hens producing chicks and this means we will get to have a Big Daddy Rooster. But, this will have to wait until we're living on our farm land full-time.

Precious times. Chicks are a delight. Little did we know,
two of these are roosters.

Meanwhile, I miss the roosters, but am enjoying the peace of our small space in the city. Soon, we'll have eggs. I hope. At least I'll know where the eggs are coming from and they certainly aren't going to be from a commercialized, mass-production, stifling, money-minded chicken factory.

Our eggs will be from a home where the chickens are entertaining pets and are loved by the dogs with an occasional torture session of Howdy running circles around the coop nonstop, but our chickens are fed kitchen scraps, a bit of chicken feed, they get to free-range all throughout our backyard and in the veggie garden that provides delicious tomatoes, and our chickens are probably about as happy on the chicken-happy-scale as a chicken can get. All of this combined will make our eggs priceless.