Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Cannibals

That caught your attention, didn't it? So we have a little chicken issue. Actually it is with the chicks. Apparently, they got the crazy idea that white chickens are very, very bad. Yes, I have prejudiced chickies. The last few days I have spent trying to remedy a rather horrid situation. I go down, and each morning they have murdered yet another white chick. Only the white ones. I don't know why. I know if they get bored or see blood, they are prone to pecking at each other, often to death. But why only the white ones? I removed the two survivors (thank goodness there really weren't very many white guys in the bunch) after trying a change in food, watering set up, scenery and nothing worked. So the two left are in isolation until they turn into OUR dinner, and the rest of the crew is in a very make-shift pen in the big coop. We'll see if they turn on each other. Hopefully not. I can't wait until they can just live with the big girls. It seems they should assimilate fairly well, as a few of the little buggers can squeeze under the fence of the pen and get in with the big guys, and they haven't tried attacking them. Bigger birds often peck little ones to death as well, when they are unfamiliar.
How's that for a pleasant Tuesday conversation?

1 comment:

  1. Sarah said...

    They've been watching Pony Gal play in the mud, have they?

    I watched an episode of Dirty Jobs last night where Mike Rowe was artificially inseminating turkeys. Why? They can't get the job done themselves. Why not? The Toms are bred to be so large (and souped up with drugs to boot) that they cannot actually mount the hens. ew. I'm so glad we don't buy "regular" turkey. that's just not right.

    And is only vaguely related to this post, but your chicks reminded me of the turkeys from last night.

    ReplyDelete

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